Fraud: "deceit, trickery or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit
or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage."
The HBO movie "Recount" tells the story from the Democratic Party point of
view that the 2000 presidential election was improperly won by George W.
Bush because of the trickery of his fellow Republicans and the Supreme
Court. That has been shown to be untrue by no less a source than the
reliably liberal and pro-Democratic New York Times, but facts rarely
influence propaganda.
Here's a better example of fraud straight from the donkey's mouth that you
can bet will never be told on film. It comes courtesy of 12-term Congressman
Paul Kanjorski. During a town meeting last August in his Pennsylvania
district, Rep. Kanjorski made a remarkable statement about the 2006 election
in which Democrats recaptured the majority. Rep. Kanjorski acknowledged that
he and his fellow Democrats "sort of stretched the facts" about their
intention to end the war in Iraq and bring American troops home.
A video of his remarks, now on YouTube, shows Kanjorski explaining that
Democrats pushed the rhetoric about the war "as far as we can to the end of
the fleet - didn't say it, but we implied it - that if we won the
congressional elections we could stop the war." Democrats also promised to
bring down gas prices if they won a majority. That worked out well, didn't
it?
"Now anybody who's a good student of government," continued Kanjorski in a
condescending manner, "would know it wasn't true." I wonder how non-students
of government felt about that insult? "But you know," he said, "the
temptation to want to win back the Congress - we sort of stretched the
facts."
Kanjorski would have done well to reflect on that part of the Lord's Prayer
that asks that we not be led into temptation.
Many politicians "stretch the facts" at some point in their careers, but
this was more than that. While Republicans do the same thing on another
level - like campaigning for spending cuts and then outspending Democrats
when they become a majority - what Kanjorski has admitted to is outright
fraud. Those who don't believe in the war, which includes some Republicans,
had a right to believe that if they cast their votes for Democrats in the
2006 election, a Democratic congressional majority would end the war.
Instead, while huffing and puffing about it, Democrats have continued to
approve funds for Iraq and Afghanistan, attaching numerous pet pork
projects. Pork covers a multitude of sins.