The Tiahrt and Moran campaign—what’s the difference?

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner

What do two candidates for the Republican nomination do to win over voters when their opponent is really selling the same old slop? They nit pick over meaningless fodder such as who raised taxes, or who raised them the most, or who saved voters the most on their taxes. This has been the case with the campaign between Rep. Todd Tiahrt and Rep. Jerry Moran, in their bid for Republican nominee to replace U.S. Senator Sam Brownback.
According to The Wichita Eagle:

Senate candidate Todd Tiahrt's campaign accused fellow Kansas Republican hopeful Jerry Moran on Wednesday of trying to hide past votes to raise taxes, while Moran's campaign labeled Tiahrt's tactics as desperate.
The two congressmen sparred over a television ad from Tiahrt attacking Moran on tax votes. The ad began airing Tuesday in what appeared to be a light rotation in the Topeka, Wichita and Kansas City markets.
Both Tiahrt and Moran have portrayed themselves as fiscal conservatives, favoring lower taxes and less spending by the federal government. They're vying for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican who's running for governor. The primary is Aug. 3.

The reality is that these are pro-business politicians who will use their seat to vote against government regulations and to make sure their business friends get everything they want. They don’t have much to offer the public other than lowering taxes a tiny amount to convince gullible voters that they are trying to save them money and make their lives easier.
As for hot button issues such as abortion, gay marriage and gun control, there positions are the same. Therefore it is important for them to find ways to look different from each other and provide a contrast.
There really isn’t much difference between Tiahrt and Moran. Kansas Republicans all say about the same thing and they haven’t had any candidates with new ideas for a long time. It’s the same old same old.

It is my belief that Moran is not as sleazy and has more credibility as an honest politician, but even that isn’t really much.

Tiahrt and Moran argue polls, ignore substance

Once again The Wichita Eagle presents both Rep. Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran, arguing about polling.

Moran’s campaign released a poll last week showing him leading Tiahrt by 26 points. Tiahrt’s campaign responded that the poll wasn’t legitimate. “We have known from multiple reports that the Moran campaign has been conducting a push poll,”

They argue who is the most conservative and who is ahead in the polls, but we can be assured they will not argue anything of substance. Who gets the most money from Kock Industries? Where do their campaign contributions come from and who how much will they owe all of these people before they can spend any time worrying about their constituents? But don’t look for answers. Just expect a lot of meaningless commercials and the usual campaign rhetoric. Also there will be the usual “bandwagon,” “stacked deck” “just plain folks” and other obvious forms of propaganda.

Yes we are already sick of Wink Hartman ads

A lot of people are already getting sick of seeing Wink Hartman campaign TV Ads. Just recently the PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net posted an article; “Anyone Else Sick of the Wink Hartman Campaign Ads?”

The answer for a lot of us is YES. The ads run every hour on most TV stations and they are designed to drive a deep divide between the conservative Republican majority and the liberal minority.

Wink tries hard to look like a serious business leader who is “just like you” and wants common sense solutions to the problems in Washington. “I’m not a career politicians,” he said in recent ad.
Some simple questions come to mind with this guy immediately. How many of us have an arena named after us. Hartman does. Were is all the money coming from for all of those ads. The TV is saturated with them and they are not cheap. If he is against spending money so much, why is he spending an exorbitant amount for these ads?
Then there is the message itself. There is nothing new about it. Anyone who is over 25 has heard this all before. It’s straight off the Republican Party’s platform. What’s most interesting is his insistence that all the government had to do was get off the backs of small businesses and the economy would be up and running by now.
While many of us would agree that small businesses are not treated well in these modern times, it is extremely simplistic to claim that the present Democratic government (“all those liberals who are ruining the country”) created the economic slump (remember it started during George W. Bush’s administration) and the simple solution is to free up small businesses and quit spending money. It’s all so simple. It’s also a bunch of crap. Liberals have run the country before and they have run it during times of prosperity. Remember the John F. Kennedy era? Hartman acts as if this is the first time a liberal has ever been in the White House. None of these conservatives will admit that our bloated military budget simply never gets discussed when it comes to tax, spend and borrowing by the government.
No serious political scientist is going to believe that one simple solution can end a very complicated economic recession. It’s just not that simple to the more educated voter.
Hartman is trying to fill the seat vacated by Todd Tiahrt. Given that religious fundamentalists have kept him in office all these years, even though he is one of Kansas’ most corrupted politician, shows that Hartman has a winning chance.
For those of us who see through his phoney populism, it is important for us to ask who is paying for all these ads and who is this man going to really represent besides his constituents. Will he just sell his votes to the highest bidder as Tiahrt did? This is the question we need to keep raising.

Tiahrt introduced Sarah Palin

Rep. Todd Tiahrt was the nimble brain representative of the US House to introduce Sarah Palin Sunday night. She is quite popular with the poorly educated. She drew a crowd of several thousand Sunday Night, but never filled the new stadium or even came close.
The event was a fundraiser for the Bethel Life School associated with the fundamentalist preacher of hate Terry Fox. “Palin also paid tribute to Kansas political leaders Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Dole and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, who introduced her. Pat Boone played Tiahrt up pointing out he’s won 8 terms, even though he didn’t mention that the first few were by the skin of his teeth. Boone said that Tiahrt went to college and studied aircraft. He should have spent some of his time learning about politics, since he isn’t fit for the job.
Tiahrt has aligned himself with one of the most conservative simpletons on the campaign trail in years. Hopefully he will lose his bid for Senate and we will be rid of him for good.