Negative campaigns: shame on me
Just in case President Bush is reading this, here’s how the old axiom really goes: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons fooled the American people with claims Saddam Hussein was part of the 9/11 attack. Democrats in Congress went along with the Bush White House on one of the worst blunders in our nation’s history, authorizing a war that has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, increasing the terrorist threat while failing to bring to justice the true instigators of 9/ll.
Then came 2004 and the Swift-boating of Sen. John Kerry. That lie was so monstrous that the Kerry campaign didn’t know how to refute it, and America’s right-wing cable talkers kept the charade afloat long enough for the ultimate insult to occur: a decorated war hero lost to the frat boy who went AWOL.
President Bush has been reduced to the Maxwell Smart character on classic TV who prefaced every bluff with “would you believe…?” Okay, he says, I got it wrong on Saddam and WMD, but “would you believe…if we don’t win on the streets of Baghdad we’ll be fighting on the mall in Wichita? Wait, wait, here’s another…”
That’s the marvel of the Karl Rove era of the reeaallly Big Lie and media manipulation. They are masters of promoting lies that sixth graders know to be false, outrageous lies, politically effective lies. Perhaps one of their all-time great triumphs was the ad questioning the patriotism of former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland who lost three limbs in Vietnam.
Now they’re at it again.
Fool me twice?
They’re gonna try. The NRCC says 90% of its advertising budget for the midterms will be spent on personal attacks. GOP operatives are digging through court records and trash cans looking for dirt on Democratic candidates.
The millionaire Houston homebuilder who funded the Swift-boat ads is back. He is spending $5 million for a new round of slime-time TV spots in the midterm elections. Should make viewers wonder: If the ads are “brought to you by the man who gave you Swift-boat” won’t that raise a few eyebrows?
Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, recently reported just how the GOP slimefest works, citing Wisconsin Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Kagen who was an early target: A medical doctor in his first run for public office, Kagen was muddied by $164,000 worth of NRCC ads that skewered him for suing “80 patients.” Seems that in 25 years of practice and over 50,000 patients, there were 80 that could afford to pay but refused. Kagen didn’t even hire an attorney to sue them; he simply sent his secretary to small-claims court.
Somehow, I don’t think such shocking revelations will detract voter attention from an incompetent Bush Administration and a do-nothing GOP Congress.
Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons fooled the American people with claims Saddam Hussein was part of the 9/11 attack. Democrats in Congress went along with the Bush White House on one of the worst blunders in our nation’s history, authorizing a war that has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, increasing the terrorist threat while failing to bring to justice the true instigators of 9/ll.
Then came 2004 and the Swift-boating of Sen. John Kerry. That lie was so monstrous that the Kerry campaign didn’t know how to refute it, and America’s right-wing cable talkers kept the charade afloat long enough for the ultimate insult to occur: a decorated war hero lost to the frat boy who went AWOL.
President Bush has been reduced to the Maxwell Smart character on classic TV who prefaced every bluff with “would you believe…?” Okay, he says, I got it wrong on Saddam and WMD, but “would you believe…if we don’t win on the streets of Baghdad we’ll be fighting on the mall in Wichita? Wait, wait, here’s another…”
That’s the marvel of the Karl Rove era of the reeaallly Big Lie and media manipulation. They are masters of promoting lies that sixth graders know to be false, outrageous lies, politically effective lies. Perhaps one of their all-time great triumphs was the ad questioning the patriotism of former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland who lost three limbs in Vietnam.
Now they’re at it again.
Fool me twice?
They’re gonna try. The NRCC says 90% of its advertising budget for the midterms will be spent on personal attacks. GOP operatives are digging through court records and trash cans looking for dirt on Democratic candidates.
The millionaire Houston homebuilder who funded the Swift-boat ads is back. He is spending $5 million for a new round of slime-time TV spots in the midterm elections. Should make viewers wonder: If the ads are “brought to you by the man who gave you Swift-boat” won’t that raise a few eyebrows?
Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, recently reported just how the GOP slimefest works, citing Wisconsin Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Kagen who was an early target: A medical doctor in his first run for public office, Kagen was muddied by $164,000 worth of NRCC ads that skewered him for suing “80 patients.” Seems that in 25 years of practice and over 50,000 patients, there were 80 that could afford to pay but refused. Kagen didn’t even hire an attorney to sue them; he simply sent his secretary to small-claims court.
Somehow, I don’t think such shocking revelations will detract voter attention from an incompetent Bush Administration and a do-nothing GOP Congress.
posted by Victor Kamber | 1:33 PM
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