The best part of the press release was the last paragraph, which is a real whopper: “To learn more about the proposed taxes on the energy industry, please visit Americans for Tax Reform. Wasinger was the first candidate to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”
Rob Wasinger (or whoever writes his press releases) clearly suffers either from illusions of grandeur or has a frighteningly severe case of amnesia. Only a small amount of research would yield that Tim Huelskamp signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge 13 years ago! On Huelskamp’s website, Karl Peterjohn, former Executive Director of the Kansas Taxpayer’s Network, makes this same observation when he endorsed Huelskamp.
What’s more, Huelskamp didn’t just sign the pledge, he was named Chairman of the Kansas Taxpayer Protection Caucus in 2005. And to add insult to injury, Huelskamp even touted his signing of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in his state senate commercials in some of his past campaigns.
This is an inconvenient fact I've pointed out at least twice before and clearly his supporters monitor my blog, so he has to be aware that he is lying. So does Rob just not care that he's sending out press releases that tell a lie or is it being done on purpose?
It's just sad. All he'd have to do is take out the word "first" and the release would have been factually correct. But Rob just can't seem to get that done.
That said, there is an even larger point worth making; not only did Tim Huelskamp take the Taxpayer Protection Pledge 13 years ago, whereas Rob Wasinger took it less than 13 months ago, but Huelskamp has also kept his pledge to the voters. How many representatives or senators can say that over 13 years they've never cast a vote for a tax increase? Almost none.
So Rob, keep telling yourself that you signed this pledge first or that pledge first. One of your opponents has actually been walking the walk for more than a decade now. That’s gotta sting. What do you tell prospective voters? “If you vote for me, I’ll go represent you just as well as Huelskamp has?” That has to be a tough sell.
