Redstate

Baron Hill has a "Bill Richardson moment" -- twice.

By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Democrats — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

When running for office, a person's past -- inasmuch as it is free of indiscretions -- is much less relevant, outside of legislative record, than their plans for the future. So why do some feel the need to mislead (or even outright lie) about past achievements -- especially when that which is being exaggerated, or simply made up, is often so inconsequential?

We saw this last year with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who, after nearly forty years of claiming -- in biographies and news releases -- that he was drafted by the Kansas City (now Oakland) Athletics baseball team in 1966, finally admitted that he'd made the whole thing up, although he still made excuses, saying that he "saw he'd been drafted in an old program from an amateur team he had played for in Massachusetts. He says he believed it then and through the years."  

Now from Indiana's 9th Congressional District comes a similar story, about Baron Hill, who is challenging Republican incumbent Mike Sodrel for the House seat. Hill, an athlete who played basketball at Furman University, has said that he was drafted by the New York Giants football team. His official campaign biography also says that he is the reigning Indiana High School 100-yard dash record-holder.

Unfortunately, neither claim is true.

Read on.

Hill's claims were reflected in a recent Louisville Courier-Journal puff piece on Hill. The paper said:

Those who know him well say they understand what drives Baron Hill: a remarkably strong competitive streak.

It's why he set and still holds the Indiana high school record for the 100-yard dash, and why he was voted a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. It's what got him into Democratic politics more than two decades ago.

And now it has him in the thick of a campaign to win back the 9th Congressional District seat he lost two years ago to Republican Mike Sodrel.

...

Basketball earned him a scholarship to Furman University, a distinguished liberal arts school in Greenville, S.C., where he earned a degree in history. After graduation, he was drafted by the New York Giants to play football, a sport he hadn't participated in since high school. He never called them.

Unfortunately for Mr. Hill, in this age of the internet making fact-checking ability available to anybody who cares to check the record, these claims were quickly shown to be dishonest.

A quick check of the draft records shows that Baron Hill was never drafted by the New York Giants -- or by any professional football team. Likewise, a quick check of the Indiana High School Athletic Association's website reveals that the state record for the 100 yard dash (since replaced by the 100 meter dash in competition) is not held by Mr. Hill at all, but rather by a man named Clyde Peach.

A brief fact-check before printing these exagerrations in the first place would have nipped this issue in the bud. However, in its eagerness to plug any achievement it could possibly attribute to Hill, the Courier-Journal swallowed his assertions hook, line, and sinker, without taking the two minutes it would have cost to check their accuracy.

Unfortnuately for both the paper and Mr. Hill, others did do their homework. As a result, the Courier-Journal was forced to issue the following correction:

Correction

Baron Hill’s athletic accomplishments

A story Thursday said incorrectly that Democratic congressional candidate Baron Hill set and still held Indiana record for the 100-yard dash and that he had been drafted by the New York Giants football team when he graduated from college.

Hill’s campaign biography said he set the dash record while at Seymour High School and continued to hold it. But the Indiana High School Athletic Association lists someone else as the record holder for running a time of 9.5 seconds during the state finals of the 1965-66 school year. According to Seymour High School, Hill ran a 100-yard dash in 9.5 seconds at a 1970 track meet. But because it was not part of the state finals, the IHSAA does not count it as tying the record. The Hill campaign yesterday removed the reference from its Web site. Also, Hill is not listed on the Giant’s official draft list. Through a spokeswoman, Hill said he remembers being contacted by the Giants organization and believed he’d been drafted because friends said they’d read about it. But he said he never followed up with the team.

He "remembers being contacted...and believed he’d been drafted because friends said they’d read about it." Familiar, anybody?

The bottom line is, there's no excuse for this. I played baseball and football, among other sports. Folks told me I was pretty good; in fact, I was a decent enough pitcher that I was once told that, were I left-handed instead of right, I could be pitching in the minor leagues. Does that mean that I was drafted, offered a contract, and declined -- but that I can put it on my resumé all the same? An honest person would naturally automatically exclaim, "No way!" (with a "What are you thinking!?" thrown in for good measure). However, according to the logic of Baron Hill and Bill Richardson, that would appear to be just fine.

This alone is enough to show that Baron Hill has a dishonest streak in him. When put together with his changing positions on abortion, education, Iraq, taxes, his potential vote for Speaker of the House, and other issues, it becomes as clear as day that Hill does not have the integrity to represent Indiana's 9th CD -- or even to represent himself, for that matter.

The latest SUSA poll , which has Hill trailing Sodrel 46 to 44, shows that Indiana's voters are beginning to see this, as well.

Baron Hill doesn't belong back in Congress. Help make sure he doesn't wind up there.