Take a Hike Nancy Pelosi! Jim Marshall says he will NOT vote for you as Speaker if re-elected

Yesterday BlueDog Rural Democrat Jim Marshall said to Randall Savage of WMAX TV 13 that he not vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house if he is re-elected.

Marshall follows other democrats such as Alabama Democrat Bobby Bright (D-Montgomery), Scott Murphy (D-NY) & others who have public;y stated that they will not vote for the California Liberal Democrat for speaker if they are re-elected.

Marshall said his preferred choice for speaker is Missouri Democrat Ike Skelton who is in the fight of his life as he battles to hang on for re-election.

I say kudos to Marshall for doing this. Democrats like Mike Ross of Arkansas, Allen Boyd of Florida, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee & John Barrow of Georgia ought to consider a run for Speaker or Minority Leader if democrats lose the house.

This decision by Marshall will have some impact on the 8TH District race between him & Austin Scott.

Marshall, in my opinion will win re-election, especially with recent endorsements from the NRA, US Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, VFW, despite the barrage of negative attack ads by NRCC, two third party organizations & Scott Himself that may. I still stand by my prediction of Marshall 53% Scott 47%

One of those ads, from the NRCC saying Marshall voted with Pelosi 88% of the time failed the WMAZ-13 Truth Test. See here below:

Attack ads have dominated this year's political landscape.

Some are sponsored by candidates, and others come from outside groups such as the National Democratic or Republican Committees.

13WMAZ's Randall Savage put a recent Republican National Congressional Committee ad to our truth test.

"Times are tough in Macon," the ad says, "so Jim Marshall hit the road."

The ad says Marshall went to Washington and voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi almost 90 percent of the time.

That's misleading.

The NRCC cites the Washington Post database, which shows how often Marshall votes with his Democratic colleagues. But the Speaker seldom votes on bills, and the Republican ad doesn't reflect that.

A different website, OpenCongress.org, compares Marshall's votes to Pelosi's actual votes. It shows that Marshall and Pelosi voted together 66 percent of the time. But it also shows that Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner voted with Pelosi almost as much--56 percent of the time.

And since January 2007, Open Congress shows that Marshall and Boehner cast more than 1,900 votes and voted the same way 56 percent of the time.

"He even voted for her on the Wall Street bailout," says the ad.

That's misleading too.

What the National Republican Congressional Committee calls the Wall Street bailout was the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which was pushed by President George W. Bush during the economic collapse two years ago.

The ad cites two roll call votes, 674 and 681.

Congressional records show that vote 674 was taken on September 9, 2008. It had nothing to do with the Stabilization Act, but would've amended the IRS code to provide earnings assistance and tax relief to military personnel, volunteer firefighters and peace corps volunteers.

Records show that vote 681 came on October 3, 2008. That vote was on approval of the Stabilization Act. It passed 263 to 171. Marshall voted for it. So did John Boehner and 91 other Republicans.

Within hours, President Bush signed it into law and personally thanked John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi for getting the bill through Congress.

"And then collected thousands from the same Wall Street banks that he helped," the ad continues.

While that may be accurate, it's misleading when you look at Marshall's contributions before and after the vote.

Financial disclosure forms filed with the Federal Election Commission show that prior to the vote on the Emergency Stabilization Bill, Marshall received more than $1.4 million in campaign contributions. $21,500 of that came from Wall Street banks.

After the vote, the forms show Marshall received more than $300,000 in contributions, including $5,500 from Wall Street banks. He actually collected less money from banks after the vote, than before.

This ad fails our truth test.