Photo credit: Speaker Paul Ryan Facebook Page
So, what’s House Speaker Paul Ryan been up to in the waning days of his congressional career as Republicans appear on the brink of losing control of the House of Representatives under his leadership? We haven’t heard much. There’s a good reason why Ryan hasn’t wanted to call attention to his election efforts.
As Republican candidates grow increasingly desperate about their chances of survival in November, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the super-PAC for which Ryan has raised $100 million, is broadcasting some of the most dishonest, hate-filled, racist attack ads in their party’s shameful history of inflammatory attack ads going back to the infamous Willie Horton ad of 1988. It’s a reminder that Donald Trump didn’t invent Republican appeals to racial and religious bigotry, and that Ryan’s sanctimonious pretense of distancing himself from his party’s reprehensible political tactics has always been as transparent as cellophane.
Ryan’s greatest political skill has been looking straight into television cameras with wide, blue eyes to solemnly proclaim the innocence and high principles of Republicans who cruelly slash government assistance for Americans who have the least in order to cut the taxes of those who have the most. When Republicans’ backs are against the wall, Ryan, who once described Trump as “the textbook definition” of a racist and his Muslim ban as a violation of the fundamental principles of Ryan’s party and country, stands ready to pour millions of dollars into scurrilous, election-year attack ads right out of that handy, dandy, racist textbook.
Lies, Lies and More Lies
Consider the CLF ad against African American Democrat Antonio Delgado, a Rhodes Scholar and an attorney with a Harvard law degree, running in an upstate New York district. A grainy video suggests all voters need to know about Delgado is that, as a young man more than a decade ago, he performed a rap song with explicit lyrics criticizing racial inequality… and it gets worse. OMG! He wore a hoodie! That image appears to be visually enhanced with fierce, white eyes glaring out of a dark shadow obscuring Delgado’s face.
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Or how about this one: Another terrifying attorney, Aftab Pureval, a county clerk of Tibetan and Indian descent running in Ohio’s Cincinnati and suburban district, is accused in a CLF ad of “selling out Americans.” That’s because, fresh out of law school, Pureval worked for a Washington, D.C., law firm that helped settle a lawsuit brought by families of Americans killed by Libyan terrorists. Pureval didn’t work on that settlement, but it had strong American support from then-President George W. Bush. You’ll notice the pattern of demonizing black and brown Democrats as scary, dangerous people who are possibly in league with international terrorism.
But what if the Democratic opponent is Abigail Spanberger, a white woman with impeccable U.S. security credentials as a former CIA operations officer, running in a suburban Richmond, Va., district? No problem. When Republicans dig deep enough, they can link any Democrat to terrorism. The CLF ads attack Spanberger for working as a substitute high school English teacher for several months during the 2002-2003 school year at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va. The ads express shock that Spanberger “cashed her paychecks like nothing was wrong.” That’s because… nothing was wrong. Spanberger’s brief teaching job before starting her CIA career took place several years before rightwing media began attacking the school as “Terror High” after three graduates were accused of supporting terrorism.
Sanctimonious in Public
Despite funding such sleazy ads defaming solid, respected Democratic Party opponents running strong races against Republicans as dangerous subversives likely to kill your mother, Ryan denies any responsibility for the grotesque distortions. “I abhor identity politics,” he said. “I don’t think identity politics should be played by anybody at any time,” suggesting candidates should never be attacked on the basis of race, religion or national origin. But Ryan said it would be illegal for him to discuss ad strategy with the independent super-PAC to which he funnels millions of dollars. What’s an innocent politician funding abhorrent political advertising to do?
Just two months ago, Ryan gave his annual lecture to 450 congressional interns piously advising them never to “be snarky” or attack others on Twitter—without mentioning the president he slavishly supports does that on pretty much an hourly basis. “Just think about what you’re doing to kind of poison the well of society,” Ryan intoned. “Think about what you’re doing to try and just degrade the tone of our debate.”
Ryan’s sanctimonious public pronouncements rarely bear any resemblance to what he and his fellow Republicans are actually doing. His political career was built on shrill warnings that deficit government spending under Democrats would destroy the country. In Ryan’s three years as House Speaker, the annual deficit under Republicans has skyrocketed from $430 billion to nearly $1 trillion as he heads for the exit door having passed the largest tax cut in history for millionaires, billionaires and their corporations. Sleazy attack ads are one last, obscene goodbye.
