PA-15: Republican Dent Desperate to Keep Independent Jake Towne Out of All Debates at All Costs

In the Congressional race for PA-15, incumbent Republican Charlie Dent is growing ever more desperate in his attempts to keep independent Jake Towne out of any and all debates over the course of the political season. Whereas Dent was claiming just last week that he wanted to keep Towne out of the debates because the public would, somehow, be best served if they were only allowed to witness a discussion between him and some Democrat, Dent has now gone off the deep end and begun insinuating that Towne is some sort of an anti-Semite. The mudslinging Republican is now demanding that his Democratic rival boycott all events that include Towne. From the Morning Call:

In a written statement Saturday, Dent said the band has been "deemed to be anti-Semitic by the Anti Defamation League." Poker Face is one of five bands that will play at Towne's "freedom concert" Friday. In the statement, Dent also said, he is "demanding" Callahan boycott any debate for the 15th District seat that includes Towne.
"I'm calling on John Callahan to put aside politics and do the decent thing," Dent said. "Don't give a public platform to someone enmeshed in ideas of anger, violence, anarchy and bigotry."
However Callahan's campaign released a statement saying while Callahan finds anti-Semitic behavior "deplorable," "the whole idea behind 'debating' someone is that you disagree with him and his views." . . .

Poker Face, a band that often weds hard rock with anti-government lyrics and has been active on the Lehigh Valley music scene for two decades . . . Towne, popular among some tea party activists, said he is not anti-Semitic and he doesn't believe Poker Face is either.
In a written statement, he said " I condemn any and all racial and religious discrimination," and added, "the views of any the five bands present at the Freedom Concert are not necessarily the views of Towne for Congress."
He said Dent's decision is not in the voters' best interest, adding, "I think he's being very hostile and undemocratic." Towne said The Morning Call and a local tea party group had indicated they want him to participate in planned forums.

Towne has also released a statement on Youtube responding to the pseudo-scandal in which he refutes the Dent campaign's accusations and allegations point by point. Rather than launch personal attacks against Dent, Towne instead rattles off Dent's criminal history in the US Congress. Partial transcript from the Youtube video embedded below:

Dent and the rest of Congress violate their constitutional oaths on a daily basis. Dent supports three unconstitutional wars abroad; he voted for corporatist bailouts for bankers and mortgage lenders alike. He supports unconstitutional wiretapping without warrants, revoking habeas corpus, torture of enemy combatants, and much more by his unflagging support of the Patriot Act. He wants to strip American civilians living in foreign countries of their citizenship and murder them without trial or due process.

See also Dan Hirschhorn at PA2010 for more.