By Adam Pagnucco.
Congressman David Trone has launched a scorching TV ad blasting his challenger, Delegate Neil Parrott, over a letter to the editor he once wrote proposing that HIV patients be branded with tattoos. I wrote about the letter during Parrott’s 2010 run for the House (which he won) and included this excerpt:
It is time to take the threat of HIV seriously. A compassionate and serious solution must preserve the dignity of those infected while truly helping to prevent the spread of the disease in an effective way.
One such solution is a tattoo for those who are infected. This mark could be inconspicuously placed, perhaps in a spot covered by a bathing suit, warning only those who might engage in intimate encounters with the infected person.
An effective way to enforce the consistency of the tattoo would be to provide medicine to the infected individual only after they have received the HIV tattoo.
I saw this ad at the pub while Leah Remini’s People Puzzler game show was on. That indicates wide placement by Trone. Perhaps it’s time to pull the TV ad data and have a look!
Trone’s ad appears below.