FLNKS FOUR-WAY TEST: Frech Hill.

Amid a spate of dishonest advertising in support of his re-election campaign, Republican Rep. French Hill led the downtown Rotary Club this week in the recitation of Rotary’s four-way test. The Hill campaign is failing it particularly the part about honesty.

In case you didn’t know the Rotary test, it’s this:

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“Of the things we think, say or do: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

Hill intoned these words the week we learned that a Republican-led PAC had purchased radio ads in black markets in Little Rock saying election of Democrats would lead to white people lynching black men. Hill issued a statement criticizing the ad, though I’m not aware he called the former Republican congressional candidate from North Carolina, Vernon Robinson, and asked him to pull the plug. (Robinson, a well-known crackpot, chimed in our earlier blog item on this early this morning.)

Give Hill a pass on the ad by someone attempting to defeat Democrat Clarke Tucker if you will on account of his statement, but this ad only scratches the surface on untruthful, unfair, goodwill-defeating advertising that is not beneficial to all concerned.

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* There’s Hill’s ceaseless invocation of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader Tucker has said he won’t support.

* There’s his advertising saying he supports broad health coverage, when he’s voted repeatedly (and bragged about) for ending the Affordable Care Act and its protection for meaningful coverage of pre-existing illnesses.

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* In the racist category, there’s his advertising suggesting Tucker somehow is encouraging the MS-13 gang.

Hill loves having these nasty ads running in Little Rock because any voters that will be gulled into voting for Hill are at least some diminishment in the heavy support Tucker will enjoy among black voters because Republican policies have been rooted in racism and harm to the underprivileged for so long.

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You can tell how serious he is about repudiating the ads when he’s actually USING them against Tucker. Check it out:

Got it? Calling attention to a blindly racist ad supporting French Hill (that incidentally  caricatures black women)l is the problem, not the racist message itself.

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There’s a reason that Hill wants the ad to run but please don’t mention him.

Even against an unfunded Democrat with low name recognition, Dianne Curry, Hill couldn’t carry his home Pulaski County in 2016, primarily because of an overwhelming vote against him by black voters.

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Curry, by the way, issued a statement on the controversy through Drew Pritt, who’d worked on her campaign:

Dianne Curry, former Little Rock School Board President and 2016 Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in the 2nd District called on her former opponent, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Republican, to denounce and immediately call for the removal of racist radio ads supporting Hill.

“To quote the late Joseph Welch during the McCarthy Hearings, I want to ask this modern day wannabe Republican Joe McCarthy, have you no decency, sir? At long last do you have no more decency,” declared Curry.

Curry on Friday is attending the 150th Anniversary annual conference for the African Methodist Episcopal at her home church, Union AME Church in Little Rock that includes a voter education program Curry is helping to co-host. Curry says she is supporting fellow Democrat Clarke Tucker for Congress but points to the fact she served as an appointee of both Democratic and Republican Governors, before serving on the Little Rock School Board.

“This is a question of will you accept racism or will you condemn it? There is no grey area here,” stated Curry.

Curry also pointed out that the ad is being promoted by a New Yorker who was raised in Los Angeles, named Vernon Robinson.

“I find it kind of funny that French Hill lies and talks about Hollywood supporting Clarke but he had to go to Hollywood his own self to find someone to produce this racist ad,” said Curry. “The fact is French Hill needs to stop talking about his Swedish made luxury car named Ole’ Blue and using Hollywood con artists like Vernon Robinson to do his dirty work. Arkansas’ 2nd District deserves a voice in Congress who will fight for better jobs, better education, and make sure that everyone, not just some have a voice in Congress. That voice is Clarke Tucker, who understands ALL MEANS Y’ALL.”

I expect Clarke Tucker will have some ads on urban radio. He could run some clips from civil rights hero John Lewis’ visit to Little Rock in support of Tucker. He passes the four-way test even if French Hill flunked it.

Meanwhile racist hate-mongering in support of French Hill is getting national media attention. In the perverse world of Republican politics, that might actually help him.

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