Corbett Campaign Caught In Lies

By ONORATO FOR GOVERNOR

PITTSBURGH: Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett’s campaign continued to try to sidestep the candidate’s repeated belief that “the jobs are there” but unemployed Pennsylvanians would rather “sit there” and collect benefits than go back to work, even as the campaign’s false statements were unmasked by the media yesterday.

On Friday, Corbett told Pennsylvania Public Radio that: “People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment…. The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment the people are going to sit there…”

Yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board said that, “Tom Corbett should see all the jobless people not sitting at home.” Today, the Scranton Times-Tribune declared that “Corbett, AG, lacks evidence,” and the Harrisburg Patriot-News stated: “Politicians shouldn’t point finger at the unemployed – they are missing real issues.”

Facing relentless criticism from the more than half-million Pennsylvanians who are looking for work, Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley yesterday tried to walk back the comments, saying “his boss believes ‘the vast majority of people on unemployment are looking for work and want to find a well-paying job.’” [Allentown Morning Call, July 15, 2010]

But the facts show Corbett doesn’t believe that.

As multiple media outlets have reported, Corbett’s Friday comments were simply a repeat of remarks disparaging the unemployed that he made in March. “According to a transcript published by Capitolwire.com, Corbett, speaking at a job-training center in Lancaster on March 18, said he thought the people seeking training were in the minority,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

And Harley’s desperate cover-up lie wasn’t even the worst event of the day for the Corbett campaign. Hours later, the anonymous companies Corbett was relying on as the source of his beliefs about the unemployed starting giving him up.

Corbett had initially “pointed to one candy company in Camp Hill as an example, saying the owner told him they hired 50 European college students for the summer when the company was unable to fill its full-time positions.” [Capitolwire, July 9, 2010]

Yesterday, Capitolwire reported that the “Candymaker says Corbett misstated their employment issues.” A senior official with the Warrell Corporation explained that the company regularly takes on foreign students during the summer, but not for skilled full-time positions as Corbett claimed.

“During their summer vacation period, they come over here and work and travel. We’re very fond of working with them,” the company executive said.

Unfortunately for the Corbett campaign, facts don’t seem to matter.

Tuesday on Philadelphia’s CBS3-TV, Corbett said he was “was repeating a story that I’d heard from about five, six, seven different people across the state of Pennsylvania.”

But yesterday, campaign spokesman Harley was faced with yet another false statement to backtrack on. Harley told the Philadelphia Daily News: “It’s anecdotal information. He didn’t say it was a fact. He said: This is what I’m hearing.”

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