Can't support a hypocrite

I returned home from burying my good and very politically oriented mother and discovered a leaflet on our porch from "Congressman Marsha Blackburn". She was asking for our votes in the 7th Congressional District race based on her record.

Early primary voting begins July 18.

Blackburn, the incumbent and darling of the Extreme Right, has to send out leaflets about the primary because she has drawn a Republican opponent for the party's nomination.

She's in trouble. She has greviously violated the most sacred trust between supporter and candidate: she mismanaged the money that working people gave her campaigns and used the money to financially benefit her family members.

This kind of stuff really stinks. It's Big Boss politics that demands "do as I say, not as I do".

As a Williamson County voter, I can't support a politician who condemns others for mismanaging public money and betraying the public trust when money under her direct control is initially not reported according to the law and used to pad the pockets of family members. Her campaign committee has received 33 letters from the Federal Election Commission pointing out 90 possible mistakes in her campaign finance reports over three campaigns, showed an investigation by Gannett News Service.

The "congressman" -- her preference -- defends herself by saying she initiated this revisiting of previously unreported campaign contributions. About $19,000 of those contributions went to her daughter and son-in-law and their company for work in her campaigns, she claims. But her GOP opponent, Tom Leatherwood, hired an audit firm to review her finances. It found more than $100,000 in campaign money directed to her family's gain, according to reporting by The Tennessean.

Blackburn is a political hypocrite of the worst kind. If she is re-elected, she will return to Congress severely compromised for her apparent failure to properly report campaign contributions in a timely manner by FEC rules. Her effectiveness for the people of the 7th District such as myself will be curtailed, and rightly so. Even for Congress, her failures are beyond blush. And they are reminiscent of the financial difficulties she had as head of the state film office. We had been warned.

The "congressman" has failed her own test by which she measured other elected leaders. She has violated the public trust. The "congressman" may live in my same city and county, but I feel no loyalty to her. She is the kind of politician my good mother taught me to fight.

And I'd appreciate it if her campaign would keep its propaganda off my porch. Besides, trash day isn't until Thursday.