Why do desperate politicians inevitably fall back on #DirtyTricks?

Election 2014

The following was written by me on behalf of a candidate for Congress who sadly failed in his bid to represent his party. 

The primary ballots are in the mail and Mimi Walters fires her only salvo at her Republican opponent, me, Greg Raths. After months of vetting my record, my life, my family, my service, and my public statements, all that Mimi and her henchmen can come up with is a tepid complaint about my service as a United States Marine.

Mimi's mailer, illustrated above, doesn't say anything about my service as a Marine. In it she implies that I was a member of President Clinton's staff...

“While Greg Raths was working in the Clinton White House as Assistant Chief of Staff for 'military matters'...”

The truth is that I was on active duty as a United States Marine, posted to the White House as Assistant Chief of Staff in the Military Office.

Do you want to elect another professional politician who tries to pull the wool over your eyes with half-truths? It's not the first time Mimi has done it. Have read on her website that “Throughout [her] career she has fought to reduce taxes”. Yet she joined with Democrats in Sacramento to pass California's largest tax increase in history. 

Actually, I have to thank Mimi. She has done me a great service. I don't believe that our other opponents will expend any more effort than she has to besmirch me. They couldn't. Mimi is infamous for playing dirty politics. Now that we've seen her worst, I have no fear from that quarter any more.

I'm surprised that she didn't make up something. Seriously. If she can find nothing better to damn me with than my military record, maybe she should have created some false accusation. Who knows? It might have hurt me in the primaries and knocked me out of the race before I could recover with the truth.

Again, I must thank Mimi, this time for helping let people know that I served in the White House. It is not anything that I have tried to hide. Indeed, it sets me apart from the other candidates none of whom, including Mimi, has any experience in federal government. When you send me to Washington to represent California's 45th Congressional District, I'll be far more prepared to get to work than any of my opponents.

Now, let's put this story to rest. Every man and woman who serves in the military swears an oath to obey the lawful orders of the President of the United States. We don't get to pick and choose who will be the Commander-in-Chief. That's your job.

Mimi knows that.

She's just desperate.