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.

Midterm Elections: `Madame Speaker’

With their Grand Old Party now the Grand Old Porkers (the Party of Pork), midterm elections have lost all meaning for much of the GOP faithful. They stare in horror at the national debt, quadrupling on their watch. Federal spending has increased 49% under the Bush administration, which is why they can’t sleep nights, just tossing and turning and counting the number of zeroes in a trillion. Being fiscally frugal is what Republicans are all about, what they stand for, what always separates them from throw-money-at-every-problem Democrats.

Now these hollow-eyed wrecks may just stay home on Nov. 7.

This is, of course, terrible news for GOP chair Ken Mehlman. He prides himself on voter turnout. On election day 2004, his ground forces were a well-oiled machine, stunning the Democrats whose ground forces of placard-waving labor union members historically have more troops, are better organized and outperform the opposition.

But now, as Republican strategists concede, Mehlman’s base isn’t responding. Their hearts aren’t in it. They have a “motivation” deficit.

There’s only one way to get their hearts beating again for Republican candidates: shock treatment.

Mehlman’s job, with considerable help from the national news media, is to remind the Republican base what is in store for them and the country should the Democrats win.

The war on terror has begun.

You may have seen a recent issue of Bill Buckley’s National Review. It featured a cover photo of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi with the caption: “Madame Speaker”.

To the Republican base, “Madame Speaker” are the two most terrifying words in the English language. She’s a liberal. She’s from San Francisco. How bad can it get?

Well, what about a subpoena-wielding John Conyers as chairman of the judiciary committee in the House? If you’re a Republican with a pulse, does that get your motor running?

It sure caused palpations at the National Review. “Even a slender Democratic majority would be able to pass some legislation...”

Here’s their brief summary of the horrors National Review sees occurring if Dems take control of the House: “The minimum wage would be increased. The re-importation of drugs at discounted prices would be allowed. The government would use its purchasing power to impose de facto price controls on the drug industry. Congress might enact some restrictions on wiretapping in the pursuit of terrorists.”

Wow. Talk about the end of the world as we know it! The Democratic leadership in Congress has its own “Six in ‘06” campaign issues but I think what the National Review came up with is much more persuasive.

But the subpoena button is the one Mehlman really needs to push to motivate his Republican base. The Bush administration has gotten this far with its incompetence and corruption because with control of all the power levers there has been no oversight and no accountability.

“A Democratic House would launch investigation after investigation,” warns National Review. “The Bush administration’s conduct during Hurricane Katrina, every conceivable aspect of the Iraq War, the putatively nefarious conduct of the oil and gas industries: all would be fair game.”

Not that after 12 years of being pushed around that Democrats are the least bit interested in political payback, but for the good of the country, well, get those subpoenas ready.

Election 2006: Swiftboated no more

Sometimes I envy my conservative friends. They have their comfort zones, like the Fox News Network, where they can crawl away to during their party’s worst gaffes and public pounding and be reassured they are in the right and everyone else is crazy.

But where do I go? There was a time I could turn to the Washington Post and be assured my political views aren’t totally off the scope. But the Post got it so wrong on the Iraq war that their editorial board finds itself in the awkward position of having to defend everything Bush. The Post style section has turned into a fawning fan club for the Bush twins, replacing Tai Shan in reader affections. (I really have nothing against the Bush twins, but confess I simply can’t get enough of that panda).

What I find most galling is that the Post has joined the media chorus that portrays Condi Rice a superstar, not just a brilliant Secretary of State but the perfect dinner date, ignoring the fact as National Security Adviser she was as guilty as George “Slam Dunk” Tenet of cooking intelligence to lead our nation into a disastrous war. Her reward was Secretary of State, while Tenet had to settle for the Medal of Freedom.

Fox News has “reporters” who recite Republican talking points with more anger than Ken Mehlman who wrote them. The situation is so unbalanced that “Swiftboating” has become part of the language. No unsubstantiated charge is too outrageous to be “authenticated” by the cable talk shows.

In the 2004 Presidential election campaign, the mainstream media became unwitting dupes of Rovian political strategy with their “he said, she said” reporting. Voters are poorly served when conflicting testimony from Swift-boat crewmen who were there, and anti-Kerry zealots who were not, is given equal weight in the media.

A distinguished group of editors and reporters —Nieman Fellows— feel the same way and have some sharp suggestions on how the press can do a better job in the 2006 midterms. (The internationally-respected Nieman Fellowships are the oldest mid-career program for journalists in the world.)

In all, 28 Nieman alumni responded to a one-question e-mail from Barry Sussman and Dan Froomkin who run the Nieman Watchdog web site, asking for their comments. Some were highly negative, saying the American press is damaged almost beyond repair and comparing it unfavorably with the press in other countries.

Others had positive suggestions that would certainly help. They urged reporters to:

• Cover issues rather than events, and report on those issues consistently and deeply enough to bring clarity to readers or viewers.
• Set agendas based on issues that are important to the public and aggressively pursue responses from candidates.
• Expose political ploys, rather than fall for them.
• Pay extra attention this year to how the votes are counted.

Vareria Hyman, 1987 Nieman, summed it up for me with this advice for political reporters: “Halt the `he said, she said’. It’s insufficient, lazy and sheds no light on important issues. Instead of spending time getting reaction quotes, test the veracity and authenticity of the original statement.”

That would certainly sink the fraudulent Swift-boat and its crew on Fox News.

Bush’s Labor Day Message to Workers

President Bush is famous for putting his foot in his mouth. In the midst of the Hurricane Katrina debacle he turned to the incompetent FEMA director and said: “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.” I didn’t think he could ever top that. But he did, just this week. With Labor Day on the horizon, he beamed at the television cameras and said: “Things are good for American workers.”

In my memory, I cannot think of a time when things were worse. And yet, when it comes to who this President has hurt the most, labor has to get in line – a long line.

By misleading our country into a disastrous war, ignoring global warming, ordering illegal wiretaps and quadrupling the national debt, President Bush has laid claim to the trophy labeled “Worst President Ever.” He has gone out of his way to punish the poor and the elderly with his attacks on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security while rewarding the rich with tax breaks. Young people fare no better as college tuitions become unaffordable and they begin careers nearly bankrupted by their student loans. He would tear down the Constitutional wall separating church and state, simply to curry favor with the only people on this planet who don’t care about his failings – just that he is “born again.”

But despite the long line of beleaguered citizens who have suffered at the elitist policy whims of this administration, I still believe a good case can be made for putting labor unions at the very front of the line. No one has suffered more, and their suffering harms the entire nation.

Here is where labor is this Labor Day:

We have a Labor Secretary who hates labor, that’s for starters. Elaine Chao is a favorite of President Bush and employers all across the nation. For the first time in our history, corporate bigwigs have the run of the building while AFL-CIO President John Sweeney can’t even get a green card. When a business-funded con artist opened an anti-union Web site called “Union Facts”, Chao’s Labor Department advertised it on their Web site.

The National Labor Relations Board was created in 1935 to help workers organize unions. The current NLRB with Bush appointees now functions as a training center to create new obstacles for workers wanting to join unions, a far cry from what FDR had in mind.

What does it mean when workers can’t form unions? Wages fall. Working conditions become Dickensian, millions more have no health coverage. Labor unions made this a middle-class nation and the envy of the free world. That has always been our strength, with each generation of workers more productive and with the clout in bargaining to share in the prosperity they help create. In the process, they also built a stronger America.

That was then. This is now. Just before adjourning for its August vacation, the GOP-controlled Congress sandbagged the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade – and laughed about it. Meanwhile, an Administration that is close friends of the rich and powerful does nothing to contain soaring gas prices or health care costs that have working families struggling to survive on stagnant wages.

And all our President can say this Labor Day is: “Things are good for American workers.”

Almost as good as “let `em eat cake.”

Congress 06: Why Americans Are Angry - A Republican Explains

Dr. Ron Paul, a nine-term GOP Congressman from Texas, gave a speech on the floor of the House the other day that should have made headlines all across the globe. Instead, the only place I’ve seen it reported was in an obscure financial blog.

Tell me if you think these comments—from a leading Republican—are newsworthy:

• I have been involved in politics for over 30 years and have never seen the American people so angry… Some say it’s the war… In foreign policy we’ve seen a transition from the founders vision of non-intervention in the affairs of others to unilateral nation building, and policing the world. We now have in place a policy, driven by neo-conservatives, to promote American “goodness” and democracy throughout the world by military force—with particular emphasis on remaking the Middle East.

• We all know that ideas do have consequences. Bad ideas, even when supported naively by the people, will have bad results.

• Government officials too often yield to the temptations and corrupting influences of power. Many are not bashful about using government power to do “good”. They truly believe they can make the economy fair through a redistributive tax and spending system, make the people moral by regulating personal behavior and choices, and remake the world in our image using armies.

• Since the use of power to achieve political ends is accepted, pervasive, and ever expanding, popular support for various programs is achieved by creating fear. Sometimes the fear is concocted out of thin air, but usually it’s created by wildly exaggerating a problem or incident that does not warrant the proposed government ‘solution’. Often government caused the problem in the first place. The irony, of course, is that government action rarely solves the problem, but rather worsens existing problems or creates altogether new ones.

• Fear is generated to garner popular support for the proposed government action, even when some liberty has to be sacrificed. This leads to a society that is systemically driven toward fear—fear that gives the monstrous government more and more authority and control over our lives and property.

• Fear is constantly generated by politicians to rally the support of the people.

• We are constantly told that the next terrorist attack could come at any moment…this atmosphere of fear prompts giving up liberty and privacy. 9/11 has been conveniently used to generate the fear necessary to expand both our foreign intervention and domestic surveillance.

This is the most complete exposure of the Karl Rove campaign playbook I have seen anywhere. The fact it comes from a leading Republican, speaking on the House floor, is stunning. The fact it got little or no press attention is both puzzling and infuriating.

Rep. Paul alludes to the media’s somnolent role in the conclusion of his House speech:

“We recently witnessed how unfounded fear was generated concerning Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to justify our first ever pre-emptive war. It is now universally known the fear was based on falsehoods. And yet the war goes on; the death and destruction continue… If the public could not be manipulated by politicians’ efforts to instill needless fear, fewer wars would be fought and far fewer lives would be lost.”

Since none of this strikes the media as newsworthy, perhaps for the midterm and `08 elections the Democratic National Committee should buy some air time for this guy.