Thursday, August 19, 2004
Willie Horton Goes to War
NY Times: Politics as Usual0 comments
This whole anti-John Kerry ad flap is truthless campaign sleaze at its Lee Atwater finest.
It's been designed purely to steer Americans away from the crumbling Bush/Cheney '04 campaign, and to make conservative Democrats and any possible Kerry Republicans think twice and perhaps stay home (B/C '04's only real chance) on an election day where every single vote may prove critical.
Who cares if the Not-Too-Swift Boat Vets campaign is true or bogus? Doesn't matter. The conservative press has given it legs, so it's effective.
The simple fact is, it's a search and destroy mission. Period. They're just following orders. The mission is to destroy something. In this case, John Kerry. How you do this doesn't matter: just destroy it. As always, Truth (along with American Freedom, Liberty and Justice, etc.) is collateral damage.
As Kerry said today, turn your boat towards your attacker and counterattack.
So, it's time for the Kerry/Edwards campaign to push these two phrases—relentlessly:
"Prove it!" and "Then testify under oath!"
This is where John Edwards comes in. This is where we should see his value to the ticket. John Edwards needs to start working the phones, as he never has before.
It's time for his "Legally Blonde" epiphany moment. Send out the SOS to all your legal friends and colleagues; then, mobilize them. Get the courthouse phonetrees working.
His whole career has been built on salvaging the day for clients in peril who are being belittled and maligned by well-financed, major corporate media and legal efforts (i.e., corporate sleaze campaign strategies when companies realize they have a weak case: blame and destroy the victim).
The best way to make sleaze stop is to sue it. Sue it fast and hard for defamation and libel. In local courts, state courts and federal court. And most importantly, in the Court of Public Opinion. Make their heads swim. Scare the bejeesus out of the small Vet players and tie up the money of the GOP's big dogs.
But most importantly, put them in a position where they'd have to face the possibility of having to testify under oath and pain of perjury. Tell them to go ahead and prove it. We'll see if they stand their ground, or call for a speedy tactical retreat.
This is the aspect of John Edwards that scares the corporate right so badly. He, and his attorney colleagues, take their toys away and force them to pay up for their actions.
So the K/E campaign should just go ahead and utilize this weapon.
He can't do so directly, but Edwards must know scores of D & L attorneys who can step into this fray—apart from any Kerry campaign connection—and file suit in federal court against John O'Neill, Bob Perry, Larry Thurlow and the lot of them, up to, and including, any White House or Bush/Cheney '04 connections.
Considering that, as middle-class shills, the Not-Too-Swift Boat Vets Gang (aside from Perry) most likely don't have the finances to fight a federal suit, this should slow their step quite a bit.
You also would see how desperate the Bush campaign would be: we would assume that they'd let the whole thing disappear from a cost-analysis basis (they took a shot; it worked some and now it's time to move on to something else), but if they're really as scared of Kerry as they appear and are committed to going down this road as their only chance, they'd raise as much cash as needed.
Oh...BTW, while all this Not-Too-Swift Boat Vets Gang nonsense is keeping Wolf Blitzer and Joe Scarborough and the Cable Gang panting breathlessly until the Scott Peterson trial comes back from hiatus, has anybody noticed that this country and, by extention, major parts of the world are going to hell in a handbasket under this administration?
And that increasing numbers of Americans are telling polls they're now holding the administration accountable for all this mess?
And that no B/C '04 ad touts successes from their first term nor points to any uplifting agenda for a second term? That 15% of all B/C '04 ads say that George and Laura are "warm and fuzzy" while 85% of their ads follow the "Kerry is Satan" motif?
And that John Kerry's poll numbers still keep inching ever-upwards?
Not that there's any connection in all of this, of course.
posted by Gotham 2:25 PM
0 Comments:
