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CO-07: New O'Donnell Ad Begs Forgiveness For Social Security Phase Out Essay
Remember Rick O'Donnell? He's the GOP House candidate who's being attacked by Dem foe Ed Perlumtter for writing nearly 12 years ago that "for freedom's sake," we should "eliminate Social Security." Now O'Donnell is officially surrendering on the issue. The Rocky Mountain News reports that O'Donnell is about to release a new TV ad formally apologizing for his past writing, saying it was the work of a "know-it-all kid." And in another clear sign that Dems have drawn blood, he's even got a new flyer in which he pleads for forgiveness. Note two pictures from the flyer below -- including one of O'Donnell kneeling before an old lady.
View the full flyer here.
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Well, Clinton grovelled to Arkansas in 1982, and it worked out pretty well for him.
Does this go under "youthful indiscretion"?
September 22, 2006 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm 24 and that guy looks at least 30 in the picture. Youthful? Looks more to me like he was born old.
September 22, 2006 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Please! You know that if he gets elected he will sign on to Dumbya's phase-out plan. When called on it, he'll say "But we're strengthening Social Security".
September 22, 2006 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was a gawky kid and now he is a slick jerk. That just about sums up maturity republican style.
September 22, 2006 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
If thirty is old, I'm in big trouble. But yeah, yeah -- he looks odd for a kid. Would feel sorry for him if he wasn't a Rethuglican.
September 22, 2006 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the GOP, youthful indiscretions extend to age 40. Remember Henry Hyde when his fling was exposed?
September 22, 2006 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know I'm going to get slated for this (at least here), but come on guys: you can't have it both ways - you (rightly) attack the GOP for their dishonesty, you attack them for hitting the lowest denominator in their campaigns, and here we have someone not only apologising for something he shouldn't have said quite a while ago, but publishing a photo of himself that isn't exactly a vote winner!
If we genuinely want politics to rise up to a higher standard, let's not attack politicians for being honest and admitting mistakes in the all-too-rare occasions when they actually do, just because they happen to be Republicans.
September 22, 2006 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Somebody help me here. On one side of the flyer, he is earning $24,000 a year and sending it to his homeless mother in the mid 50's.
On the other side, the same guy was 24 years old in 1994?
Where have I gone wrong?
"You took an oath to defend our flag and our freedom, and you kept that oath underseas and under fire." --George W. Bush, addressing war veterans, Wash, D.C., Jan. 10, 2006
September 22, 2006 9:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm having trouble swallowing this too. In '94 when his mother was homeless this jerk was so infutuated with his youth that he wanted to abolish Social Security and guarantee that his mom would still be homeless in old age. Gee, what a damned bright kid.
And then a dozen years later, when good old mom is approaching retirement, he says he had his fingers crossed behind his back when he was a jerk, he wants her on the dole for the next 20/30 years instead of camping out in her car in his back yard. Hmmm...
He admits he was a dickweed then but he's worthy of Congress now. It's not that easy sonny boy. The problem here kid is not that you were an idiot, but that millions of self-infatuated Republican twerps like you were back then cause real damage to people's lives every day with such idiotic bullshit (You did vote in '94 didn't you Ricky?). So it's not just about pulling your self away from the mirror - you got dues to pay dweeb! Fess up, what other idiotic, sociopathic ideas were running loose in your Reagan worshipping little head before you grew up and became a man? What other damage do you owe for?
September 22, 2006 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree wholeheartedly about lowest denominator politics. I love this site, and am sometimes disheartened by the us good/them bad dynamic.
In this case, though, I think there's a valid point: He didn't start recanting until a month and a half before the election. If he could produce a body of work between twelve years ago and now that showed an evolution of thought, that would be better.
September 23, 2006 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nancy Irving
I will give him credit for the apology. But as another commenter already pointed out, the proof is in what he does re S.S. if he's elected.
With luck, we'll never find out. :)
September 23, 2006 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I happily give him credit for honesty, since it's so often the road not taken for folks in his position. But as some other commenters have noted, it is rather clearly honesty under duress. And I think it's entirely fair for voters to question the sincerity of his transformation or whether they want to elect someone to office who had such bad judgment only a decade ago.
I think it's also important to point out that he's been change has been a semantic one. As far as I know, the guy still supports privatizing Social Security and replacing it with private accounts. So in the final analysis he's just another bamboozler on this topic.
September 23, 2006 2:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or a certain former governor from Texas with an admitted drinking problem and an alleged cocaine problem. He too suddenly grew up at 40. While the intoxicants no longer fog his brain, he isn't any brighter sober.
The real question for O'Donnell is: has his thinking really changed? If so why do all the anti Social Security wing nuts still endorse him.
September 23, 2006 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I so totally agree with GaryAdams. We should always pursue higher standards in electoral politics. Because we're all growed up and this is serious stuff. Give poor Ricky a break.
Kevin Hayden
September 23, 2006 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and I apologize for that previous comment. It occurred in a moment of youthful ardor. I'm older than that now.
Kevin Hayden
September 23, 2006 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll be very happy to see them lose.
September 27, 2006 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink