Ward Campaign: Who Are You Going to Believe: Me Or Your Lying Eyes?

Vaughn Ward is “clarifying” his position on the 17th Amendment:

After a week and a half of heavy criticism on editorial pages around Idaho for the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment – direct election of U.S. senators – one of two GOP congressional candidates who backed the idea now says he never did. “I’m not changing the position, I’m clarifying, would be a better way to put that,” said Vaughn Ward, who is running in the hotly contested GOP primary for a chance to challenge 1st District Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick. “I do not want to take away the power of people to elect senators,” Ward said Monday. “What I do support is amending the Constitution and adding a two-term limit for U.S. senators.”

Now, it may have seemed to me and everyone watching on Idaho Public Television that Vaughn Ward did favor repealing the 17th Amendment. However, there’s more than this.  On April 29th, I received a media advisory from the Vaughn Ward for Congress campaign containing Ward’s answers to the Tea Party questionaire. At the top of Page 5, we have this:

Yes – Vote to repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, effectively returning the selection of U.S. Senators to the individual state legislatures? 

Now if the Ward campaign wants to persist in saying Ward never advocated for the repeal of the 17th Amendment, I can post the PDF in its entirety as it was sent to Tea Party Boise and as Ryan O’Barto sent it to me.

Let’s go ahead and take off the table the idea that Vaughn never advocated for repeal of the 17th Amendment, he did.

This shift in positions leaves us with three alternatives:

Alternative #1:  Ward didn’t understand what repealing the 17th Amendment would mean, and really thought it only meant term limits despite the clear explanation on the tea party survey to the contrary.

Alternative #2: Ward felt the heat and backed away from the position for fear that it would make him unpopular with the vast majority of Idaho voters and would be used against him in the Fall.

Alternative #3: Ward didn’t know what was being put out by his campaign people, similar to Barack Obama claiming a staffer put him on record as in favor of a gun ban.

These seem to me the only possible alternatives: ignorance, flip flopping, or staff incompetence. Which of these is a promising sign that indicates Ward’s ready for congress? Particularly since we’re talking about the supreme law of our land. I can’t think of any scenario here that’s flattering.

The other big story with Ward is the report by IdahoReporter.com that he volunteered for Democrats in the late 80s and early 90s in Idaho, and that then he volunteered for Governor Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in Virginia, the current DNC Chair.

On Vaughn’s college days, I’ll give him a pass. I really don’t care what he believed 20 years ago. The Virginia thing is something that voters have to be cautious about considering. The fact of the matter is that anyone can fill out a card, and sometimes there are quotas people have to meet. I find it a litte  unbelievable that someone working for the CIA (as Ward was at the time) would be compelled to involve himself in Democratic Party politics. So unless, someone’s got something more concrete, I’m going to let that go, because I don’t think it’s all that credible at the moment.