Indiana state Senate president David Long lies.
You probably don’t find this particularly shocking. A lot of politicians lie.
Of course, most of them at least go for the subtle lie. They shift the truth just a little bit, or use words that you might construe in two different ways. Sometimes they just lie about stuff too obtuse for anybody to check out.
But not Long. Nope. No subtlety for him! He is a bold-face liar!
A little background.
During last year’s legislative session, Long blocked a bill that would have nullified Obamacare in Indiana.
Sen. Phil Boots introduced SB0230. The nullification bill garnered 11 cosponsors (almost a quarter of the Senate membership), and enjoyed broad support in both the state House and the Senate. But Long assigned the bill to the committee he chairs, and he alone got to decide if it would get a hearing.
It didn’t.
On Jan. 31, 2013, Long acknowledged that he placed a “hold” on the bill – preventing it from even being discussed in committee. He made the call that the bill was “unconstitutional” and wouldn’t even open the door for the full Senate to debate it. He stood by his decision in a recent speech.
“Not every bill is going to get heard, but it is very rare – I have the power to stop them, but I absolutely rarely do. I believe in discussing issues. I think that’s our job. We shouldn’t be afraid of that. But I thought that bill was flawed.” [Emphasis added]
Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin called him out on it.
“Hey, Dave! Joe Biden is on the phone. He wants to thank you on behalf of President Obama for your support,” he said. “Maybe Long should consider switching parties. The Republican platform emphatically declares ‘that those powers not enumerated to the federal government are reserved to the states and to the people,’ and it talks about the importance of personal liberty and freedom. But I guess Dave doesn’t really believe all that stuff. Politicians will say anything to get elected these days.”
The Indiana media picked this up, and by his own admission, the people of Indiana gave Long a hard time about it. The whole thing apparently ruffled Dave’s feathers. In fact, almost a year later, he’s still riled up about it.
And that brings us to the lie.
Long appeared at a 9/12 meeting in Fort Wayne to discuss Obamacare, nullification and an Article V convention. During a discussion about the Obamacare bill, he acknowledged that he “got beaten up on Facebook,” and called “Obama’s best friend.” Then he claimed Boldin lives in his mother’s basement.
“And this guy, by the way, who wrote this – turns out – he calls himself the Tenth Amendment something or other. He lives in his mother’s basement in Los Angeles, California.”
Boldin does, in fact, live in LA, but not in his mother’s basement. Or anyone else’s, for that matter. He lives on the penthouse level (which is kind of like a basement – on opposite day) of a downtown Los Angeles apartment building with his long-time partner Sarah. On a side-note, his mom does have a basement. But she lives more than 2,000 miles away. In Wisconsin.
Now, one might brush this off as a little hyperbole meant elicit a laugh. But Long wasn’t content with his leftist, Alinsky smear-tactic. He doubled down on it, insisting he was stating a fact.
“I’m not kidding, OK. And, you know, he got outed by some people about, you know, who he was.”
Liar.
Boldin didn’t seem too concerned.
“Seriously? That’s all he’s got?”
But let’s pretend for a minute Boldin did live in his mom’s basement. So what? What in the world does that have to do with anything? Long clearly made it up as nothing more than a mean-spirited attempt to demean the messenger so he doesn’t have to actually deal with the substance of the message. And he insulted a lot of Americans along the way.
“The way the economy is going, there are a lot of people living with family these days,” Boldin said. “To insult people for being poor is just what a politician would do?”
Long is just that – a politician.
And a liar.
And apparently really out of touch with the people he is supposed to represent.
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