Alison Grimes again invokes constitutional right not to admit voting for Obama
For second time, Grimes refuses to say if she voted for Obama: It’s a matter of principle!
Alison Grimes, challenging Mitch McConnell, famously and embarrassingly refused to admit during a news interview that she voted to Obama.
During the debate tonight, which is still ongoing as of this writing, Grimes doubled down, invoking the military sacrifices made to protect our country:
“I’m not going to compromise a constitutional right.”
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If she loses, she will remember the past week and her refusal to admit she’s an Obamabot as the reason why. And she’ll blame her advisors.
A Constitutional right? Since when do Democrats care about what our Constitution says. Certainly Obama doesn’t. Ever since he took the oath to uphold the Constitution, Obama and Holder had trashed it dozens of times. Obama continues to flaunt his disrespect for our Constitution by his use of executive orders to now allow Illegals to enter our military. Meanwhile Obama send out pink slips to current enlisted Americans serving in the military.
Lt Gen Honore would describe her as being ‘stuck on stupid’.
The only Constitutional right she seems to be invoking is the Fifth. Nothing else seems to apply.
Yes, except that the Fifth only applies when you’re in some sort of jeopardy in a legal proceeding. It does not protect you from divulging your voting history when you are running for public office and asking voters to trust that you have better judgment than your opponent.
My thoughts exactly. The Fifth Amendment – just like the First Amendment – protects her from criminal proceedings for speaking, or not speaking.
However, this is not a trial or a criminal proceeding. This is an election, and neither amendment protects her from the consequences of her words or silence in the only court that counts during an election: the court of public opinion. She has every right to conceal her voting record from her potential constituents, but she’ll be forced to face the consequences of doing so – whether she wants to or not.
Ok, so she either a) voted for Obama and wants to get as far away from him and his policies as possible or b) voted for Romney and doesn’t want to admit it because she’ll lose her base.
Either way it makes me smile. It’s kind of fun watching her squirm because of such a simple question.
It’s a legit question, of course.
Sen Hagan (Dem-NC) made a big deal of the Repub voting with Bush 92% of the time whereas she’d be independent and reach across the aisle, etc
Now that she’s won the office, she votes with Obama 95% of the time….
Does she consider voting for Obama a crime?
It should be!
There’s four potential answers to this question, none of which are good for Ms. Grimes:
1.) “I voted for President Obama.” Ok. So you’re naive and easily manipulated by emotion. Good to know. Probably her best answer. Keeps her base mildly motivated, but risks alienating centrists who she’s been running away from Obama to court (while lying about what she’s about to do the the State’s coal industry). But the longer this farce goes on, the more likely that it will hurt her for not admitting it if that’s what happened.
2.) “I voted for Mitt Romney.” Ok, so you’re NOT a “party before country” Deemocrat, and thus not worthy of Party support. Hurts her with her base, who will see it as base treachery, but may get her some centrist, wishy-washy type votes.
3.) “I voted for a 3rd party candidate.” Again, not a “party before country” Deemocrat, and thus not worthy of Party support. Further, depending on WHOM she voted for, might be embarrassing. Maybe she voted for Jill Stein on the Green Party line because she knew Obama was going to lose Kentucky by a vast margin and her vote wouldn’t make a difference. Then the question will become “WHY” and my guess is that she DOES NOT want to answer that question, because it will give vast insight into what she actually THINKS.
4.) “I didn’t vote in 2012.” What, you want US to take time out of OUR busy lives, when you couldn’t be bothered to do YOUR civic duty just a few short years ago?
As I said: None of the answers turn out well for her. But she’s going to have to make a statement soon, or this is going to go from a disaster to a debacle.
5) you don’t answer, you look like you are hiding something and lack basic transparency. See (1).
It was total stupidity from the start. She’s a pro-abortion, environmentalist Democrat who was a 2012 delegate for Obama.
Who is she fooling? Who does she even think she is fooling?
She only looks evasive by refusing to admit what we all know.
If you won’t even say who you voted for in the past, why would anyone trust how you would vote in the Senate in the future?
How can you tell you when a president has failed? When politicians of your own party who obviously voted for you will not admit that fact to voters.
Sorry, I’m with Alison on this particular issue. It’s not as if we don’t already know how she voted, but the principle is set in stone. Privacy, especially in one’s political voice, is paramount in protecting one’s ability to exercise discretion freely.
Have we sunk so low, that we must pin the donkey to the donkey in order to congratulate ourselves on what asses (donkeys) we’ve become?
She has the right to refuse to answer.
We have the right to take from her refusal what we will.
The fact that we’re 99.9% certain she voted for Obama but won’t allow herself to be recorded saying so speaks volumes – about Obama and herself.
We also know if Romney was president and McConnell refused to say whether he voted for him she would smile into the camera and smack that slow pitched ball right out of the park.
I disagree. When a person chooses to become a public figure and run for public office, they necessarily give up some of the privacy that they could claim as a private citizen.
This woman is asking voters to trust her judgment, and she is also claiming that she has superior judgment to her political opponent. Voters thus have every right to ask her how she voted in past elections, as those votes are evidence of how she exercises her judgment.
Nobody gives shit whether she admits voting for Obama – everybody knows she did. But, by pressuring her on it, her every refusal to answer and the implications drawn from that refusal cost Democrats votes.
Paul,
It is her right to maintain the privacy of the voting booth. However, she is a candidate for high office, and with asking the people to elect her, there is an expectation of transparency and honesty on her part. She isn’t compelled to divulge the information, but by refusing to do so, she is emptying a 17-round magazine into her right temple, politically speaking. I don’t think it will cost her the election, because she wasn’t in a position to win the election to begin with, but she certainly is causing a spectacle, and will be an object lesson for future politicians for decades to come.
I can see your point, but in addition to the responses already here, let me point out that she’s running for an office where every vote she casts will be recorded. Everyone will know how she votes on every issue. Every. Single. Time.
If she can’t handle that level of transparency, then she has no business being a Senator.
Mistake #1: RUNNING. This is not a smart politician. This is a well-funded, well-connected, pretty and popular Sears mannikin.
Mistake #2: Rashly decided not to say who she voted for so it couldn’t be used in an ad against her.
Mistake #3: Confused the correct thing (she has the right of secret ballot) with being the smart thing (admit the obvious and move on! It’s like if Obama refused and refused and refused to ‘admit’ what race he is).
Mistake #4: Waited too long to cave, admit the vote, and move on without too much damage done. It’s like when it’s too early in a relationship to tell your new GF about that ex-wife and 3 kids back in NJ, and then, all of a sudden, it’s too late. Gotta know how to play that line. She doesn’t.
Mistake #5: Is ongoing. She STILL has to cave, admit the vote, and move on to have any chance of winning, but she’s only increasing the damage done to herself with each day she refuses to do so.
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The TV sitcom I’d love to see is a remake of Laverne & Shirley starring Alison Lundergan Grimes and Wendy Davis.
Pleading the 5th is your right, but it certainly makes you look guilty.