Oberweis Camp to Lauzen: People Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

Press Release

Oberweis for Congress spokesman Bill Pascoe -- reacting to career politician Chris Lauzen's latest attempt to smear Jim Oberweis, this time by referring to the Oberweis campaign's truthful and accurate reporting of how Lauzen himself had finally acknowledged that his attempt to tax Internet commerce would have resulted in as much as $1 billion being taken out of the hands of Illinois taxpayers as "slime" -- today criticized Lauzen for hypocritically engaging in the kind of personal smear campaign he says he opposes and in which he has pledged not to engage, and called on Lauzen to raise the level of his campaign rhetoric to that befitting a Member of Congress.

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," said Pascoe, "and Chris Lauzen -- who has already used words and phrases like 'reckless,' 'destroying people's lives,' 'divisive,' 'menacingly,' 'destructively,' dehumanized,' and 'racism' in reference to Jim Oberweis and his campaigns -- should know better than to pick up a rock.

"Friday, he told a reporter that Jim Oberweis was 'twisting his words to "slime" him as a pro-tax candidate,' according to Saturday's Daily Herald.

"And what was it that we did that led Chris Lauzen to use a word like 'slime?'

"All we did was point out that by Lauzen's own admission, the Internet tax hike he proposed in February 2005 would have taken as much as $1 billion out of the hands of Illinois consumers. We merely took Chris Lauzen's own press release of last Thursday -- you can read it yourself, right here on his web site: Lauzen press release -- and quoted directly from it to demonstrate that Lauzen himself acknowledged he was seeking to pick up as much as a billion dollars in tax revenues by collecting sales taxes on Internet commerce.

"So, let's review:

"Chris Lauzen puts out a press release acknowledging that his plan to raise taxes on Internet commerce would have raised as much as $1 billon from Illinois consumers. The Oberweis campaign responds by putting out a press release saying, in effect, 'Hey, everyone, did you see that Chris Lauzen just acknowledged that his plan to raise taxes on Internet commerce would have taken as much as $1 billion out of the hands of Illinois consumers?' And then Chris Lauzen responds by referring to our press release as 'twisting his words' to 'slime' him.

"Perhaps someone should ask Chris Lauzen directly, where exactly did we 'slime' him? And when he cannot answer directly -- because we did no such thing -- perhaps someone could suggest to him respectfully that he should put down the rocks."

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