Kick the Anthill

The other day, for the first time, I saw a rather, um, interesting Andrew Rice ad.  I believe I was watching Good Morning America when it came on, although I’m not 100% sure about that.  But be that as it may, what I saw nearly made my teeth fall out.  He took something that Sen. Inhofe said in a speech, and totally–completely–twisted it into something that Sen. Inhofe did not say.

Here’s the ad:

The clip is from Inhofe’s big global warming debunking speech that caused such a stir in 2006.  Here is the entire transcript, and the follow up speech transcript.  There are plenty of clips, like this one, but I am having a lot of trouble finding a video of the full speech that includes that clip.  Surprisingly(?) Inhofe has not posted the full speech video at his site.  Or, if he has, I wasn’t able to find it.

Anyway, so that you don’t have to go reading the entire speech (unless you want to), I’ll cut and paste the entire passage–that includes the clip you just saw–so that you can see the point that Sen. Inhofe was trying to make.

The fact remains that political campaign funding by environmental groups to promote climate and environmental alarmism dwarfs spending by the fossil fuel industry by a three-to-one ratio. Environmental special interests, through their 527s, spent over $19 million compared to the $7 million that Oil and Gas spent through PACs in the 2004 election cycle.

I am reminded of a question the media often asks me about how much I have received in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. My unapologetic answer is ‘Not Enough,’ — especially when you consider the millions partisan environmental groups pour into political campaigns.

What he was saying here–or, rather, what *I* heard him saying here–is that he wasn’t getting enough campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry for them to buy him into doing whatever it is that they want him to do.  Nor would he ever get paid enough for them to buy his loyalty.  That’s why he’s unapologetic about it–he can’t be bought.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of person I want representing my state in Washington DC.  Someone who cannot be bought has more character than someone who can be.  And character counts, in my book.

So, basically, Andrew Rice–who, by his own admission, is a very committed Christian–took something completely out of context, and used it to manipulate the people of Oklahoma.  Without showing the full statement, he told us a half-truth.  And, as we all know, a half-truth is a whole lie.

That’s not something that I would expect out of a Christian.  Would you?

I hope not.

And then, to top it all off, he’s now attempting to align himself with Tom Coburn that, fortunately, Coburn is refuting.  While I would applaud him for aligning himself with Coburn, I won’t do it until he truly does align himself with Coburn–ie, he sees the error of his ways, and becomes the staunch conservative Coburn is.

Look, it’s not that I’m down on Mr Rice in general.  I’m not.  I mean, I know his wife Apple.  She’s a truly nice person, and I generally have a high regard for her.  When we were in high school together, it always struck me that, even though she was in the ‘in’ crowd, she generally never treated anyone as beneath her.  I wasn’t around her all that much, true.  I wasn’t a member of the ‘in’ crowd.  So, having shared classes with her, etc., when we did have conversations, I never felt that she thought she was better than me–or anyone else, for that matter.  So, I say all that to say this:  anyone that Apple Newman would marry is probably a fairly stand-up type of guy. 

True, he is a defense attorney, and he has been successful in getting his clients released, aquitted, or whatever.  By law, we are all entitled to a decent defense when it comes to appearing in court.  If he was successful in getting what everyone would consider a heinous criminal aquitted and released back onto the street?  Well, you can’t fault him for doing his job, and doing it well.  I’ve always looked at it like this:  if someone is clearly guilty, but the prosecution’s case isn’t air-tight and the accused gets away with it, well…  That’s the fault of the prosecution, not the defense attorney.  I may not like the fact that they were able to get away with it, but I don’t fault the defense attorney.  I fault the prosecution.  They didn’t have all their i’s dotted, their t’s crossed, their ducks in a row, they weren’t minding their p’s and q’s, or whatever.  They didn’t do their job, and that’s all there is to it. 

Think of it this way:  several jury members at the OJ trial were interviewed after the trial was over.  They all said the same thing–that they knew he was guilty.  However, because the prosecution’s case wasn’t 100% solid, they had to aquit OJ.  They didn’t want to, but they had to, as was their law-bound duty.  It’s gut-wrenching, it’s distateful, and it’s truly horrid whenever someone who is clearly guilty is aquitted of the crime they did.  But it’s not the defense attorney’s fault.  The onus is on the prosecution.

Having said all that, it still doesn’t mean that I’m going to support Mr Rice in his bid for the Senate seat, though. 

Where he stands on certain issues is completely opposite of where I stand on those same issues.  He has also admitted that his positions might not be in step with the rest of Oklahoma.  While I understand that–I don’t fault him for it, as we all have differing viewpoints–I can’t in good conscience vote for someone who doesn’t represent me.  I can’t trust him to do in Washington the job that I would be hiring him to do.

And let’s face it–that’s exactly what we’re doing whenever we vote for or against people.  We’re hiring them.  Or we’re firing them.  They work for us.  If they’re not going to work for us, then they must not be allowed to take the job.

For more on how Andrew stands on issues that concern Oklahoma, I encourage you to visit RiceRealityCheck.com.  You’ll see exactly where he stands, and why–in my opinion–he should not be allowed to represent us.  He should not be allowed to take the place of Sen. Inhofe, a man who has always kept us in his best interests, irregardless of what anyone has attempted to pay him to do.

Senator Inhofe, you can count on my vote this year.  I cannot thank you enough for doing what you’ve been doing, always keeping Oklahoma’s best interests at heart.