Sam Aanestad, bottom feeder

With the June open primary growing nigh, I took the opportunity to hear Republican congressional candidate Sam Aanestad give a talk to the Paradise Tea Party Patriots on April 26, 2012. I joined around 20 curious people as Aanestad pitched his plea for votes.

It was pretty much what I expected: Aanestad is in support of the Arizona “papers please” law. He is in support of drastic federal cuts and the elimination of several governmental departments. He is concerned about the deficit, and carries a deficit clock that gives, in real time, the current deficit amount. He is for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He wants to build the Keystone pipeline. And he believes in climate change, but doesn’t believe it is manmade. “If the climate changes, we’ll just adapt to it,” he states.

Pretty standard Republican doctrine—until a woman brought up her concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s when Aanestad said we have a Muslim in the Oval Office.

Incredulous, feeling dizzy, disoriented and not believing what I’d just heard a major candidate for federal office say, I asked Aanestad, point blank, if he believed Barack Obama was a Muslim. Aanestad said, “Yes, I believe Obama is a Muslim.” He stated this with 20 witnesses in the room.

From the Tea Party point of view, to be Muslim is to belong to a religion that is hell bent on destroying the United States. To state that Barack Obama is Muslim in front of these true believers is to state that Barack Obama is hell bent on destroying the United States.

Personally, I don’t care if Obama is Muslim; we have freedom of religion in this country. However, Obama has stated that he is not Muslim. He attended a Christian church for years. He was raised by a Christian family. That’s good enough for me.

Aanestad, by spreading lies, has become a bottom feeder. How can he believe such tripe when it was Obama, and not Bush, who found and gave the order to kill Osama bin Laden?

I expect people who represent me in Congress to have a certain amount of class. To stay away from the fear-mongering, to stay out of the gutter. To show good judgment when stating an opinion. Sam Aanestad should apologize for his inflammatory remarks. He will not get my vote.