Weaver responds

Colonel Mike Weaver posted a response to the attack from Kos today.

"Before today I had no idea what the Daily Kos even was. I thought it was coffee. My campaign staff tells me differently.

“Apparently, Daily Kos has only reinforced something my family has been telling me for years: my sense of humor is lost on most people.

“As we speak, my staff is removing my size 11 military boot from my mouth.

“But seriously, by now, many Daily Kos readers have seen the story published in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“As many Democrats know, the work of one writer does not reflect the entirety of the conversation that transpires between an interviewer and interviewee. The reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader and I spoke after a Kentucky Educational Television publicly-broadcast debate in which my opponent, Ron Lewis, refused to even participate. During the course of our 30 minute interview we discussed everything from Iraq to healthcare to education to my opponent’s neglect of the voters by refusing to debate.

“But, it’s what I said in five minutes of the interview that seems to have caught everyone’s attention. So, please let me clarify.

“The words “liberal” and “conservative” mean different things to different people.

“In our fairly conservative Congressional District in Kentucky, “liberal” is often used as an attack on a person to label them as fiscally and morally irresponsible.

“In his attack ad against me, Ron Lewis describes me as “liberal” in the hopes that voters in the 2nd Congressional District will hear the word “liberal” and interpret it the way he does; as lacking the moral values shared by many people in Kentucky.

“When I described the behavior of the Republican leadership in response to the Foley scandal as “liberal,” I was making a poor attempt at sarcasm. I was trying to use the word “liberal” the way that Ron Lewis uses in his ads against me. Clearly, my futile attempts failed.

“Both conservatives and liberals alike can lack morality. It is not fair to use the word “liberal” in a way that leads voters to believe that a person who is liberal lacks morality just like it’s not fair to use the word “conservative” to connote cold-hearted and stingy.

I hope that Daily Kos readers understand that I made a mistake and there’s a pretty damned good chance I’ll make a few more in my lifetime. One mistake I won’t make is looking for Daily Kos at Starbucks.

You can locate my interview with Col. Weaver here.