Bill Hudak, candidate for 6th District U.S. Representative of Massachusetts denies being a birther and says Barack Obama was born in the US. This is despite a video he made calling the President “Barry Soetoro,” according to the Beverly (MA) Citizen. Hudak explained that he was just exercising his 1st Amendment rights when in 2008 he put a sign on his lawn depicting Obama as Osama bin Laden.
Yes Bill, the 1st Amendment protects your right to do that — just as it protects your opponent’s right to throw it back in your face.
You are definitely right that the First Amendment protects both Mr Hudak’s right to make a fool of himself as well as the right of others to call him a damn fool. I get annoyed when people respond to severe criticism by asserting that they are being criticised for an speech that was protected by the First Amendment; the First Amendment protects the right to criticise the speech of others as well as the initial speech itself. (This is, of course, an overgeneralisation. There are obviously times when speech and criticism do not enjoy First Amendment protection, such as when death threats are issued.)
Regardless, Mr Hudak has no chance whatsoever of being elected. Mr Tierney consistently wins about 70 per cent of the vote in the district.
Hudak is a complete hypocrite.
When the suporters of the Park 51 project wanted to build an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, Hudak condemned it. (http://blogs.salemnews.com/fullnelson/2010/08/23/hudak-on-the-attack-seeks-to-raise-100k-by-end-of-august/)
Apparently, he didn’t think that was solely about protecting Park 51’s constitutional rights.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Back in 2008 Hudak was singing a different — birther — song. Bill, it seems, had bought into the Grandma-Sarah-Obama-witnessed-Baby-Barack’s-birth story. From the Tri-Town Transcript, the local paper for Hudak’s hometown:
“Down the road at 165 Herrick Road, William and Angela Hudak have more of the same anti-Obama signs lined along the front of their property. One large, roughly 6-foot-by-4-foot sign stands back from the road, up against their house, with words – such as socialist, Marxist, and lazy – surrounding the same picture of Obama dressed as Osama Bin Laden.
Hudak asserts that Obama was not born in the United States but in Kenya, according to affidavits that he made available to the Tri-Town Transcript. He said that Obama has ties to the Muslim faith through an extremist cousin that is from Kenya.”
http://www.wickedlocal.com/boxford/news/x1588602073/Boxford-resident-removes-anti-Obama-signs-after-police-receive-complaints