Tucson Progressive blogger Pamela Powers (now on the Tucson Citizen site) wrote this morning about the CD 7 debate between Raul Grijalva and Ruth McClung in a post here. But later today in a new blog, she touched on something that voters should be asking themselves: Who is the real Ruth McClung?

At the Tea Party rally last weekend in Reid Park, McClung rallied the troops by talking about unity and everyone working together, but the reality from what we see in her supporters is that her campaign rhetoric is just Tea Bag dribble.

What Powers points out, however, is some of the latest and erroneous advertising from hateful lovelies like Grover Norquist. There's also a new Internet fundraising drive that is making the Tea Bag rounds that you can see for yourself at goodbyegrijalva.com.

Powers points out how this website and artwork on McClung campaign materials distorts Grijalva's face, particularly his mustache. And Powers points out the obvious racism in the image. McClung embraces this fundraising campaign and has posted it on her Facebook page. If she's really about unity, then maybe calling off the faux-Constitution attack dogs might be a good step in recognizing what Arizona really needs in order to make unity possible.

Here's a bit from Power's latest post:

Several took issue with the fact that I tied her to the Republican Party Machine— even though her answers to the Center for American Policy survey are in lock step with the Republican Party’s Pledge to America. They also took issue with the fact that the ultra-conservative Republican Majority Campaign is raising funds for her— or was until sometime after I posted my story last night. Now— less than 24 hours later— the page that I linked to has been pulled. You can see the blatantly racist comments that group wrote about Grijalva (on her behalf) embedded in my story because I quoted them. (Now that their racism has been revealed, and they have backed into the shadows, I’m sorry I didn’t quote the whole story last night!) Most recently, the Americans for Tax Reform (a Grover Norquist small guv’ment group) has spent $230,000 on an attack ad against Grijalva. Seriously, folks, how much closer to the Republican Party Machine can McClung get?

Personally, I think that having Grover Norquist and a racist group raise funds for McClung is right in line with her campaign. McClung has distributed print materials make fun of Grijalva’s face. Her campaign defended the blatantly personal insult. I think it is degrading. If Grijalva had distributed a print ad with a photo emphasizing certain aspects of McClung’s “womanhood”, he would have been crucified by her campaign and the media. Why is this OK for her to personally degrade his appearance?

Will the real Ruth McClung please stand up? A “rocket scientist” should be smart enough not to use personal degradation as a campaign tactic. McClung owes Grijalva a formal apology.