Will Rogers
Congressman Jim Rogan and his challenger, state Sen. Adam Schiff, just
wouldn't stay out of my house last weekend.
Neither actually came by, which is good because I was dangerously low
on cheese and crackers. But it seemed every time I looked up I saw the
grinning puss of one or the other.
Their dueling TV commercials received a lot of press, and both
campaigns put out literature.
Rogan's commercials, airing earlier in the campaign and more often
than those of any congressional candidate in the nation, have all the
subtlety of a Mad Magazine parody, showing as little respect for voters
as they do for Schiff.
*
Tactics include a grainy mug shot of Schiff, which I guess proves to
simpletons that he's seamy, and scripts that play like bumper stickers
read aloud. But they add less to useful discourse than comparatively
literate bumper bromides.
By distorting the substance of bills Schiff voted on (a tactic both
candidates use), Rogan deems Schiff an extremist hoping to give away our
money to illegal aliens.
One has to wonder what the wildly expensive ads accomplish. The
shrieks speak to an audience already sure to vote for Rogan, this despite
any concern his support for gun enthusiasts, for teaching religion in
public schools and for busting the cruel chains of consumer protection
strangling business aren't conservative enough.
"Greedy trial lawyers" is the slander of the season describing
puppeteers who, according to Rogan's spots, pull Schiff's strings. Next
Rogan will refer to his own backers as the "kindly insurance companies."
*
Just as Rogan derides Schiff's backers with ludicrous, sweeping
labels, Schiff paints all Rogan's fans as "special interests," this
despite ample evidence of support from voters in the community.
Each offers an ugly portrait of all who give the other guy cash,
suggesting their own donors are selfless monks devoted to integrity.
Rogan defends his antics with his "he did it first!" defense, a whine of
victimhood the arbiter of virtue uses every election to justify tactics
he claims to abhor.
Schiff has only one commercial thus far, rebutting Rogan's account of
their respective records on health-care issues. Details of the bills each
man supported or opposed are recited by a woman apparently at the center
of a story Schiff has told for more than a year. The constituent came to
Schiff for help when an insurance company denied requested treatment for
a life-threatening illness.
The story is effective, but Schiff had better find another because
