Howie uses murder of children for political attack. How slimy can you get?

Apparently I went to bed last night, and woke up in crazy town. Because, here’s one of the headlines this morning:

Part of the story reads, “People watching this new scandal/suicide/shotgun murder unfold are skeptical that we are getting the complete story, and perhaps not the ACURATE story.”

As we’re treated to a barely literate, incoherent and misspelled sentence explaining all of this, it’s illustrative of the defective and overwhelming leaps in logic that one has to take to believe any of the utter BS spouted by Howie, It’s little more than an exercise in throwing fecal matter against the wall to try to make anything stick against the opponent who delivered a 47 point loss to him in a 4-way race.

What did happen? A family tragedy occurred involving someone who worked for an educational co-op in Platte. This educational co-op, of which there are many across the state, administered a federal grant for an Indian education program, and subbed portions of that out here and there. The State of SD, who had the ability to direct funds, and ensure the program was working, at some point recently didn’t feel that they were getting enough bang for their buck, etcetera, so they yanked the funding.

A short time later, a man who worked at the educational co-op committed suicide, and took his family with him in a horrible tragedy.  What does that have to do with Howie’s claim that it’s all linked to his former political opponent, Senator Rounds? Absolutely and utterly nothing. It’s paranoid and slanderous.

Not to mention it has been over 5 years since Mike Rounds has been governor. 

If we’re to follow Howie’s logical progression, there’s more of a connection between Mike Rounds and executive branch state employees under him who received speeding tickets then there is between Rounds and an employee of the educational cooperative which received a federal grant directed by the Dept of Ed.

Mike Rounds didn’t hire him. Mike Rounds couldn’t fire him.  The only thing the Dept of Ed could do was to watch results progress over time. And at one point, they decided they didn’t like them.

Does the headline blare “Mike Rounds responsible for x% of speeding tickets during his tenure?” No. Because everyone instantly recognizes it as silly. But blare a headline like Howie does with an even more tenuous connection, and it takes on an air of salacious scandal. If the state reviews the results of a federal grant program, and finds it isn’t happy with the effectiveness of the program, and has questions about how it’s being run by the entity running it; I think one would argue that they’re actually doing their job by reviewing it. That’s what they’re supposed to do.

And if they yank the program because they’re not happy with how it’s being done – “Not doing the job I like, find someone else to do it.” – again, that’s what they’re supposed to do.

If an employee of the grant contractor has some sort of breakdown, that has nothing to do with state government. At all. And for Gordon Howie to use the murder of children as the basis for a political attack against an old political foe?

That’s about as slimy as you can get. And it’s little wonder why he can’t poll beyond 3%.