I listened to the Vic Snyder – Andy Mayberry debate tonight. I thought Hutchinson was reaching pretty low in some of his non sequitur attacks on Beebe – but Mayberry is the new poster boy for slimy campaign tactics. This was a boring debate until the last few minutes. I could hardly believe my ears. Mayberry simply went insane. All gay- all the time – for the Republican candidates. Just as many of us predicted.

I’ll paraphrase from the debate the best I can:

Folks, i believe in the bible.
In Snyder’s wife’s church – she preaches in favor of blessing homosexual unions.
Snyder’s wife is, I assume, hIS  spiritual leader.

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Ok, my notes aren’t that good. But the clear message was that because Rev. Singleton preaches a message of tolerance – Rep. Snyder is pro-homosexual and against the “bible.” I was a bit stunned.

Snyder is so laid back but he was irritated. He showed great restraint and just said “You won’t get far in Arkansas politics by attacking someones wife or spouse.”   What an understatement.

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Mayberry realized the enormity of his mistake and immediately began saying  Rev. Singleton has the right to preach what she wants. What a concession. Certainly no apology.

Then — in the same sentence — he accuses Rev. Singleton of “imposing values on the rest of us” — and then he says this is done by “setting a tone”   

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Andy Mayberry – you, sir,  are a fool, a bigot, and certainly not a gentleman.

He says, you can look up Rev. Singleton’s speeches on the internet and see what she has said.

I’m a bit biased here. Rev. Singleton used to be my Sunday school teacher at my neighborhood church ( not Quapaw Quarter) She was one of the reasons I attended so loyally for so long and I thought a lot of her. Her message of tolerance and compassion apparently doesn’t sit will with Mayberry.  I was curious what he was talking about so I found her sermon on homosexuality. I’ve included the entire verbatim sermon below, I hope she doesn’t mind too much.

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Mayberry says he wants to take “Mayberry values” to Washington. Can you imagine on the Andy Grffith show if Andy took issue with the local representative because – no something had said — but because what his wife was preaching in church?  This to me is the problem with fundamentalist Republicans — they sincerely think – much like fundamentalist Muslims — “My church is better than your church.”    He really thinks so. I wonder if this was another brilliant idea cooked up by Clint Reed or maybe Mayberry was getting some pointers in how to sound insane from Jim Holt.

And since when did “setting a tone” become the same as “imposing values on the rest of us.”  And what does that even mean? Mayberry is a fool — maybe he was just speaking in tongues and I didn’t understand it.

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He did something else that irked me. He accused Snyder of saying that children with genetic defects were less valuable as humans.   where he got that one – only he knows.  He was simply lying at this point. Snyder clearly stated that he is against 3rd trimester abortion except in the case of rape or danger to the woman’s health, pretty  much the law now, as well as case law. In the same paragraph Mayberry mentioned the loss of 2,900 people in the World Trade Center, and then how 4,000 babies are being killed per year.   If there was a device that instantly measured a candidate’s support–  I think about right there he lost thousands and thousands of swing voters. Snyder is right – a majority of Americans are for maintaining the status quo as to further restrictions on abortion. I say again, Mayberry is a fool.

I tried to listen to the Ross-Ross debate – but it was too painful.

Sincerely,

The Hoglawyer

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