And So It Begins

The Democratic Party's official blogger has fired the first salvo against Beth Chapman (R-Alabama), the current state auditor, as she begins her campaign for Secretary of State. But if this is the best they can do, they should just be quiet.

The crux of their argument is that Chapman had a lapse of ethics by using her official state auditor web site to disseminate her speech "Stand Up America", a speech the blogger considers hate speech. The blogger wrote:

"When I read Beth Chapman's press release the other day announcing her candidacy for secretary of state, I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

"Her 'only campaign promise' is to promote honesty and integrity in government.

"For those who want to know why this - and thereby her candidacy - is such a joke, click here."

When you click the link in the quote, you are shown Google's cache of the page on the auditor's web site containing the "Stand Up America" speech. Supposedly, Chapman's posting this speech on a state web site evidences a terrible lack of ethics. I must ask "why?"

I don't agree with every point made by Chapman in her speech. For example, I choose to not refer to environmentalists "tree huggers" or people of a progressive persuasion as "hippy, Birkenstock wearing, tie-dyed liberals."

And I don't agree that it's is completely factual. For example, there are many celebrities, especially in elder generations, who served in the military.

But a political speech is just that, a political speech. People can agree or disagree with Chapman's points. That's part of being human. And in a small-d democracy, we can freely act on those agreements or disagreements in the political arena.

To charge that posting the speech on a state web site is an ethical lapse, though, is ludicrous. Politicians are becoming savvy to the Internet and the power of web sites. State officials, Democrats and Republicans, have been using their state web sites to publish their positions long before Chapman posted her strident piece on patriotism.

But if we accept that a state official is wrong for using state resources to disseminate his or her own political beliefs, then Nancy Worley (D-AEA) is guilty of that as well. I have attended meetings, such as Alabama Democratic Conference functions, where she spoke very partisan messages. She arrived at those meetings, I noticed, courtesy of taxpayer's funds and the infamouse state SUV (a controversy in and of itself).