I'm socially a little more liberal and fiscally rather conservative, which means I prefer to vote for candidates as opposed to blindly following a party affiliation. Since I don't live in the particular district in question, I've remained blissfully ignorant of this story...until now. I don't know any of the people involved. I didn't vote for Congressman Austin Scott or his opponent. So why do I even care? Because gutter politics threatens to drive qualified candidates away from seeking public office.  For the record, Republican Scott defeated Democrat Jim Marshall last November in a race for a district that contains Macon. This despicable tactic of intimidation and character assassination has to stop. And to which tactics do I refer? Scott and his wife were granted a divorce in 2001.  Their young son was caught in the middle of a custody fight. It is not unusual for people experiencing the trauma of separation and the dissolution of their marriage make accusations that aren't completely true and say things they don't really mean. Three years ago, a judge sealed the court records of their divorce. "Democrat activist" Amy Morton filed a lawsuit to have Scott's divorce records unsealed so she could dig for dirt on him to use in the campaign to get Marshall reelected. Now an elected Congressman, Scott and his ex-wife agreed to drop their opposition to the lawsuit and let Morton satisfy her prurient interests. The muckrakers have been busy digging through the records, but so far all they've managed to find are unsubstantiated claims that Scott … [Read more...]