Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Poverty warriors are well compensated

[Ed says Nay] DallasBlog.com | Tom Pauken:
“San Antonio Express-News columnist Roddy Stinson has another revealing column today on leaders of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and their liberal allies who participated in an Austin conference last week on the school finance issue. It turns out that these ‘poverty warriors’ and advocates for big government are very well paid for their efforts. ”
Ed Cognoski responds:

So what? Let's grant Mr Pauken the points he makes in multiple viewpoints postings to Dallas Blog.

  • IAF is "leftist." OK. So what? The Republican Party is "rightist." So what?
  • IAF is a "radical" force. OK. So what? The right has its own "radical" forces opposing abortion, trial lawyers, illegal immigrants, etc. So what?
  • IAF officials draw handsome salaries. OK. So what? Have they represented themselves as unpaid volunteers? Do the leaders of right wing groups work for free? When did the right start criticizing people for being paid (other than minimum wage workers, that is)?
OK, now that we've conceded Mr Pauken's points, let's get on with debating the IAF's position on school finance on its merits. But what's noticeably absent from Mr Pauken's posts on the IAF is the issue itself. What is the IAF's position on school finance? What are the strengths and weaknesses of its argument? Maybe he'll get to that... after he's done smearing its reputation. I've come to expect this in political campaigns run by the likes of Karl Rove. Somehow, I expected better from Mr Pauken.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

But, Ed, you sound like you are surprised. That's Tom's style: Make ad hominem attacks and then accuse anyone who challenges him with facts of making ad hominem attacks.

Thank you for pointing out the logical fallacies in Pauken's diatribes. That's exactly what we should be consistently doing to Republicans.

They have perfected a bait and switch tactic. They claim to be focused on issues while their sole objective is to destroy their opposition.

1/27/2006 9:52 PM
Ed Cognoski said...

I was surprised. Like I said, I expected better from Mr Pauken. In my opinion, that's not his usual style in his Dallas Blog posts.

1/27/2006 10:37 PM

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