Political spin is one thing.
Politicians do it all the time -- the classic distorting the truth beyond recognition so long as there is some nugget of truth that remains.
Paul Babeu, who is running for a seat in Arizona's Fourth Congressional District, isn't wasting time on that anymore.
In his latest campaign video, "What the voters are saying," -- a collection of his political allies or PCSO employees -- Babaeu's former campaign manager opens with a pretty bold untruth.
"Paul's always been pro-life. I like that," says Cheryl Chase, who ran Babeu's campaign for sheriff and works as the community outreach director for the sheriff's office.
Always been pro-life?
It's a message that a toothy Babeu approves. He says so on the video.
But, we're going to have to go with "false" on that one.
(Video after the jump.)
Rewind to October 1996, when Babeu was running for a seat in the Massachusetts Senate.
A short news piece about Babeu and his stance on abortion appeared on publiceye.org.
In 1988, Babeau, at 19, was an antiabortion crusading North Adams city councilman who worked with Americans for Robertson. Today, Babeau says he is pro-choice. "At the time Pat Robertson called me," Babeau said. "He definitely flattered me and impressed me, as the youngest elected official in this state. I met him a couple of times in New Hampshire and that was the extent of my involvement in the campaign." "I've gone from more conservative to more moderate, a Massachusetts Republican," Babeau said.
Babeu reiterated his "more moderate" stance in an another article that appeared in Boston Phoenix, published in January 2000.
Babeu, a county official, had challenged Democratic incumbent John Barrett to run for mayor of North Adams. He defeated Barrett in a primary, but [former Boston Lieutenant Governor Jane] Swift endorsed the Democrat, who then won the election. Some familiar with the race say that Swift picked Barrett, who remains loyal to the lieutenant governor, because Babeu was too right-wing. Yet Babeu, who was an ally of former treasurer Joe Malone, says he is pro-choice and pro-gay-rights (though he concedes that he was pro-life at age 18). Babeu blames Swift for his defeat.
Babeu in 1980's? Pro-life. Babeu in 1990's? Pro-choice. Babeu in 2012? Pro-life.
Jayme Valenzuela, commander of program services at the Pinal County jail, also makes an appearance in Babeu's video.
It's unfortunate that Chase opened the ad with such a bastardization of the truth because Valenzuela later says of Babeu, "...and I trust him."
Another woman, who we don't recognize, says: "When you look at Paul's records, he does what he says he's gonna do."
We're gonna have to with "false" on that one, as well.
Here's one example: When he was running for sheriff, he talked about how he wasn't going to be enforcing immigration laws on farms, in government buildings.
And now?
Every chance he gets, he's stumping about "enforcing all the laws" and he criticizes the Obama administration for "parsing the law" -- but not that long ago, Babeu was doing the same thing.
