Friday, April 18, 2008

Latest 10th CD dustup

Capitolwire is reporting that four Northeastern Pennsylvania GOP businessmen that support Dan Meuser are saying that Chris Hackett told them that he was pro-choice in a private meeting last May.

HARRISBURG (April 18)...At the last minute, participants said, the meeting was shifted to the Wilkes-Barre office of oil and gas company honcho Jack Sordoni. Four attendees - Sordoni, manufacturing company owners Rusty and Hal Flack and Tom Medico of Medico Industries - agreed to discuss that meeting with Capitolwire...


Hal Flack said: "I heard Chris say he was pro-choice. That registered with me because I didn't agree with it morally and I think politically, you can't win in this district with that position."
Rusty Flack said: "Hackett said he was pro-choice and Jack indicated that could be a problem."
Sordoni said: "While I regret to be involved in he-said, she-said politics, I will answer the question because I am being asked, and because I believe it is pertinent to the 10th Congressional District primary election. Emphatically, Chris Hackett said that he was pro-choice. I was surprised and asked him to reiterate his position, and he said again, he was pro-choice."


Asked why these businessmen were all unanimous in remembering Hackett's words, Hackett's campaign spokesman, Mark Harris responded: "I don't know what to tell you. They're Dan Meuser supporters, it's four days before the election, and it's absolutely not true. Chris is pro-life."


I asked Hackett about this in our interview last September.

On the pro-life issue. Some say that you were pro-choice before? "No."

Always been? "Always been, I was raised Catholic and I think some people like to misinterpret things for their own purposes."

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tom Ridge was raised Catholic too.

Those 4 aren't the only people he told about his pro-choice, "government shouldn't regulate women's bodies" comments.

He was still floating the idea in June and July, before he made the Madeira campaign debt disappear.

Only 4 more days of Mark Harris in NEPA - good riddance!

Anonymous said...

Why the hatred of Mark Harris?

Anonymous said...

Meuser wins 60%-40%. Hackett hasn't ran a bad campaign, but Meuser has run a great campaign. He will beat Carney in the Fall.

Anonymous said...

Here we go more flack from the Flacks. I always found it odd that two guys who had the Vice President over for dinner would give so much money to Greg Skrepenak's campaign. If they have such an issue with Pro-Choice why support a person running for office who's political stance is so different from their own dogma?

~ Sassy Fox

Anonymous said...

didn't the flacks give to kanjo also...

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately this is just the Meuser camp playing dirty again by stirring up more lies. Maybe if Meuser focused as much attention on running his business as he does on smear tactics he wouldn't be in so much trouble with the feds all of the time.

I read Meuser's little brother's editorial today in the paper. The Meusers ring of the Clintons where they say and do anything to win. The people who work at Pride should be embarrassed by this whole campaign.

What happened to honesty and dignity?

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the Clintons, didn't Hackett say in the last debate that his least favorite President was Clinton because he always put his finger up "into the wind" before taking a position. Funny, it looks like that is just what he did with abortion. Man, this race has really caused Hackett to lose his moral compass. It's probably the ultra-competitor in him. Running for office clearly doesn't bring out the best in some people.

Anonymous said...

Fortunately for Dan Meuser, running for office clearly brings out the best in him. In real life... hmmmm, not so much.

Anonymous said...

The 4 pieces of scum. Never trust them, never conduct any business with these thieves. This bunch will lie, cheat, distort and do anything to make money. What does this last minute lie mean? Dan Meuser is one of them.

Remember that this RINO gang only places their bets (or money) on pols like Charlie Lemmond, Lisa Baker, and Karen Boback types who will expressly cater to their demanding needs.

All of them could care less about the right to lfe issue or any other position for liberty ot the common good.

Hopefully voters will smarten up and reduce this band of thugs to a minority.

Anonymous said...

Be careful what you say. This fat slob Rusty Flack was portrayed in the local paper as 'The Reverend Rusty Flack' as he performed the Siegal/Bird wedding ceremony at the Westmoreland Club.

Anonymous said...

The rumor that Hackett intially came out as pro-choice has been floating around for months. Hackett should blame himself for this situation twice. Once, for being the calculating principle-less candidate that he is and saying he was pro-choice at that meeting than flipping. Second, for running such a dirty and dishonest campaign that 4 honorable men who had something big on him but probably would have let things play out and didn't want to get thrust into the middle of this fight finally had enough and said" We are not going to let this lying SOB get away with this". That's what I think happened here.

Anonymous said...

First off, one of the anonymous posters, and there are many, said that Scott Meuser was Dan's little brother, not so,Scott is a few years older and a few inches taller.

Look Hackett has so many problems on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to begin.

He chose political expediency in amending his position on abortion, some people are outraged that he might have ever supported abortion rights, others are outraged by the lack of integrity or conviction displayed in switching positions.

In either case it is a major problem.

We know Chris at best exaggerated about his involvement in bringing C3i to town, the company CFO had to publically rebuke Chris, and he fired One Source to boot.

Chris has the whole sorry Fox visit,and Susie-Gate, and pay to play with Skrep, and his own issues in federal court in New Jersey...the list goes on and on.

Now, he essentially calls 4 of the most respected business lesders in NE Pa liars. These 4 have nothing to gain by going public, heck I'm sure all of them would have been just as happy to stay out of the news, but they spoke up.

Slice it, dice it, spin it any way you want to, Chris hackett has issues with the truth, we don't need him "leading" us.

Adios .

Anonymous said...

Yes Kar, that is obviously what you like to do, slice it, dice it and spin it anyway you can.

No matter how many times you say it, your distortions are just that, distortions of the truth.

Hackett didn't call these guys liars, these Meuser supporters called him a liar 4 days before the end of the campaign, in an obvious attempt to smear Hackett and give theri candidate some cred.

One glance at the people Meuser has given tens of thousands of dollars to (liberal pro-choicers Rendell, Rangel and others)shows where his allegiances lie...

The debate on WVIA gave voters a chance to see who the real conservative is....Chris Hackett.

Anonymous said...

Kar is employed by Pride in their government sales department so you can't put any value to his words. this shows how low the Meuser camp is. they use Pride employees to campaign and sling mud.

Anonymous said...

As a pro choice libertarian I truly have no horse in this race but am certainly interested. That being said, for what it's worth I just want to say to Chris (and Dan), be careful what your supporters say. Whoever wins or loses you still want to live in this community. Your children go to school with each other, you run in same social circles and likely do business with the same people. Scott can go back to wherever he came from and the anonymous posters have that to hide behind. Statements made by your supporters, true or not can and will be attributed to you - and you don't want to be remembered that way. Hope this hasn't gone so far that it can't be made right (ie:Madiera, Haggerty)

Anonymous said...

Scott- you should have listened to WILK- he did call them liars. Another poster was right it has been floating around. The Flacks, Sordoni, and Medico have great reputations as compared to Hackett. He has flipped flopped on this issue. Possibly a smarter move would have been to tell people he was taught the value of being pro life and he switched. Maybe political suicide but hackett continues to look like a liar. I could care less- Go Big Lou

Anonymous said...

If that's the case (I didn't listen to WILK) I take it back Chris - YOU had better be careful what you say. You and your family are going to want to live here after Scott goes home

Anonymous said...

The 4 honorable men... One from the la cosa nostra Appalachian meeting family and the other who's grandfather fled to Italy after being suspected of murdering his girlfriend. Classy folks, Dan!

Anonymous said...

Hackett has issues in federal court in NJ? Why haven't we heard about them?

Anonymous said...

Well, I am home, lived here all my life.

The federal court case was settled in Hacketts favor and his legal costs were even paid, but then you already knew that...

The Medico/Flak story started changing the minute it came out. It's a desperate attempt by Meuser in the 11th hour to smear with he said/he said:

Jack Sordoni on WILK Friday April 19th says "I was actually eating dinner when the call came in. I answered it to the best of my ability truthfully and I believe that the story was reported very accurately."

Then from the Capitolwire story Jack is referencing: "At the last minute,participants said, the meeting was shifted to the Wilkes-Barre office of oil and gas company honcho Jack Sordoni. Four attendees - Sordoni, manufacturing company owners Rusty and Hal Flack and Tom Medico of Medico Industries - agreed to discuss that meeting with Capitolwire."

Sue Henry asks: "Chris Hackett says he was never in a meeting with all 4 of you at once. Can you recall this meeting where it was?"

Jack replies, "Yes. It was in my office. I know that Tommy Medico was not physically there. There were people on a phone call. I don't know if he was there. I know that I was there, Hal Flack was there, Rusty Flack was there
and other leaders of the Republican Party and business community of Luzerne
Co."

The Citizens Voice reports on Saturday: "Sordoni and Hal Flack said Medico was not at the meeting, but don't remember if Medico was on a conference call. Medico and Rusty Flack were unavailable for comment Friday.

First you say Medico was there, then you say he wasn't. No wonder this story came out so late - it's unraveling the day it breaks.

Desperate measures for desperate times and desperate men...

Anonymous said...

What I wonder is how these men are going to be able to face one another at the next Sem meeting, since Sordoni is the head of the board and the Flack's and Hackett are also memebers, can anyone say awkward? Totally brings a new meaning to the elephant in the room!

~ Sassy Fox

Anonymous said...

Meuser the Me user is going down. Even the CV doesn't like him now.

Meanwhile "The Reverend Rusty" is reaching for the Jack Daniels.

Anonymous said...

Would you expect the CV to like a Republican?

And as far as Sem board meetings go, if Hackett was concerned about relationships he wouldn't have let Madeira and company take him down this path of no return.

Seems like Dr. Dave isn't the only one in his family blinded by his own ambition. His brother got some egg on his face this week too.

Anonymous said...

Mr. A. J. (Jack) Sordoni, IV... please tell us the lie of the day.

Anonymous said...

lie of the day?

Hasn't Hackett already done that for us? It's hard to top his hypocrisy. Does he really think our memories are that short? For every one person that was physically at that meeting, there are at least two politically active people in various counties that he (1) either told the same thing to or (2) waffled on the pro-life/pro-choice question and quickly deflected it to the Rosie adoption.

His only mistake was thinking Dr. Dave's blind followers made up a bigger part of the district than they actually do. Didn't he see the returns of the primary election for the 20th senatorial district in 2006?

Anonymous said...

whether or not he said it is irrelevant, this will destroy any chance he has. just the innuendo will sway people away from him. people around here are 2 issue votes
abortion and guns and Hackett's run is now over. If this is a lie, which I would not be surprised if it is considering the sources being all Mueser supporters and the timing, so close to the election it is impossible to do any real damage control.
Bravo Mr. Mueser you will win based on deceit and subterfuge instead of on the issues.
I am sure come November Carney, if the rumors are correct, will do something similar to Meuser.

Anonymous said...

Well at least Dr. Dave got some help paying down his campaign debt.

hope the $12,500 donation to Friends of Dave Madeira was worth it Chris!

Anonymous said...

Mattyb,

Who the heck is Rosie?

Don't you find it just a bit too much of a concidence that these "honorable" men (and I use that term loosey goosey) who have heavily supported Meuser should bring up this issue at this time? Flack was in the Times Leader not too long ago with a comment on Hackett, stomping his feet about one thing or another...and then wow, here comes the whole abortion issue.
I think we all know why all of a sudden this should become such a big issue for the Flacks and Sordoni. And it's not a cell, a woman's right, or some religious dogma.

~Sassy

Anonymous said...

How about Brian Grove now supporting the story....he has remained neutral through this whole campaign and has now come out to say he was at the meeting and Chris stated he was pro-choice

Anonymous said...

sassy,

sorry, I meant Ruby. She is the Hackett's adopted child from China. And while Gort might delete this since I am referencing the children of a candidate, I think this should be an exception.

Last year, when Hackett first started meeting with what some might refer to as political insiders or grassroots activists, he always changed the conversation to Ruby when anyone asked about his pro-life/pro-choice positions.

While it's admirable that the Hackett's adopted a child and are giving her a far better life than what she was destined for in her home country, I found it revealing that he always seemed to skirt the issue. When he discussed it with me he clearly looked like a man uncomfortable in his own skin. the only thing more telling would have been his nose getting longer and longer.