Michael Carey's Sept. 19 column criticizing me was a giant name-calling job. I note the ADN's timing of its publication, 12 days before the election. Carey doesn't deal with my political philosophy or voting record; thus the whole piece is nothing but a low personal attack based on half-truths. I have presented my philosophy clearly and consistently over time, and Carey can't keep up. One does not write romantically or persuasively about big government or larger taxes, something the ADN has frequently promoted.
Carey claims I'm a mooch. Yes, I got into a major financial bind with mounting medical bills from spinal surgery. I openly asked a friend for a loan. There is nothing illegal about asking for a loan. The feds turned it into a huge case by exaggerating the facts and illegally concealing from my defense over 6,500 pages of evidence; with that and a totally biased judge whose wife's job I abolished with my House Bill 40 they were able to get a conviction. A mooch does not engage in loans. A mooch thinks he's owed a living, something Carey has no proof of concerning me.
He claims I was always after a free meal from lobbyists. But Juneau is famous for the almost daily spreads put on by large firms, cities and their lobbyists during legislative sessions. Does Carey think I was the only legislator who attended them? Politicians, their spouses and aides attend them in droves as they love the free food.
Then Carey makes up a musical comparison with the King of Sweden and Minnie the Moocher who was "needin." This is the essence of name calling. I could just as easily do the same in reverse. Mike Carey as Shakespeare's evil Iago, slyly conning the public into believing lies about me and thus not voting for me. Thus Iago to Roderigo:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass...
Mike Carey, as one who holds a need to put down free market thinkers and politicians, especially men who hold freedom as a major banner and vote for it time after time, should see how easy it is to create phony literary allusions.
Carey concludes his rant by claiming that Wasilla voters should not elect me because despite all of my free market rhetoric I simply need a cushy government job. That of course is merely his subjective opinion. Note that the City Council is a non-salaried, mostly volunteer position without benefits. Cushy job? The trouble for Carey is, most Wasillans and many Alaskans in general know and trust me, who for seven terms was their active ombudsman and actually went to bat for people over and over again. They know I'm actually honest and can be called and will call you back and assist you if I can. They know this because I've done so for many years as a legislator. This is a fact, not an opinion.
Michael Carey tried to make a case. He failed miserably.
Vic Kohring is a candidate for the Wasilla City Council.
By VIC KOHRING