Did Father Stage Alleged Attack? Claims to have been assaulted by Dems three other times.
Ripped sign spurs national debate
At first glance, it was a truly despicable display of partisanship. A supporter of John Kerry rips a Bush-Cheney sign from the clutches of a cute 3-year-old girl, reducing her to tears. Conveniently, the moment was recorded by an AP photographer, and voila! instant fuel for the anger of Conservatives. No child should be treated like that under any conditions, right?
What makes this incident even more despicable is the very real possibility that it may have been staged by the girl’s father. This takes this sorry incident from the realm of bad political theater to child abuse. What sort of sorry excuse for a father would use his daughter as a prop? One who is more concerned about politics than the welfare of his child- say hello to our latest DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener.
Phil Parlock and three of his children visited the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va., yesterday to catch a glimpse of Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. Parlock, a staunch Republican, and his family were there to show support for the Bush-Cheney ticket when they were assaulted by Kerry supporters, according to a report in the local paper, The Herald-Dispatch.
What the Herald-Dispatch failed to report, however, is that Parlock also claimed to be the victim of similar assaults at the hands of Democratic renegades in 1996 and 2000 — a fact that casts doubts on Parlock’s new claims.
Parlock’s latest claim certainly is filled with the sort of drama that makes for a fine photo op. Sophia, his three-year-old daughter, was holding a Bush-Cheney sign when angry Democrats ripped the sign from her tiny hands, making her burst into tears. A photographer with the Associated Press happened to be right there to capture the heartbreaking tears leaking from Sophia’s innocent eyes as she perched on her father’s shoulders.
Compare this latest event with what allegedly happened to Parlock’s family in 2000, when they tried to show support for Bush at a rally for Al Gore. At that rally, son Louis, then 12, had signs ripped right from his hands, according to a front-page report in the October 28, 2000, edition of the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail. “I did not expect people to practically attack us,” said Louis.
Or to what happened at a pro-Clinton event in 1996, as also reported in the Daily Mail. As he tried to display a sign that read “Remember Vince Foster,” Parlock claims that Clinton supporters knocked him to the ground. “It must have been a strict Democrat who did this,” said Parlock.
And then there’s September 3 of this year, when, according to a WCHS-TV news report, a gunshot allegedly was fired into Cabell County Republican Headquarters where supporters gathered to watch coverage of the Republican National Convention. Among the alleged victims who managed to escape death that day? None other than Phil Parlock.
Parlock, a real-estate agent who was a regional coordinator for the Bush campaign in 2000, has unsuccessfully sought election to the Cabell County Board of Education on four separate occasions.
Yes, this evidence is only cirucumstantial, but if you look at the totality of it, it’s all just a wee bit too suspicious to be coincidental. Either Parlock is a freak magnet, or he is a craven DUMB@$$ who is not above using one of his own children in his partisan political passion plays.
It would also seem that in addition to being a fair bit too obvious in his failed attempts at bad political theater, Parlock may well also be guilty of child abuse. Could this be any more despicable?
Yes, the evidence may be circumstantial, but it is also overwhelming. Fortunately, winning a DUMB@$$ AWARD doesn’t require much in the way of a burden of proof. Beyond a reasonable doubt works just as well.
Now, will someone please report this DUMB@$$ to West Virginia’s version of CPS?
