Erick Bennett: ISBL Asshat of the Week

As the GOP stumbles and fumbles in the polls because they’d prefer to focus solely on vaginas and same-sex marriage rather than issues that affect all of us like jobs, I find myself no longer surprised at what passes for a Republican these days.

Case in point: Erick Bennett, a Republican running in a primary challenge against incumbent Susan Collins to be Maine’s next US Senator.

Back in Ott-Three, Bennett was convicted of domestic violence against his wife, who divorced him after he attacked her. Now, as wife beaters are apt to do, Bennett denied being a batterer and appealed, but the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said, "Oh, hell no" and upheld his conviction, finding that “the court did not commit clear error or abuse its discretion in excluding irrelevant evidence at trial,” and that “sufficient evidence does exist in the record to support his conviction.”

Meaning it was proven that Erick Bennett beat his wife and was sent to prison. But now, out and in the GOP, Bennett has turned the lemons of being a spousal batterer into badly tasting lemonade because he now says that beating his wife makes him brave enough to stand up for “family values.” And he is blaming his wife for his convictions, saying:

“All that needs to be done is you have to repeat what you wrote down in the police report and that allows the victim to be viewed as a credible witness. So, basically, if someone writes something down, it doesn’t have to be true. All they have to do it repeat that on the stand. That’s grounds for anyone to be convicted of domestic violence.”

See, is the victim tells a story and does not deviate from that story at any time ever, then, well, she’s just making up a really great story. Erick Bennett isn’t to blame for beating his wife; it’s her fault because she told her side of the story and stuck to it. And this is where Bennett decides that being accused of being a batterer, and found guilty of it, and sent to prison for it, makes him the perfect GOP “family values” guy:

“The fact that I have been jailed repeatedly for not agreeing to admit to something I didn’t do should speak to the fact of how much guts and integrity I have. If I go to D.C., I’m going to have that same integrity in doing what I say, and saying what I do, when it comes to protecting people’s rights, as well as their pocketbooks.”

Yes, because he steadfastly refuses to admit he beat his wife, even though he was arrested charged, convicted, lost an appeal and jailed for being a batterer makes Erick Bennett the perfect man to stand up for Maine.

As the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said, "Oh, hell no."

Erick Bennett, the ISBL Asshat of the Week.

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