Bishop’s smear campaign

The only "fact" that Ronald DiLiddo got right in his attempt to smear Congressional candidate Elissa Slotkin (October Incoming/Downtown) is that he correctly spelled her name. That's it.

Here are facts that live in the world of reality, that have the virtue of being true, and totally refute the disgusting smear campaign by (Congressman Mike) Bishop that DiLiddo swallowed whole.

A desperate candidate for Michigan’s 8th Congressional seat has used radio ads, TV spots and social media messages to make three bogus claims about his opponent. In a flailing campaign, Mike Bishop is trying to smear Elissa Slotkin, a genuine public servant, but has only added a new stench to his already stained reputation.

The first false claim featured Bishop sinking further into the slime of fake news as he tried – and failed – with a disgusting TV spot to exploit the recently deceased war hero Senator John McCain. It was a deplorable act for which Bishop was rebuked by McCain’s family who demanded his campaign stop showing an out-of-context video clip in which McCain uncharacteristically personally criticized a public servant for following a president’s orders.

The second fabrication by Bishop was to actually attack Slotkin for devoting her life and her career to public service. While Bishop snuggled down safely at home, serving only the wishes of campaign underwriters Big Pharma, Ambassador Bridge magnate Manny Moroun, and other corporate contributors, Slotkin served this nation under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan and in a crucial anti-terrorist position in the Pentagon. Rather than turn away from an opportunity to actually serve constituents, when her country called, Slotkin answered. Not with empty words, but with action.

Ironic and disgusting that Bishop would stoop to stabbing Slotkin in the back for serving her country instead of remaining comfortably in her childhood home in Holly. If you’re going to fight terrorists for 14 years as Slotkin did, you go where the threat is, where the action is. Then, after you’ve done your duty as a courageous patriot, you can return to the home you love and try to do further public service. What better way to do that than by defeating a lazy and ethically corrupt representative who has abused his tenure by catering to corporate interests at the expense of his constituents.

The third phony Bishop ad asserted that Slotkin was bent on “bankrupting Medicare.” That was rapidly discredited by fact-checkers as false. The height of hypocrisy that Bishop, who gloated that he voted again and again to kill health care coverage for millions of Americans, would portray himself as its savior whereas Slotkin has proposed that improved and expanded health care legislation is a top priority.

Bill Haney

Ortonville