THE CASE AGAINST POLITICAL DEFAMATION-- WHY IT MATTERS AND WHAT TWO PROGRESSIVES ARE DOING ABOUT IT IN PENNSYLVANIA AND ARIZONA

Big Phil English (R-PA) forms defense fund to fight off charges of defamation and slander

Ellen Simon is one of the most accomplished and distinguished public service lawyers I've ever met. Last year when she ran for Congress against corrupt Arizona pip-squeak Rick Renzi (R), who is now plea bargaining with federal prosecutors to keep down an expected prison sentence for gross corruption, she was viciously and savagely attacked by right wing maniacs. This year instead of running for the seat again-- although it will be an open seat-- Ellen has decided the best contribution she can make to our country is to work on a project that would hold accountable candidates and groups that defame their political opponents. Later this summer, Blue America will have Ellen guest blogging to explain her new project.

Another progressive candidate who has decided not to run again is a Blue America fave, Dr. Steve Porter. The Republican incumbent and his supporters had slandered and smeared Porter-- who is a scholarly Jewish professor-- as "a Nazi." Odd that a Republican could project so blindly and with so little self-awareness as to call an opponent as Nazi, when the current GOP agenda mimics the same fascist principles that were imbued in nazism! In any case, Dr. Porter defamation law suit against English has been moving forward in the courts. Here's part of a letter I got from Steve yesterday:

As you know, in October of 2006, Rita and I filed a defamation suit against Phil English and his campaign.  Though the press pundits called it a "stunt," it was no stunt.  We have a case and we are pressing it forward.
 
Particulars were filed last February and are a matter of public record.  There are 7 counts against English for conspiracy, defamation, and damage to our reputation and lives.  We are now in the law suit phase known as "discovery."  It may be as much as a year until we get to trial, but that will happen, and God willing, we will receive a judgment in our favor.
 
Yesterday, I got a call from Roll Call Magazine reporter Paul Singer about the suit because apparently English is worried enough about it to have started a legal defense fund (toward which he contributed a whopping $10 of his own money). 

Rita, Alan Natalie (our lawyer), and I are very proud of what we are doing, not just because I am standing up for the defamation against me (particularly the labeling of me as a Nazi sterilizer when I am in fact a Jew), but because English's kind of campaigning has got to be stopped in America.
 
The bastards at all points along the political spectrum-- but particularly on the conservative right lately-- have degraded our democracy and our electoral processes with the worst kind of irrelevant filth.  You have all seen it ad nauseum:  the swift boat ads against Kerry, the denigration of Senator Max Cleland by Ann Coulter because his three limbs were blown off by an American grenade and not a Vietnamese one, etc., etc.
 
If my law suit is successful, it may signal the end of this nonsense and make a real contribution to the preservation of our democracy.  It will not stop the political prostitution of candidates who are owned by special interests ( for that we need the public funding of elections), but it may keep candidates and a pathetic corporate media focused on issues instead of libel and slander.

Although Steve isn't running against English this year, don't worry that the Democratic-leaning district will be forfeited without a fight. This morning's CQ Today makes it clear that English's rubber stamp record on Iraq and the rest of the Bush/Cheney agenda will not go unchallenged.

Pennsylvania's Phil English is a member of the big House Republican Class of 1994 -- the one that ushered in a GOP majority that lasted for a dozen years until Democrats overturned it in last year's elections. Though he prevailed against the strong partisan tide to win a seventh term in 2006, English was one of a number of Republican survivors re-elected with underwhelming vote numbers.

Running in a northwest Pennsylvania district, including his hometown of Erie, where he was used to more dominant performances, English took 54 percent to defeat Democrat Steven Porter, a little-known educator who did not attract national attention.

That modest showing in Pennsylvania's 3rd District, coupled with a continued public opposition to President Bush and his policies, has spurred the Democrats to wage a more vigorous -- and much earlier starting -- effort than usual to unseat English in 2008.

Two Democratic candidates already have emerged: Kyle Foust, an Erie County councilman who has organized an "exploratory" campaign, and Tom Myers, a lawyer with close ties to organized labor who is an official candidate.

... Despite the many months that will transpire before voters head to the polls, it seems clear that the Pennsylvania 3rd race will be dominated by the ongoing war in Iraq. In recent interviews with CQPolitics.com, Foust and Myers identified the Iraq war first when asked which issues they would emphasize in their campaigns. And English has been vocal in his advocacy of a beefed-up diplomatic effort to solve the crisis.

Democrats, though, have tended to note English's opposition to a Democratic-crafted war spending measure, vetoed by President Bush, that included a timeline to redeploy troops from Iraq.

"I don't think Phil English's view on the war is how people feel in the 3rd Congressional District," said Foust, who also said the war would be "the biggest issue, for sure" in the upcoming race.

"I think the country is incredibly frustrated with the direction that we've taken [in Iraq]," Myers said. "Mr. English has supported that endeavor almost completely right down the line."