Allen West's Military Record Attacked In New Ad: 'Faced 11 Years In Prison'

[Kelvin Mace]

39. I do not disagree with you

that West's reported behavior is relevant.

But here's the rub: He wasn't convicted of any major crime beyond assault. For that he was fined $5000 and allowed to retire from the military with full pay and benefits.

Now you and I may not like that, but those are the facts, and once we begin to say that allegations trump facts we are in a lot of trouble. Was it a miscarriage of justice? In my (and apparently your) opinion, yes it was. But the key point is "opinion", not finding of fact. I have brought up this point with folks before when they insisted it was OK to describe Oliver North as a "convicted felon". Since North's conviction was overturned, the description was inaccurate and misleading. No matter how much I BELIEVE North guilty, the fact his conviction was overturned cannot be ignored.

The other issues you bring up are factual, provable incidents, and we are within our rights to bring them up and impeach West's character with them. But to make a commercial which goes after him based on allegation while never mentioning exoneration (as much as we believe the exoneration undeserved) is simply wrong.

Doing the right thing is hard, because there are so many easy ways to justify doing the wrong thing. Which is why so many people do it.

I do not claim moral superiority to anyone here, I just explain why I think it is wrong and point out that any time you do something you would condemn others for doing you are doing wrong by your own definition.

If you truthfully accuse your opponent of lying about you, this does not give you license to lie about him, nor make your lying ethically/morally right.

(Please note I am using "you" in the context of example, second person plural, I am not talking about you personally, second person singular).