Josh Marshall is on a roll in analyzing the current phase of the "Kerry is evil" campaign by the Republicans.
Bob Dole is justifiably taking a lot criticism for stooping almost to the Bush level with his support for the Swift Boat Liars for Bush campaign this past weekend. There's a lot about Bob Dole that's decent. But he's also a partisan Republican. And he just seems to have a mean streak, that came out once again this weekend.
Marshall has been getting letters either crowing or complaining that Kerry brought this on himself by emphasizing his wartime service. Marshall's take is a good one:
For Kerry supporters or Democrats who think this may be true, I can only ask you, please, please do not be such chumps. And for his critics, please allow your punches to the groin the purity of their cynicism, without sullying them with any claims that Kerry forced your hand.
This was always in the cards. Always. Thus the need to get out early making the case in Kerry's favor. Since it was coming anyway, far better to hit it with the wind at your back than sitting still. The Kerry campaign's only mistake -- and it was no small one -- was not getting out ahead of it sooner.
And he's right. This kind of campaigning is just the way the Bush dynasty does things. And after the experience of "the Clinton wars" of the 1990s, in which a well-funded rightwing attack machine played brilliantly on the feeble-mindedness of a scandal-hungry press corps in non-stop attacks on Clinton, it would be foolish for Kerry and the Democrats not to have anticipated this. And, of course, these attacks have been coming from the Oxycontin crowd for months already.
Marshall also nails the subtext of this "Kerry brought it on himself" strategy:
[T]he aim here is not primarily to shift blame for the current dust-up to Kerry (it's too implausible) but to use mock pity to portray him as powerless, impotent and, because of that impotence, as an object of contempt.
Unlike the manly Sheriff Top Gun who struts around in his flight suit, of course.
3 comments:
Karl Rove makes me sick. Plain and simple. It would be nice to see the Repubo party get back to where they used to be before the religious right took them over.
That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen
The failure of the media to report anything worthwhile and to challenge this administration will long be a blight on this country. In regards to one of Bob Dole's own purple hearts, here is what he said in a 1988 campaign:
In a 1988 campaign-trail autobiography, here's how Dole described the incident that earned him his first Purple Heart: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg--the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."
As for my thoughts on the media you can visit my journal
American Crossroads
http://journals.aol.com/eazyguy62/AmericanCrossroads
Eazyguy62
American Crossroads
Yeah, the Christian Right has been a major blight on American politics and American religion. Their effect on politics has been the most immediately destructive. But their religious effect may be even more harmful in the long run.
I was disappointed to see Dole pull this latest stunt. Disappointed, but not particularly surprised. He's a rigid partisan, and he can be nasty. But he was always better policy-wise than the hard right, who have never really trusted him. He was a supporter of the food-stamp program in the Senate. And possibly his most lasting legislative achievement is the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Outside Congress, his most memorable public moment is on the Pepsi commercial a few years ago where he's watching Britney Spears on TV with his dog who's first whimpering and then barks. Dole grins and says, "Easy, boy!"
Too bad he messes up his image with stuff like this. - Bruce
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