Character is always a subject of contention. Everybody agrees convicted murderers and rapists along with bank robbers and child molesters face an uphill battle running for high office.
But what about a DWI..(or a BWI)....a divorce or a dalliance....a sub-700 credit score...mixing your trash and recyclables.....drinking a twelve pack when playing 18....or letting your eyes focus too longingly on a patch of spandex ?
A newspaper in the new portion of our Congressional district is calling for illumination from Matt Doheny about just what the heck he was doing in that DC restaurant when an operative became shutterbug.
As much as we may want a Victorian (I don't say Gormanesque anymore since I have a T-shirt in his household) brand of vision and virtue, life doesn't always work out that way. People hug...People throw a couple back....People wear ties that clash....
The Glens Falls paper may want some kind of 'bare my soul' moment, but its clear from the editorial, they have already made up their mind.
EDITORIAL: Does character count?
28 comments:
Character definitely counts.
If there is reason to suspect flaws, especially reckless repetition of untoward behavior by anyone seeking elective office, then it is foolish to vote for that person regardless of affiliation .
Repeated slips in judgement only serve to grease the skids for larger mishaps if Unchecked .
So while you may give this a pass , to many is is viewed as YET another lapse in judgement which seem to be a continual PATTERN without regard to perception or reality.
It Counts! Kellie Greene has it in Republican Primary and Rep. Bill Owens has always carried himself with dignity for NY 23(Now 21)
Mike Flynn 'Middle Class Mike'
From what I keep reading in this blog, there must be plenty of Characters in NNY.
We all want someone with a little class and integrity for the congressional job. You and the local media have given him a pass on his actions but not everyone does. Johnson Newspaper throughout the North Country are hiding this story as you are in a sense by downplaying it all the time.. Even you must have some integrity problems with Doheny. He is a playboy party boy and wont change.. No doubt hes going to try and buy the contest again this year so he can help his buddies on Wall St with some more deregulating of their banks and businesses..
He did what hes been accused of period. Its not right period and I think NNY folks dont buy it either.Theres no doubt his finance and himself have entered into some kind of contract about the marriage which is being staged in order to give him a more family look to the voters..
I dont buy him. I think hes a rich sleeze.. I acknowledge hes smart and a good talkeer and also very rich and knows nothing of family values nor the pain of brining up a family.
You summed it up pretty well in your headline. But one thing about character is that no one is perfect. So everyone has done something wrong before and character is the balance between what you have done wrong and what you have done right.
You might have the means to paint your mother's porch but if your mother has character she might not let you.
Who wouldn't want to get out of a BWI by throwing a friends name out? Just as a local editor once tried to get out of a ticket by pulling into his own driveway and trying to throw his own weight around.
But in the end, for all the makers, it comes down to policy or as leftists like to call it "ideology".
I agree with many that the event itself is really an issue for him and his fiancé and if they have an arrangement that allows his indiscretions so be it. That non-traditional set up may offend some but as a libertarian, if they are ok with it so am I. The issue for me is his denial when the pictures and video show quite clearly that he was cheating. His denial makes me think either he himself sociopathically believes his own lies or he thinks we are all idiots (and apparently blind). That is my issue, and character and hoary is indeed a very big issue to me.
No one is looking under Mr Matt Doheny's covers; instead we're attempting to look under a 'Body Of Lies!'
MikeFlynn 'Middle ClassMike'
Character is only an issue to the extent your opponents can make it an issue. But with Owens supporters that is all the hope they think they have. Too blind to the character flaws Owens has shown himself. In the end, it will come down to policy and Doheny wins out by a few percent on policy. That is because the makers still outnumber the takers in our district by a few points.
Look at Ted Kennedy. He was the absolute worst. He drowned his pregnant secretary and saved his own a$$ like a coward in the process. He was an accessory to rape on his compound and you could pickle eggs in his blood. But the leftzis loved him because he gave them free stuff.
I have to agree with the very first commenter. In that; yes we all make mistakes. But when one makes the same mistake over again (2 BWI's within two weeks) it shows a pattern, especially when in addition to those past lacks of judgement you throw in the transgressions that took place in DC. (While at candidate school no less!)
Yes the occasional mistake can and should be forgiven, but when one continually CHOOSES to make poor decisions it certainly leads me to believe that checking the box beside that candidates name on election day would also be a poor decision.
I have been wondering how you take a photo "out of context". If you make a mistake, man up and own it. That's the real problem here. Agree with the repeated poor judgement comments above. We don't need or want this in a representative.
Mr Doheny is a liar and is afraid to talk about what is obviously wrong. He has no excuses thats why he wont come forward. The local media downplays this because they want his money in advertising. They arent going to mess with that. Bigger new outlets feel it is news and He should come forward and explain. I hope the people throughtout the district are taking notes this guy is a party boi.
The libs don't know what character is but they are going to put all their money on it anyway because they cannot run on policy.
Our health care premiums are going up even faster than they were before because Owens voted for Nancycare.
Our gas prices are going up even faster than before because Owens and the democrats are controlling our energy policy. The Keystone pipeline is the largest shovel ready project and Obama and the democrats hold it hostage and refuse to let it be built.
Instead of calling for reasonable college tuition, Obama calls for student loan rates to be cut in half. Because he is a faculty lounge president and he wants to pay back his faculty friends.
We need to send Owens back home to his million dollar attorney job and let an adult take his place in Washington. Someone that has the character to stand up to Nancy Pelosi and say no to all the free stuff and record borrowing and spending. Owens does not have the character to do it.
Why should we expect the Watertown Times to cover this story - it's news, and he's a republican just like the Johnsons.
1:21- I agree. He did it. There is nothing "out of context" about it unless the context is that he and his fiancé have an arrangement that allows him to stray without consequence. He should either exactly state that or fess up to his behavior and learn from it. At a minimum he should have remained silent. The worst thing he could have done was lie about it and blame the democrats and the media. Which is exactly what he did. It is ridiculous and the longer he leaves that response out there without any followup the worse it gets for him. It is more a matter of honesty and integrity. The actual cheating was just the vehicle that ultimately revealed his true character.
I feel like the wedding is going to have quite a tinge of sadness to it now. I wonder if they ever considered delaying until after the election. By then this issue will be forgotten (or less prominent at least) and most skeptics who see the wedding as a political maneuver which has very little to do with love won't have as big of an argument. But a 700 person wedding in the thick of the campaign lends itself to be shrouded with whispers of infidelity, assumptions of "marital agreements", and an underlying suspicion that the whole thing is to serve as an excuse for a campaign event while helping to create the facade that doheny is a "family man"
Please! Someone listen to me! I want you take your eyes off the infidelity of Owens, who voted for Nancycare, betraying and cheating on his voters. I need you to look at something else! Anything else!
Please do not pay attention to the issues!
Please!It is my only hope!
I need free stuff! And Owens is my only chance for free stuff.
I am a 30 year old ivy league college student who needs free birth control pills so I can afford to go to Star Bucks for my $5.00 coffees. I do not want to cancel my ring-back tones to pay for it, and I do not want to forgo my tramp stamp this summer. It will be a donkey and it will symbolize for me, my free stuff I deserve. Free loans to be canceled and free everything.
Mikey, how does one conduct himself with integrity when one is forever under Nancy Pelosi's desk? How does integrity fit in when one lies about the input he received about ObumbaCare? Mike, you're a Donkey stooge. Nothing more.
Wanted: A Woman spokesman to carry banner for ‘Woman Solidarity Day’ in Watertown, NY:
April 7th in City of Watertown, NY Mike Flynn 'Middle Class Mike' has been given permission to propose a 'Woman's Solidarity Day' once a year in our City, as a way to show we respect NNY woman. Sadly we better show we respect something around here.
Mike Flynn 'Middle Class Mike'
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19 hours ago
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Mike FlynnCollapse
“We Seek a Woman’s Day in Watertown, NY to Show WE Care about Our Woman and Respect Them At All Times.”
Mrs. Clinton should send a female emissary to Watertown on a fact finding mission and encourage Mayor Jeff Graham and City Council to change the anti-woman tone here. Woman are being treated with disrespect of 1240 AM 'Live at Five, and politically speaking they've campaigned for Matt Doheny NY 21 for months on Mayor Graham's 'Hotline' with snarky anti woman comments that go on daily by the Mayor's cronies.
The Editor of the Watertown Daily Times, Bob Gorman has refused to encourage Republican Congressional Candidate Matt Doheny to 'Meet The Press' and clear the air for his disgraceful behavior in Wash. DC during an NRCC training exercise where he bought the boorish behavior to often displayed here to Washington, DC. Not one item in the paper requesting Mr. Doheny do so as a gesture to woman that his behavior was wrong.
Jude Seymour has ducked the issue as well and set the tone for a Congressional campaign where character IS THE ISSUE in NY 21!
Mike Flynn 'Middle Class Mike'
Mr Doheny has lost our vote with this latest debacle which simply in our opinion amplifies his lack of judgement.
Moreover PAST behavior is the MOST reliable predictor of future performance .
This coupled with a Wall St brand of vulture capitalism background is Cold Comfort when trying to convince us that he is NOT the frat boy his behavior obviously demonstrates .
He simply has not earned our trust. .
All the makers were going to vote for Doheny and they still will. All the takers were going to vote for Owens again and they still will.
All Dohney needs is a two way race instead of a three way race and he will have it sewn up.
Moreover PAST behavior is the MOST reliable predictor of future behavior. So we know Owens will voter along with Nancy on trillion dollar health care schemes. You have to vote for it to know whats in it. But you don't have to vote for Owens to know what terrible votes he would cast again if given the opportunity.
Wanted: A child spokesperson to carry banner for ‘children Solidarity Day’ in Watertown, NY:
As a way to show we respect NNY children. Sadly we better show we respect something around here.
Children must come together in solidarity to fight against Free-Stuff® Mikey.
He and Owens have already spent a trillion dollars screwing up your healthcare. A trillion dollars that our children are stuck holding the bag for.
This does not include the skyrocketing insurance costs that are also being born by your parents.
In addition, Mike and his pensioned up union thugs are spending even more money giving themselves unfunded ponzi scheme pensions. Again to be paid back by you, the children.
He has ruined our education system to the point that a high school diploma is worth nothing and everyone must get a college diploma to be considered educated.
These college diplomas cost $40k per year to get and he is giving them to you for free but sending you the bill later via a record national deficit and record national debt.
When he is not spending his time trying to trick people into voting for free stuff for himself, he is trying to obtain a teaching position in NYS. Please protect yourselves and your friends from having him influence young minds in a classroom.
Children unite!
Go and listen in the new Eastern areas of the district...He is being thought of as John Sweeney...I don't think that any amount of money will change that perception...
A Vulture Attack By 2/12/12 4:31 PM
Matt Doheny's people, would like to see me permanently unemployed .-where's the news there? They ran over me in the last election too. I'm the only guy Doheny's people get personal with, because they can never refute my logic. Big surprise - The Wall Street Crowd --doesn't like the Middle Class or what we have to say, but I’ve only just begun his advocacy for the 'Middle Class ‘and their need for more disposable income. Jobs Jobs Jobs must be on all our minds.
Mike Flynn 'Middle Class Mike'
Mikey Mikey Mikey...you don't want a job, you want to rob our children's future. You want to hook your wagon to the education gravy train and have the children pay for your unfunded pension. There are plenty of honest jobs to be had if you really wanted one.
you logic has been refuted for all of time. You want free stuff...we get that. But you run out of other people money getting your free stuff.
You are attacking women and children and trying to rob their futures.
These comments are funny. I appreciate the hatred for Owens tgat some posters seem to carry, or the hope that doheny can unwind theobamacare vote. That is all well and good and if a congressional office was limited to voting on issues I would agree with those posters dismissing doheny's proven poor character. But voting on issues is not the sole role of a congressman. Congressmen are role models, leaders, and most importantly, meant to serve as genuine representatives of the people who live in the district. If this guy is the best "representative" we have for the population in the21st district, I think had better move. And soon.
12:34-I really hope you are not right. I consider myself to be a maker, and a republican, but with enough sense to see the red flags seared to doheny's candidacy - so much so that I would never vote for him. I get it that Owens is a less than perfect democrat, party line waste of space candidate but simply replacing him with just anyone, no matter who that anyone might be, seems like it is as an equally uneducated a decision as electing Owens. Or re-electing him. Maybe Greene??? I don't know, but I think I am going to listen a little harder to her story in the next couple weeks.
Relating to Post Star article on Friday as reported on Newzjunky, “Does Character Count?”
Mayor Graham says to ‘Middle Class Mike’ on ‘Hotline’ that “Obviously Character’ counts.” Specifically the discussion was about Matt Doheny’s Character. It’s time to ‘Meet The Press’ Mr. Doheny, so we can ask the necessary questions about your behavior in Wash, DC., in order to better evaluate your ability to effectively serve as a Congressman in NY 21. And Mayor of course democrats want a fair and complete reporting of this locally; just like any other Politician running for office would be expected to comply with to the voters. Why is Watertown Daily Times giving Doheny a free pass? Ask Bob Gorman, Editor (WDT) only he’s not saying anything to date about a follow-up Press conference, on Mr. Doheny’s boorish behavior in public in a Bar in Wash, DC. either.
Mike Flynn ‘Middle Class Mike’
The Mike cares about women, just not women who cared for families and children. He only cares for women who believe what he believes in, FreeStuff and entitlements. Mike also likes screwing kids. Why else would he advocate sending them the bill for everything he thinks he deserves?
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