Just a thought from the cheapseats.

I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. This is Carl’s race to lose. If he makes a commercial about this, it’ll make him look weak and desperate… especially if she plays the mommy card. Reality is that most people don’t give two shits about a lawyer’s status. Reality is that smarmy, warm piles of useless emotionally based dung are what people lap up. The reality is that in elections facts don’t matter, it’s the rhetoric that counts.

Thanks for the reply, but let me throw in some reality. First, you’re right I was fishing. It’s what reporters and pundits do. We look for information, do a little checking and if it’s worth reporting, we do.

With respect to the Melina story, when I found out the information I gave her campaign 24 hours to come up with the response you just gave me. Instead they just said it didn’t matter and was immaterial. The experience issue is going to dog Melina in this campaign and their response doesn’t help. I don’t think the twins issue would have totally quashed the question but it would have been better than saying it doesn’t matter. All they had to say was that she pregnant with twins, and so many responsibilities that keeping up with the CLE requirements would have been too much for her, so she put her priorities in order. She knew she was going to renew her license eventually and that’s what she did. She would have been questioned about the timing, but it would have been a much better response.

If Melina was going to let her license lapse, her campaign should have known and been ready to respond. When I called her campaign with the initial information I was asked what rumor mill did I get the information from, and I told them the Indiana Roll of Attorneys. I will go so far as to speculate that her own campaign staff was not aware of this information. That is frightening. For the campaign not to know that crucial information and not have an answer for it when it comes up is ridiculous.

And I find it interesting that is labeled as GOP dirty tricks. I argue this is one of those rare instances where the local GOP got it right. They’ve known about this for a while, but never said anything. They just waited for someone in the media to start asking questions. The way the local folks have dropped the ball lately, I was surprised they got this right.

If anyone should be upset, it should be Melina at her staff. A campaign with this much at stake can’t afford to make these kinds of mistakes. By saying it doesn’t matter, they just gave the Brizzi folks a campaign commercial. What kind of political strategy is that?

Abdul

You might be surprised that I voted for Mitch and Sue Ellen Reid in 2004. I met Mitch and he wasn’t afraid to speak to the gay community and respond with honest, truthful responses. Kernan, on the other hand, would evade answering the tough questions and suggested we just continue on doing things the same way.

What really pissed me off about your broadcast is that A. I believe you were fishing… and B. You said that “plenty of women attorneys have had kids and kept their status active.” Did plenty of those women have twins? I’m not sure if you’ve ever been a parent, but one newborn is a handful… two has to be exhausting.

It’s obvious that the Republicans are running scared and resorting to dirty tricks. They try to rule with an iron fist. Just ask Lance Langsford. It was OK to have Becky sit in Lance’s seat when he was away before, but suddenly (after the HRO/police merger vote) it’s not?

Punishing a Afghanistan veteran and attacking a mother, that’s a brillant strategy. I hope they keep it up… this kind of stuff will make Marion County a Democrat stronghold for years to come.

a non-issue, regardless of the inept response by her campaign people.

There were a million different ways the Kennedy camp could have handled this issue and it would have been a non-story. But now this is a story and one that will come up again because now there are two public versions out there. And also I think the birth may not work because of lot of female lawyers keep their licenses current during their pregnancy. It will be interesting to see how this is handled in the next few days. I appreciate your post though. Take care,

Sheila Kennedy explains Melina’s “inactive status” due to the birth of her twins on a comment to my post at Advance Indiana. I’m surprised her campaign didn’t provide that explanation–it does paint the picture a little differentlly–at least from my perspective. This issue could cut both ways–I don’t think this issue will play well with women voters if the GOP plays it up too much. Your thoughts? And I think Melina should replace her current spokesperson with Sheila–she seems to handle the issue much more effectively than they did.