Aside from holding political persuasions that would – in my opinion – be bad for Rhode Island, Brendan Doherty may well be a good, honest guy. I don’t know as I haven’t met him. But I do know this, his campaign for Congress is not exhibiting “uncommon integrity” as the Republican often claims.
In fact, in his quest for a seat in Congress Doherty is engaging in the same exact type of half-truths and maybe even outright lies that he says his opponent David Cicilline did in the last election.
I’ve been banging this drum in relation to his lackluster Politifact record – which as of today counts as many lies as truths and also as many half-truths and mostly falses as mostly trues. Uncommon integrity is George Washington not being able to tell a lie, not Brendan Doherty lying as often as he tells the truth.
But it occurred to me again when I saw this Doherty attack ad that distorts Cicilline’s now famous “city is in excellent financial condition” whopper.
Doherty’s ad says Cicilline “mismanaged municipal finances” juxtaposed over the words “Budget Deficit of $109 million.” David Cicilline did not mismanage municipal finances to the tune of $109 million. What actually happened is Brendan Doherty’s political godfather Don Carcieri cut off state aid to cities, causing huge deficits in every urban area of Rhode Island, including the state capital. David Cicilline may have fudged the facts, but it was Don Carcieri who made it happen.
There’s no defending what David Cicilline said about Providence’s fiscal situation, and I don’t begrudge Brendan Doherty for using it to his political advantage. But running a campaign under the mantle of uncommon integrity comes with certain responsibilities, one of which is to display uncommon integrity. Doherty’s campaign has yet to do so … in fact, so far it’s been more like politics as usual.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387