The Top Ten Bogus Attacks Against Carol Shea-Porter

by: Dean Barker

Sun Jan 02, 2011 at 11:08:49 AM EST

Representing a top swing district in the country, Representative Shea-Porter never accepted business PAC money in her fundraising, and never deviated in her words or actions from her core principle of serving "the rest of us" during her time in public office.

Below are the top ten bogus charges made against her in the 2010 cycle by right-wing old and new media, sloppy journalists, Republican candidates, and professional GOP operatives.

Coming soon is a top ten list of Shea-Porter's legislative accomplishments.

10.                                

WHO: Frank Guinta

CLAIM: CSP in a letter "desperately begged Speaker Pelosi to not hold a vote on the tax cut extension."

REALITY: The letter:

As the Bush tax cuts are set to expire, we respectfully urge you to bring to the floor, before Congress adjourns in October, a vote on President Obama's recently proposed tax plan: permanent tax cuts for the middle-class.

9.                                

WHO: Dave Weigel, who took Jeb Bradley's version of his loss at face value.

CLAIM: CSP is the craaazy uber-left-wing mirror image of craaazy uber-right-wing Sharron Angle.

REALITY: Tim Fernholz: "I grew up in Shea-Porter's congressional district, and it's funny to see Bradley, now a state senator, try to spin his loss as a result of believing Shea-Porter was too liberal to win -- her voting record since the election places her squarely in the middle of the Democratic caucus, more conservative than two Blue Dogs; think we'll say the same about would-be Senators Paul or Angle?"

8.                                

WHO: Former NHGOP Chair Wayne Semprini

CLAIM: "I was moderating one such event in Rye, when Ms. Shea-Porter and her supporters donned hats decorated with plastic waffles and repeatedly interrupted (and disrupted) the event.

REALITY: Photo evidence to the contrary, plus Susan Bruce:

I made the waffle hats.

I was working as a community organizer for the NH Citizens Alliance at the time. We were bird dogging Bradley for his waffling stance on Social Security - hence the waffle hats. Those who showed up to wear them were MY volunteers. This had nothing to do with Carol - I don't think I'd even met Carol at that time.

We did not interrupt, nor disrupt the meeting.

7.                                

WHO: The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny

CLAIM: CSP was skipping town hall meetings to avoid constituents.

REALITY: CSP held eleven town hall meetings by the time the Zeleny's article was published.

6.                                

WHO: George Pataki's Revere America

CLAIM: Various falsehoods about the health care reform law in a TV attack ad.

REALITY: Take it away, FactCheck.

5.                                

WHO: Patrick Hynes

CLAIM: NowHampshire:

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter will receive some assistance today from a controversial group that has compared President George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler

REALITY: Adam Krauss:

But, as some of you may have seen, the ad reappeared recently when the founder of Now! Hampshire, a communication strategist who has worked for GOP campaigns, embedded it in a report saying Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter was receiving support from the same group behind the ad. That wasn't accurate since the group itself didn't produce the ad.

4.                                

WHO: Patrick Hynes

CLAIM: NowHampshire headline, uncritically stenographed by Politico and the Hill: "Shea-Porter: Send the men home and Congress could pass health care reform"

REALITY: CSP: "And the Republican women said, when we were fighting over the health care bill, 'If we sent the men home, we could get this done this weekend."

3.                                

WHO: Variously batted around by: Union Leader op-eds, NHGOP, a Sean Mahoney campaign operative, right-wing blogs.

CLAIM: DiStaso:

Williams posted, "Did @TeamSheaPorter commit a Class B felony?" and "Did @TeamSheaPorter illegally obtain personal student info from the Manch School Dept? The Superintendent thinks so."

It pointed out that NHGOP staffer Tom DeRosa posted, "Hypocrisy of the left: @TeamSheaPorter breaks law and NHDP silent."

The NHDP noted the comments were "re-tweeted by Republican Party consultants, including Patrick Hynes, who is working for Sean Mahoney in the first Congressional district Republican primary, and Matt Suermann of RedHampshire.com."

REALITY: The law:

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance.

2.                                

WHO: Shawn Millerick, and then uncritically stenographed by the Hill, Real Clear Politics, the Wall St. Journal, and Politics Daily, all of whom changed their headlines and/or contents after getting corrected.

CLAIM: NHJournal, on whose board Patrick Hynes serves:

Shea-Porter implies Chinese cost her election, helped Guinta

Outgoing Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter implied the Chinese cost her re-election in November and secretly funneled money to help her Republican opponent Frank Guinta during a post-election interview with ABC News.

REALITY: WMUR's News 9 Team:

News 9 watched the roundtable interview, and the host's question and Shea-Porter's lead-up to that statement never mentioned her election loss or her opponent, Frank Guinta.

But bloggers used that quote and others from different parts of the interview to claim Shea-Porter was blaming anonymous Chinese donations to Guinta for her loss.

1.                                

WHO: "Staff Reporter" at Patrick Hynes' NowHampshire; and then uncritically stenographed by numerous right-wing national outlets and media, in particular FOX and Friends, which ran the bogus claim repeatedly one morning.

CLAIM:

Shea-Porter Instructs Security to Remove a Former Police Officer from Town Hall

Carol Shea-Porter... instructed armed security guards to remove a frustrated voter from her own town hall event in Manchester on Saturday.

In the appended video, Shea-Porter can be seen instructing security to remove a man for standing to ask a question without a ticket.

REALITY: The Union Leader, among others and still others:

At that same event, a protester was escorted out by two police officers. Video was posted on the Internet. Some on the right saw the video and proclaimed that Shea-Porter kicked a protester out of her event. She didn't. The officer did. What you won't see on the video is the protester disrupting the meeting after the police told him that such behavior would not be tolerated.