It's official: The Republican Party of today runs the dirtiest campaigns in history.
You can read it in none other than the Washington Post – a newspaper so mainstream and afraid to attack the Grand Ol' Puds that it supported the failed Iraqi invasion and endorses mostly Republicans for major offices.
In Friday's Post is a front-page story on how the dirty campaigns have intensified in recent years. The story here lays most of the blame on the Grand Ol' Puds.
"The result has been a carnival of ugly, especially on the GOP side, where operatives are trying to counter what polls show is a hostile political environment by casting opponents as fatally flawed characters. The National Republican Campaign Committee is spending more than 90 percent of its advertising budget on negative ads...."
The story quotes "experts" who say that in the past, negative ads were "usually more accurate, better documented and more informative than positive ads" since there was a higher burden of proof. In this age of shadow groups whose use by campaigns has been polished to a given by Rove and Bush in their low-road careers, ads can pretty much say anything without any proof. And candidates can claim they don't know about them, such as Bush did when the Swift Boaters lied about Kerry's Vietnam record in 2004.
Sure, Bush knew nothing about the Swift Boaters. No matter that members of the 2004 Bush campaign directly worked for the Swift Boaters in 2004 and Rove likely directed the Swift Boaters in a direct violation of federal law. No matter that the Maryland GOP head nazi-type recently offered as "proof" that the campaign of Democratic Gov. candidate Martin O'Malley was working closely with the Maryland Fund, a Democratic 527 group that has run anti-Republican ads, that a staff member of the Maryland Fund worked for O'Malley's campaign way back in 1999.
A ha! A Democrat now at a 527 who worked for a candidate's campaign seven years ago gives us more proof of laws being violated than a Republican working presently on both a candidate's campaign and a 527. At least that's the logic in these Grand Ol' Puds' eyes.
The latest example of the supposed party of responsibility not taking responsibility for its scumsucking, slimeball tactics is Republican National Committee ads that all-but accuse Tennessee Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., who is trying to become the first African American Senate member from the South since Reconstruction, of having had sex with a white Playboy bunny.
Grand Ol' Pud Senate candidate Corky Corker said he was not to blame for the ad and knew nothing about who was, except for the RNC. RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, one of many closet gay puds, claimed he could not pull the lid on the ad since it was being funded through an "independent" segment of the RNC.
That "independent" RNC unit was headed by none other than Terry Nelson, a senior adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain and political director for Bush's 2004 campaign. And oh yeah, Nelson was chief of staff for the RNC. And oh yeah, the ad was pulled soon after some outcry only to be replaced by one that told more lies about Ford.
The Washington Post story detailed more examples of Republican lies in ads. Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Ron Kind was accused of paying for sex by the puds simply for not voting for a measure to stop the National Institutes of Health from doing medical studies related to sex. Kind's opponent also ran ads claiming he would "let illegal aliens burn the American flag" and "allow convicted child molesters to enter this country."
Then, in perfect Grand Ol' Pud hypocrisy, Kind's opponent claimed he didn't engage in negative campaigning since the attacks weren't really personal.
Other examples:
* In New York, an ad accused Democratic House candidate Michael Arcuri, a district attorney, of using taxpayer dollars for phone sex. It turns out that one of Arcuri's aides had tried to call the Division of Criminal Justice, which had a number almost the same as a porn line. The misdial cost taxpayers a whopping $1.25.
* In Ohio, GOP gubernatorial candidate and 2004 Katherine Harris wannabe Kenneth Blackwell, accused Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland of protecting a former aide who was convicted way back in 1994 on a misdemeanor indecency charge.
* The Republican Party of Wisconsin tried to link Democratic House candidate Steve Kagen to a convicted serial killer and child rapist simply because the murderer's lawyer had once done some legal work for Kagen.
Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. His latest book, "Born to Cheat: How Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co. Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House," debuted at the Take Back America conference in June 2007. More info on the book is at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/cheat.html
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