"We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge" - Barack Obama (aka President Malaise)
Who Is Patrick Heelen?
By Greg L | 3 November 2006 | US Congress | 14 Comments
A number of Republicans have received a letter from someone named Patrick Heelen who is telling them that Frank Wolf is a stealth Democrat. He says that voters should elect Judy Feder because her votes will not significantly differ from those Frank Wolf would cast “and we can easily rid ourselves of her in 2008″. The author further claims that Frank Wolf votes with Nancy Pelosi 80% of the time, while the Judy Feder campaign complains that Frank Wolf is a rubberstamp of the President.
The letter is chock-full of the same ridiculous claims of RINO (Republican In Name Only) bashing drivel that would be worthy of the likes of Robert Molleur, and if it weren’t so utterly asinine I might possibly think it’s the handiwork of the Judy Feder campaign. It’s truly a masterpiece of delusion.
The author represents himself as someone “studying to pass the Virginia Bar” who works in Haymarket. The letter was mailed from Dulles on October 27th, and does not have the disclaimer required by law which says who authorized or paid for the mailing, which would be a pretty dumb thing for a prospective lawyer to do. I can’t find any reference to any ‘Pat Heelen’ in Prince William County or Manassas that would seem to correlate with this, but perhaps someone in Loudoun can check and see if there’s some record of him there.
Either this is some creative dirty trick, or there’s someone else out there who has gone of the deep end and joined a small, self-selected group of nutjobs out there who would rather set the world afire than tolerate a single moderate upon it. I’d like to figure out what this is all about before election day in case the truth behind this is relevant to the decisions voters may make on November 7th.
In the meantime, the rumor is this is a fictitious person. I hope to find out.
UPDATE: It seems like plenty of others have been asking about this letter too. HoodaThunk covers this, and some discussion of this showed up on TC as well.
It appears that Patrich Heelen may be a property manager in Haymarket, and there is a residential address for a Partick Heelen in Culpepper which would be in the 7th Congressional District. I can’t imaginie there are too many folks with this name in the area, so I suspect we may have identified our man.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed.
14 Comments
Views: 1417
Loading ...
Strangely enough, that is the name of the property manager when I used to live in the Piedmont in Haymarket. I wonder if it’s the same guy.
I posted this on TC, Monday:
Although I’m no great Wolf fan (having lived in or next to his district since his freshman term) I despise “Republicans” who spew this type of drivel in the hopes that the more naive will accept it at face value. (Interesting that the “unknown guy” appears to live in Culpepper and work outside of Haymarket, neither location being in Wolf’s district)
Took just a few minutes to compare Wolfe and Pelosi’s votes on some key issues (used “Project Vote Smart”’s records as I don’t have the time to do it properly through Thomas, hope their records are accurate) and noted the following vote differentials in a couple of key areas:
Abortion, 30 votes, none identical, Wolfe/Pelosi 0.0%
Budget/Spending/Taxes, different votes on 58 of 71, 18%
Campaign Finance, different votes on 13 of 19, 32%
Crime Issues, different votes on 10 of 12, 17%
Gun Issues, different votes on 6 of 8, 25%
Housing/Property Issues, different votes on 2 of 3, 33%
Social Issues, different votes on 9 of 11, 18%
Welfare, different votes on 9 of 10, 10%
So on these issues, they voted alike 27 out of 164 times, 16%, although he’s not Gingrich, by the same token he’s certainly not a Kennedy.
Sure you could throw in a variety of other issues where they will vote alike, issues regarding senior citizens, naming post offices, or any of the other self-cogratulatory crap that all vote for and thus drive up the percentage of instances in which they vote alike, but it is the core issues where the differences are more than evident and anyone can manipulate the statistics, its merely matter of being selective in how you interpret and present them.
-mom
Another take on the matter appropriately dismissing the letter as the blatherings of a wingnut or a Feder con job can be seen at:
http://hoodathunk.wordpress.com/2006/10/30/a-letter-of-intent/
as well as comments about the letter at Too Conservative at:
http://tooconservative.com/?p=990
Combined with the earlier Mike McHugh letter that has the Warren County Committee aflame, it shows not only a strong brand of ideological purity but also a strong brand of political silliness.
Congressman Wolf is one of the most dignified and skilled legislators in Congress. He is a great credit to Northern Virginia and the Republican Party. Anyone who thinks he is Nancy Pelosi is an idiot.
Americans for Better Imigration give Frank Wolf an A- rating:
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/delegation.php3?District=VA
Nancy Pelosi? She gets an F.
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=CA08&VIPID=61
‘Nuff said.
I received one of these letters and would love to know why. What list did this idiot use? Why he would think a fellow Republican would buy into the crap he wrote about is beyond me.
Maybe a few would, but I would bet that most of us are smarter than he is. Wonder if he is smart enough to pass the bar?
“and does not have the disclaimer required by law which says who authorized or paid for the mailing”
This is not always required by law when a mailing is done by a private citizen and completely unrelated to either campaign. Specific info can be found on the SBE website.
And anybody who thinks Wolf=Feder is nuts. But that’s what you get with these one issue RINO-hunters. I’m surprised he’s not from PWC, since the committee is chock full of RINO hunters.
The SBE guidelines are only for state and local races. Anything relating Federal elections as this does falls under the purview of the FEC.
Speaking of which, the National Education Assoc. and the Virginia Education Assoc. failed to include ANY disclaimers on their joint fliers sent out on behalf of Jim Webb as required by federal law.
In this rush to judgment, let’s remember that I, you, or anyone else can sign a letter with Patrick Heleen - I am concerned that some enthusiatic reader might wind up on his doorstep to find out he never wrote the letter in the first place. Not that I am saying that he did or didn’t - let’s just remember the perils of the Internet.
Anonon-
So, do you know who Patrick Heleen is and if he is a real person?
I have no idea who he is or isn’t. I am just getting wary of the mob mentality of the internet. Yet, I am still here… Go figure.
So Greg, what are you going to do November 8th? Does BVBL continue or what?
BVBL should continue for as long as it’s needed, and it will be needed long past November 8th so that we have a place to go to find out what’s happening in Manassas, Manassas Park, anc PWC since the Journal Messenger provides such poor coverage of it.
I did not get a copy of this letter, but obviously this guy is a fruitcake! Frank Wolf has represented the district in an outstanding manner. He is well respected among his fellow members of Congress. We need to keep him in Congress!
Probably just a nutcase. But in Texas (DeLay’s district) the democrats are spending money sending mailings urging republicans to write in a candidate who is NOT the republican candidate, in an obvious attempt to confuse enough republicans into picking the wrong candidate to elect their guy.
They fought to keep the people from choosing their own candidate, and the latest poll shows that if Sekula-Gibbs was actually ON the ballot, polling shows her winning 50-35. She most certainly will win the special election to cover the 2 months before next january.