Nasty? Sure. And it's about time.
Industrious and long-time web journalist Bob Somerby, of The Daily Howler fame, notes an incident between Virginia Senator George Allen and his Democratic challenger, veteran Jim Webb:
PUT UP YOUR DUKES: The Washington Post is disturbed by all the recent “Blather in Virginia.” Here’s the opening paragraph of today’s editorial. It concerns a recent fight between Jim Webb and George Allen:WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (6/30/06): Virginia’s U.S. Senate race is all of two weeks old, and already the debate between the Republican incumbent, George Allen, and his Democratic rival, Jim Webb, has descended into a trench of cynicism and puerility. In the past few days we have been treated to a stomach-turning (if coded) squabble over patriotism and to one candidate mocking the other's middle name. These are not the bare-knuckled blasts of a tough electoral fight; this is blather masquerading as political dialogue.
Go ahead and read their review—but our own reaction is quite different. What happened in the incident under review? Something very unusual. A Republican (Allen) behaved quite typically, taunting a Democrat about a pointless “character” matter. And omigod! In response, the Democrat (Webb) punched the Rep right in the nose!
For years, we’ve all watched Republicans play these cards (in this case, about that flag-burning amendment). But we don’t know when we’ve seen a Dem respond in so lusty a fashion. In various ways, this is exactly what Dems need to do, to the George Allens—and to the Ann Coulters. We suggest that you read this full report (from a Virginia daily paper) and ponder’s Jim Webb’s lusty conduct.
Read the details of the dust-up here.
Of note is that slime merchant Chris LaCivita, an orchestrator of the Swift-Boat lying campaign against John Kerry, is now working for Allen. Apparently the Webb campaign isn't going to lay down and roll over, like Dems have done across the board for far too long.
Waiting for Republicans to find some integrity and stay out of the gutter is a losing strategy. It's damn high time someone gave it back as good as the Republicans dish it out.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 6/30/2006
6 comments
6 Comments:
Quality. Those are some quotables from Webb and his campaign manager.
My favorite, from Jarding: "People who live in glass dude ranches should not question the patriotism of real soldiers who fought and bled for this country on a real battlefield."
Amen to that.
To your last paragragh, I can only say AMEN!
It's WAY overdue!
Dook, that comment was laughable.
This from someone who supports the party who turned negative campaigning into it's foundation decades ago, and who has further refined it by Gingrich issuing his "vocabulary list" to freshman instructing them to call Dems "immoral", "degenerate", etc.
every chance they got.
From the party of Dan Burton who called the president a "scumbag", with a vice president who drops the "F-bomb" on the floor of the Senate, and the party which sent a squad of right wing goons on an all expense paid trip to Miami to stage the "bougeoise riot" outside the room where they were counting votes and who got so loud and violent, shoving people and trying to storm the room that the county officials were forced to stop the count.
This from a person who supports the party favored by white supremacists and skinheads, and klan members.
The party proud of the Swift Boat Liars, and who thought it was a real hoot to wear purple bandaids to mock a courageous volunteer's war wounds in Vietnam while supporting a guy who can't provide ANY evidence that he even fulfilled his obligation to the champagne squadron of the Air National Guard his Daddy pulled strings to get him into.
Yeah Dook.
We're the violent ones, the bigots, etc.
Are you drinking early today, or what?
Dook,
I'd also add that if you think being vicious, lying scumbags, running phony push-polls accusing candidates wives of being drug addicts or having (horrors) a child who isn't white (even though in the case of the McCains, the child was adopted) and other such tactics is so bad and such a losing strategy, then how do you explain whyt he party who has used negative, false, divisive and underhanded tactics as an article of faith for decades is the party in charge of all three branches of government?
I'm sure you'd love it if the Dems continued to fight fair and "take the high road" and refuse to climb into the snake pit of Republican rhetoric and bullshit. After all, that's what's handed such a minority all the power in this country.
The Dems tried to keep things on an even keel. But if the Republicans want to throw out every shred of decency and honesty in their quest for total power, then I'm afraid the entire political system is going to have to turn into an even more disgusting, dishonest, and crazy place before it ends.
When one team is cheating to victory over and over and over, sooner or later, even the team that tries to play it straight figures out that they're going to have to give it back just as good as it gets.
If the refs (the public and press) simply refuse to do their duty and call fouls, then all the rules go out the window.
I'd like to see what would happen if the Dems adopted such a cynical and blatant attempt to mislead, misinform, and divide Americans as the Republican right has done for decades.
Let's see how the right likes some of their own medicine.
But there's only one problem, and that is that most liberals have a conscience, and there's no room for that when you play by the Rove rules.
Do we have to hate each other?
Sure we do.
Why not?
How interesting can a relationship be if you don't feel like strangling the person with your bare hands on a fairly regular basis? ha!
But I sure hate your totally false platitudes and little right wing stereotypes.
If you'd even stick to things you don't like about Dems or liberals that were at least based in some truth, that would help. But you don't.
Democrats DON'T all want to allow unlimited immigration. They haven't been crying racist about it in general. (If any Dem has, it's been to respond to some comment by some yahoo that probably DID have racist overtones)
You think there's not several genuine racists serving in the Republican party today? Get real.
You don't think some of the people who so vociferously are leading the anti-immigration efforts are motivated to a large part by racism? Again, wake up.
(whether they were racists before this or not is anyone's guess, but a lot of people become racist as a part of being anti-immigrant. Got to de-humanize the enemy, don'cha know. All part of the long-standing "us vs the shadowy 'them'" tactic which is the cornerstone of the rigt wing path to gaining and keeping power. Can't sow that fear and distrust hard enough)
Bottom line, all the crap you spewed above isn't remotely true or representative of anything close to a majority of Dems.
But that's no surprise because 80% (at least) of nearly all right wing "bumper sticker" conventional wisdom is based on lies or distortions at best.
A huge proportion of it is based on things which simply aren't true, or at best, on an example which represents such a tiny, miniscule example as to be utterly meaningless. (the family farm being lost due to estate taxes.. never happened, or if so, only in a handful of cases out of tens of thousands.)
It's like the welfare queen driving a new Cadillac famously cited by Reagan. She didn't exist. And even if she had, so what? THAT'S the problem that's the most critical? When defense contractors scammed enough billions to make all welfare payments look like spit in a bucket?
And that's just a small example out of thousands upon thousands, up to and including all the miriad lies about Iraq and why we went there and why we're still there.
The right thinks it can sell us their ideology like they sell us cigarettes, fast food, soda, fake drugs, and everything else which isn't healthy.
There is no idea so unpopular and odious that they can't slap some misleading name on and sell even though it's exactly the opposite. (Healthy Forrests Initiative, Clean Air Act, Patriot Act, etc.)
You're being led by the nose if you fall for all that crap. Surely even you know it's horseshit.
At least try to point this out before you raise all those dittohead talking points.
And you don't have to tell me that both parties suck. But do you want rotten politicians beholden to groups representing the middle class, or do you want to support rotten politicians beholden to the very richest in the country and corporations and devoted to leading the country into a state of perpetual war, for the benefit of the above?
Dook, no need to get in a snit.
One man's "echo chamber" is another man's truth, after all.
I'm not going to water down my beliefs and political stance because it doesn't agree with someone else's. I wouldn't expect you or anyone else to either.
I believe that I am fairly careful to avoid casting all Republicans in one basket, and when I talk about their general strategy or the lies that they've perpetrated on a regular basis for decades, I am not refering to rank and file Republicans (though those who fall for these falsehoods frustrate the hell out of me and causes me to question their intelligence and ability to sort out spin from reality.)
Please don't take every word I write personally as they're not intended as such. My only beef with you is if you actually believe SOME of what you write, which I disagree with and consider unfair at times.
I think I've always played fair and I appreciate your contributions here. I hope you didn't take me literally when I said we should hate each other as it was sarcasm of course.
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