You mean you will not raise taxes

As the political season draws to an ever depressing crescendo you should look at not only the stuff the candidates say but what they do not say. This just came from a release by the Mike Hatch campaign.

With the polls showing a dead heat, Tim Pawlenty has pulled a page out of the Karl Rove playbook by launching unfair and deceptive negative attacks against me.

The governor recently began to air two attack ads falsely accusing me of wanting to raise taxes.

First, still the Democrats are banking on the association game to tell people what to do without explaining why. "page out of the Karl Rove playbook"...really? What evidence is there to justify any of this? This e-mail is implying that Rove was behind the Swiftboat ads in 2004. Unsubstantiated. But the e-mail is intending to tell the mindless who read it, "Rove bad, me good".

Next is the idea that ads accusing Hatch of "wanting to raise taxes" are "unfair" and "deceptive"...oh, and that these are negative ads.

What does this then imply about Hatch's positions.

1. He believes that "raising taxes" is bad...and saying so in an ad is a negative tactic.
2. He is implying that he is not going to raise taxes.

Now the truth is that both Pawlenty and Hatch are willing to raise taxes, increase the size of government and bloat the state's budget. The only difference is by how much. So, Hatch should not be saying the Pawlenty ads are "unfair", "deceptive" and "negative".

But, since Hatch is bothered by the implication he would raise taxes then he should be cornered in on how he is going to pay for his grand plans.

Does his offense at being linked to tax increases mean he is promising to not raise taxes?

Or is the truth of the matter Hatch is simply trying to play the word association with his own lies.

Based on the nature of politicians and the mindlessness of partisans I would vote for the latter.