Cook: Pryor Lashes Out Against Hypocritical ‘Swift Boat’ Donor

One of the wonderful things about Talk Business is readers can often get two different takes on the same issue.

Case in point, on Wednesday my blogging colleague, Jason Tolbert, and I both wrote stories on a right-wing attack ad against Sen. Mark Pryor featuring North Little Rock businessman Bill Shroyer.

You can read Tolbert’s story here and my take on it here.

To read Tolbert’s story, one could infer Senator Pryor is viciously attacking an innocent, almost non-political businessman. In my original story, I even tried to give Shroyer the benefit of the doubt, assuming he was just a random businessman the super-PAC convinced to appear in an ad.

It turns out Mr. Shroyer is a major Republican donor who has given a touch more than $11,000 to various Republican candidates and right-wing causes over the past decade.

I did a search on politicalmoneyline.com and found William L. Shroyer has given big bucks to the Republican National Committee, National Congressional Committee, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney to name just a few.

But the most intriguing contribution from Shroyer was the $500 he gave back in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

You may recall the Swift Boat organization ran numerous blatantly false ads attacking Vietnam vet and American hero Senator John Kerry for his military service. Kerry refused to fight back with the truth until it was too late.

This is the organization that Shroyer chose to give his money to, which is his right to be sure. But that donation alone tells me Shroyer is a pure Republican partisan.

The fact that Mark Pryor called out this major Republican donor for taking close to $300,000 in federal stimulus money is fair game.

The actual ad in question is about both Obamacare and economic policies in general. In fact, in the entire 30-second spot, Obamacare is mentioned only once and health care is never mentioned. Obamacare is merely a vehicle to go after Senator Pryor on other big picture issues.

The larger point is the correct hypocrisy charge against Shroyer who talks about Washington policies he claims are killing Arkansas businesses, but these same vague policies Shroyer alludes to provided his business $287,000.

In general, I’m always amused by Republicans who preach “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” and “free market capitalism” but who then are the first in line for government handouts to keep their business afloat. We have some of those types in the Arkansas Legislature.

If a hardcore Republican partisan such as Shroyer took close to $300,000 from the federal government to keep his company solvent and his employees on the payroll, then the Arkansas economy is better for it.

In fact, Bill Shroyer’s business is proof-positive that the stimulus did indeed work. I wonder if it secretly kills Shroyer to admit that if Obama hadn’t been elected his business likely wouldn’t have received the needed capital to retool after the economic collapse that occurred under President Bush?

In the end, it is hypocritical to rail against Washington policies that one could reasonably argue helped keep your company’s doors open for business.