PA-03 UPDATE: STEVE PORTER SUES PHIL ENGLISH OVER SLANDEROUS TV SPOTS

Phil English, long-rumored to be a child predator and closet queen-- and appropriately nicknamed Jabba-- is a grotesque creature with a reputation as an untrustworthy sneak and a dirty player. Many closet cases, used to living their lives furtively and in the dark, always on guard about being found out, denounced and punished, lie as easily as they tell the truth and often lose the ability to know truth from lies. That would be an apt description of Erie's hideous 6 term congresscritter.

In 2004 English was responsible for spreading rumors throughout PA-03 that Steve Porter, his Democratic opponent, was a Nazi. Porter is a Jewish music professor. He decided to challenge English again this year and has been running an above board, issue-oriented campaign. He steadfastly refuses to make political capital about English's two arrests for picking up teenage male prostitutes. English of course, only knows how to campaign in the gutter. He can't run on his record since all of his votes are of the rubber stamp variety and he has voted against the fundamental interests of his constituents at every turn, a completely bought and paid for corporate shill, with bribe money coming out of every orifice of his porcine body.

If you think you've had enough of these lying Republican crooks, imagine how Steve Porter felt when English started using his massive warchest of corporate bribes to blanket the district with more vicious lies and slander. This morning Porter sent out a press release with this introduction: "Today, my wife and I, along with our lawyer, struck a blow for our democracy-- not just for our personal restitution, but for the processes of our democracy. For far too long, we have allowed candidates and the media to disgrace the electoral process. We began an effort to halt that trend today. The press release is below. I hope it garners national attention and generates a discussion of the entire issue so that we can concentrate on the things that are truly important to our nation."

This morning at 11 AM Porter announced that he was filing suit against English's campaign.

"I am instituting a defamation suit against the English campaign for the malicious misrepresentation of my ideas in their political advertisements," said Porter. "My lawyer, Mr. Alan Natalie of Erie, has filed a Writ of Summons in the matter and will be filing all of the remaining papers shortly. Because this matter is now in litigation, I will not comment further on the details of the suit," Porter went on, "but I do very much wish to comment on the kind of campaigning which seems to abound in today's sorry political climate.
 
"When a candidate like Mr. English engages in the kind of character assassination he does, the usual response for the adversary is to engage in some kind of retaliatory advertising. That is exactly what I have decided not to do. My response to Mr. English will be to hold him accountable in a court of law and not to join him in polluting the election process. His kind of ads, the kind which Karl Rove has encouraged throughout the Republican Party, are a disgrace to the democratic process and a shameful expenditure of the contributions given to him. They appeal to the very worst in the electorate and in the process avoid any real discussion of the issues which are so important to the voting public. I simply will not participate in that kind of campaigning.
 
"My ads," said Porter, "which can be viewed on my website for all to see, deal with the important issues of our day and compare Mr. English's positions on those issues with mine so that the public may choose between us. To stoop to Mr. English's way of campaigning would only further insult the public and disgrace our democracy.
 
"It is a shame," continued Porter, "that so much of the media is forced to run the trash we see. It is even more of a shame that so much of the media does not counter the trash by sponsoring debates or printing comparisons of candidates' positions which would lift the election process out of the gutter to a level of importance for the people who vote. Given the severity of our times with respect to war, health care, job outsourcing, global warming, political corruption, and many other issues neither the tactics of people like Mr. English nor the irresponsibility of so much of the American media can be justified. As for me, I will not stoop to Mr. English's level nor stop discussing the issues.
 
"All of my positions are available on my website and all of my advertisements deal with those positions and only those positions. Mr. English's character will have to speak for itself."

 
Steve Porter is a Blue America candidate and you can donate to his campaign at our Act Blue page