A slanderous lie

Tennessee GOP Spokesperson Bill Hobbs sent me the following email late yesterday regarding this post.

The statement that I spoke out in opposition to the bailout of the Big Three (or that the TN GOP did) is a lie. A slanderous lie.

I wrote an analysis of the situation, not a statement of opposition to or support of the proposed bailout. Period. You can not find one fraction of that post that is a statement of opposition to it.

I demand a retraction and apology.

Bill

In a post yesterday by the Tennessee Republican Party spokesperson, Hobbs wrote an analysis of the situation in which the Big 3 automakers find themselves describing it as one of their own making, pointing to their "reputation, earned over the recent decades, for lousy products and poor quality" as just one of many reasons they are now asking Congress for billions of dollars from tax payers. As Hobbs clarifies, an analysis of a crisis is not a statement of being for or against any proposed solutions, and any inferences drawn by readers are simply lies.

I want to apologize if I lead readers to believe Bill Hobbs and the Tennessee Republican party oppose the bailout proposal before Congress issued yesterday by Rep. Barney Frank's office on behalf of the Financial Services Committee. It turns out Bill Hobbs and the Tennessee Republican Party are neither in opposition or in favor of the bailout of the Big Three as issued by Rep. Barney Frank's office, and I was wrong to suggest they are anything other than somewhere in between on the matter. In fact, they are still analyzing the crisis and how it may impact the 3,500 Spring Hill GM workers, their families and the state of Tennessee.

UPDATE 10:31am - Regarding the request for retraction: I'm in a fact finding process seeking explicitly whether or not the TN GOP is in opposition to the bailout as I inferred from the analysis Hobbs posted yesterday. I have sent the text of the proposed bailout now before Congress to TN GOP Spokesperson Bill Hobbs and asked whether the TN GOP is in opposition or in favor. After that fact finding, I'll do the right thing.

What do you think the answer will be? If they are in opposition, the post clearly stands. If they are in favor, Rep. Barney Frank owes Bill Hobbs a big gay kiss on the mouth. If they vote "present" on an economic crisis affecting 3,500 Spring Hill GM workers, their families and the state of Tennessee, I'll have to look at voting "present" in a whole new light.

More from local bloggers:

• Maybe It Depends on What the Definition of “The” is? - Tiny Cat Pants
  Bill Hobbs is clearly speaking out in opposition to the bailout of the Big Three, by implication when he says that Republicans may not be able to stop it, and then explicitly when he urges them to change the terms. By definition, once you change the terms of the bailout, it is no longer the bailout as proposed, but a new bailout.




• A Slanderous Good Time - Sean Braisted
  Why does Hobbs and the TNGOP hate the GM workers in Spring Hill? Because they are unionized (and voted for Ty Cobb). Yes, I presume Hobbs hates the people of Spring Hill because they have the audacity to ask for higher wages and more benefits. To people like W. Howard Hobbs, who represents the Tennessee Republican Party and all that it stands for, it seems like they think the workers at the GM plant are filthy, lazy, greedy ingrates who dare to challenge the way things ought to be, which is, corporate management making boat loads of money, while the plebs fight over the scraps




• I'd Pay Good Money To See This - Silence Isn't Golden
  I think I can speak for most liberal bloggers in Tennessee when I say that I'd pay good money to watch Barney Frank slip Bill Hobbs a little tongue. And then I'll drive away in my Nissan Altima, the one that still runs like new after 3 years and multiple mishaps.

UPDATE 11-19-08 3:07pm: TN GOP Spokesperson Bill Hobbs sent the following short email on his posting regarding the Auto Rescue Bill.

The TN GOP hasn't taken a position on it. That's a national issue, not a state issue anyway. We do campaigns; legislators and congress members do policy.

I'm having a tough time believing this claim when right on their main page is a press release dated 11-12-08 addressing our nation's policy on drilling for oil.

The only thing I can conclude is that the paid spokesperson for the Tennessee GOP wants to dictate to the press which of his public statements on public policy can and cannot be attributed to the Tennessee Republican Party. Usually the party dictates what the spokesperson can and cannot say publicly on issues they work on because people in the press like me will report it.

It is not clear to me that the TN GOP has no position on the livelihood of 3,500 Spring Hill GM plant workers, their families and the city of Spring Hill, especially when their spokeperson publishes lengthy public statements on the subject. What is clear to me based on those published statements is that the spokesperson for the TN GOP does not support the Auto Rescue Bill now before Congress.

I personally do not take charges of slander lightly. Both state parties, however, are on notice that public statements made by paid political spokespersons online are just like statements they make on TV, radio or any other media. I have taken both state parties to task for statements made online over the past year and will continue to report their public statements. That's the right thing to do.