Attack on Mike Pence in conflict with the facts

This was submitted to the Muncie Star-Press on July 27, 2011

To the editor:

A July 26 letter to the editor falsely claims that Mike Pence never stood up to President Bush. Criticism is fine, but that criticism needs to be factual.

The fact is that Pence consistently stood for fiscal conservatism during the Bush years, opposing new federal programs such as the Medicare prescription drug entitlement and the No Child Left Behind law.

In fact, Pence led the revolt in the House of Representatives that delayed passage of the bailout of Wall Street – a bailout supported by the establishment of both parties including President Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and John McCain.

The letter writer may have been misinformed. The Indiana Democratic Party is not misinformed. They know the facts well, so when the Democrats posted a link to the letter on Twitter they were intentionally misleading their followers.

I call on John Gregg to denounce the false propaganda advanced by his party. Civility demands that parties and candidates be truthful, and the Indiana Democratic Party failed in that regard.

Finally, the Muncie Star-Press should have known better than to publish this letter to the editor. Congressman Pence's record is well documented and letters containing false claims should be withheld from publication. This was a bad call by the editor, and corrective action should be taken so that the newspaper does not publish false claims in the future – especially claims that are so obviously false, as this one was.