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Smathers: Dellinger claim 'outrageous'

Pat Smathers calls Hampton Dellinger's pledge to bring National Guard troops home "outrageous."

The candidate for lieutenant governor took aim at a recent ad by Dellinger, a rival for the Democratic nomination.

"Who's the only Democrat for lieutenant governor ... fighting to ... bring our National Guard home from Iraq?" a narrator asks in the ad.

In a comment on the Dome blog, Smathers says the ad is "pure pandering" and "nothing short of outrageous."

"As a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, I know the lieutenant governor has no power to deliver on that promise," he writes. "Even the governor can't bring our troops home. This sort of misleading rhetoric makes a mockery of our democratic system."

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Re: Smathers: Dellinger claim 'outrageous'

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on May 2, 2008 - 3:46pm.

Dellinger's response is here.

— RTB

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Re: Smathers: Dellinger claim 'outrageous'

Submitted by JohnBurns on May 2, 2008 - 3:40pm.

I think you should post a direct link, in a title blog, to Hampton's detailed, analytical and highly specific response to Pat's charge. You should also not misquote the ad. Hampton doesn't say he will bring the troops home from Iraq. He says he will work to bring the National Guard home.

I'd rather have a Lt. Governor that fights for big ideas and important priorities, rather than one that sits back and waits for permission to act.

Would Pat have objected to Lt. Governor Perdue asserting she would do whatever it took to keep the Pentagon from closing military bases in North Carolina? She did whatever she needed to do, and, by golly, no bases closed. Maybe we should send a letter to the Pentagon and apologize for our Lt. Governor overstepping her bounds, and offer up Pope Air Base as a way of smoothing the ruffled feathers.

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