Apparently getting more desperate, marginal Democrat candidate for the 18th Legislative District, Mike Briggs, is trying to score points as a “friend of labor,” thinking dwindling union support might help his fleeting cause of being elected. In so doing, he posted the following on his facebook page recently;
Besides the obvious effort to link himself to a Republican President, the effort to recreate Abraham Lincoln into a liberal union supporter is comical at best. Lincoln never said the words Briggs is assigning to him and apparently is too lazy to actually verify information before running with it. What matters to Briggs apparently is that something makes him look like what he is not.
A 1992 Baltimore Sun article reveals this quote to be among many falsely attributed quotes credited to Abraham Lincoln that appears nowhere in any of his writings. Had Briggs made the slightest effort to verify the quote he would have discovered that fact. But instead of doing that, he just blindly ran with it.
Is is also listed among many other “Unproven Lincoln Quotes.”
What Abraham Lincoln did in fact state to the New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association on 21 March 1864 was,
“That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
Hardly the pro-union stance Briggs falsely assigns to our 16th president.
To me this speaks tons about Briggs seriously lacking in qualifications to hold public office. Do you really want someone sitting in Olympia, voting on laws without a clue what he is voting for, running on emotions instead of factual knowledge?
Hasn’t the state been hurt enough by over a decade of Democrats acting in this way already?
In the past, the Lazy C has taken Republicans to task for posting such unverified claims, once bringing about the resignation of the chair over a questionable Obama claim. Will they hold Briggs accountable equally?
I won’t hold my breath.
Briggs should remove this false claim and immediately issue an apology to all through a press release.
But I suspect he will continue this falsehood in faint hopes of fooling just enough voters to pull ahead.
It won’t work, but he’ll try, unable to stand on any truth.