Republican Finger Pointing

Remember the old saying about whenever pointing fingers, you're pointing three fingers right back at yourself. Well, read the following excerpts from Friday's Journal-Star and see what that says about the Nebraska Republican Party:

The state Republican party has weighed in on the Lincoln City Council race, mass-mailing a flier blasting Democratic candidate Dan Marvin for his role on a mayoral committee that drafted the streets and trails bond issue rejected by voters in November.

The party paid for oversized postcards that landed in mailboxes Wednesday, criticizing Marvin's "tax-raising plan" consisting of the four financing options proposed by the Streets, Roads and Trails Committee.

Marvin co-chaired the committee which ultimately recommended one of the four options: a $75 million bond issue....

Marvin said the flier Republicans sent out is "horribly misleading" because it basically attacks him for serving as a volunteer on a committee that looked at ways to finance street and trail improvements.

The committee was charged with finding ways to bridge a projected six-year, $135 million gap in funding for streets, trails and sidewalks. Members gauged public opinion during a series of meetings, and then recommended what it concluded was the most palatable option, the bond issue, to the City Council.

"We tried to have a community exercise and now they're trying to tag me with every option as some big tax person when the people that put it on the ballot were the City Council," said Marvin, who noted that the three Republicans on the City Council voted to put the bond issue before voters.

"Now their party is attacking me for something they voted for," Marvin said. "They're trying to make me the Bond Boy."

The bond issue wasn't a partisan issue — the committee itself was composed of both Republicans and Democrats and local developers supported the plan....

GOP Executive Director Jessica Moenning said the party is merely highlighting Marvin's record.

"Dan Marvin's ideas are out of touch with Lincoln voters and we're highlighting that," Moenning said. "He conceptualized, planned, proposed, advocated for and recommended (the bond issue) which was defeated almost three-to-one."

So, let's get this straight. The Republican Party is going after a Democrat for helping to draft a plan that its own members on the Council voted to put on the ballot. All while Republican Council member Ken Svoboda is running for re-election and himself supported that same bond issue.

From that vote and a number of Svoboda's public statements, wouldn't it be fair to paraphrase the GOP Exec. Director as having said, "Ken Svoboda's ideas are out of touch with Lincoln voters"? I say ready the presses with that one.

Glad to see the Journal-Star call this one what it is - a political hack job with no basis in fact.

Where's Harold W. Andersen's outrage about this instance of partisan hypocrisy polluting a nonpartisan election. Oh, that's right - wrong city - yeah, that must be the reason for his silence. Why else?