Posted on 09/03/2004 10:48:47 AM PDT by Roscoe Karns
My Democratic friends are mad as hell, and they aren't going to take it any more.
They are worried, having watched as another August smear campaign, full of lies and half-truths, takes its toll in the polls.
They are frustrated, mostly at the Kerry campaign, for naively believing that just because all the newspapers and news organizations that investigated the charges of the Swift Boat assassins found them to be full of lies and half-truths, they wouldn't take their toll. The word on the street is that Kerry himself was ready to fire back the day the story broke, but that his campaign, believing the charges would blow over if they ignored them, counseled restraint.
But most of all, activists Democrats are angry. As one who lived through an August like this, 16 years ago -- replete with rumors that were lies, which the Bush campaign claimed they had nothing to do with and later admitted they had planted -- I'm angry, too. I've been to this movie. I know how it works. Lies move numbers.
Remember the one about Dukakis suffering from depression after he lost the governorship? (Dukakis not crazy, more at 11.) We lost six points over that lie, planted by George W.'s close friend and colleague in the 1988 campaign, Lee Atwater. Or how about the one about Kitty Dukakis burning a flag at an antiwar demonstration, another out-and-out lie, which the Bush campaign denied having anything to do with, except that it turned out to have come from a United States senator via the Republican National Committee? Lee Atwater later apologized to me for that, too, on his deathbed. Did I mention that Lee's wife is connected to the woman running the Swift Boat campaign?
Never again, we said then.
Not again, Democrats are saying now.
What do you do, Democrats keep asking each other.
The answer is not pretty, but everyone knows what it is.
In 1988, in the days before the so-called independent groups, the candidate called the shots. To Michael Dukakis' credit, depending on how you look at it, he absolutely refused to get into the gutter, even to answer the charges. His theory, like that of some on the Kerry staff, was that answering such charges would only elevate them, give them more attention than they deserved. He thought the American people wanted to hear about issues, not watch a mud-wrestling match. In theory, he was right. In practice, the sad truth is that smears work -- that if you throw enough mud, some of it is bound to stick.
You can't just answer the charges. You can't just say it ain't so.
You have to fight fire with fire, mud with mud, dirt with dirt.
The trouble with Democrats, traditionally, is that we're not mean enough. Dukakis wasn't. I wasn't. I don't particularly like destroying people. I got into politics because of issues, not anger. But too much is at stake to play by Dukakis rules, and lose again.
That is the conclusion Democrats have reached. So watch out. Millions of dollars will be on the table. And there are plenty of choices for what to spend it on.
I'm not promising pretty.
What will it be?
Will it be the three, or is it four or five, drunken driving arrests that Bush and Cheney, the two most powerful men in the world, managed to rack up? (Bush's Texas record has been sealed. Now why would that be? Who seals a perfect driving record?)
After Vietnam, nothing is ancient history, and Cheney is still drinking. What their records suggest is not only a serious problem with alcoholism, which Bush but not Cheney has acknowledged, but also an even more serious problem of judgment. Could Dick Cheney get a license to drive a school bus with his record of drunken driving? (I can see the ad now.) A job at a nuclear power plant? Is any alcoholic ever really cured? So why put him in the most stressful job in the world, with a war going south, a thousand Americans already dead and control of weapons capable of destroying the world at his fingertips.
It has been said that in the worst of times, Kissinger gave orders to the military not to obey Nixon if he ordered a first strike. What if Bush were to fall off the wagon? Then what? Has America really faced the fact that we have an alcoholic as our president?
Or how about Dead Texans for Truth, highlighting those who served in Vietnam instead of the privileged draft-dodging president, and ended up as names on the wall instead of members of the Air National Guard. I'm sure there are some mothers out there who are still mourning their sons, and never made that connection. It wouldn't be so hard to find them.
Or maybe it will be Texas National Guardsmen for Truth, who can explain exactly what George W. Bush was doing while John Kerry was putting his life on the line. So far, all W. can do is come up with dental records to prove that he met his obligations. Perhaps with money on the table, or investigators on their trail, we will learn just what kind of wild and crazy things the president was doing while Kerry was saving a man's life, facing enemy fire and serving his country.
Or could it be George Bush's Former Female Friends for Truth. A forthcoming book by Kitty Kelly raises questions about whether the president has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion. As Larry Flynt discovered, a million dollars loosens lips. Are there others to be loosened?
Are you shocked? Not fair? Who said anything about fair? Remember President Dukakis? He was very fair. Now he teaches at Northeastern University. John Kerry has been very fair in dealing with the Swift Boat charges. That's why so many of my Democrat friends have decided to stop talking to the campaign, and start putting money together independently.
The arrogant little Republican boys who have been strutting around New York this week, claiming that they have this one won, would do well to take a step back. It could be a long and ugly road to November.
To find out more about Susan Estrich, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
What tripe!!!
Susan Estrich needs an emergency adenoidectomy.
When it comes to lies, dirt, etc, this is stock and trade of Democratic politics. Always was and always will be.
Shine the light of truth on issues and they scream unfair.
Go soak your head Estrich.
I guess what they're saying, is that they aren't going to go with anything truthful, but are going to carefully craft, and stage lies, to counter the truth of the swiftvets. Never underestimate the enemy, and they have enough hollywood types, to pull this off, and their utter desperation for power, knows no bounds. I'd take this seriously, were I one of Pres. Bush's advisors, and carefully prepare counterattacks, now that the enemy has revealed the game plan. Essentially, you have a democratic operative, outright telling you, they're going to lie, and distort the truth, no matter the consequences, as apparently, they feel no other course of action is left, for them to have any chance to make this election close.
First, as I recall the DNC and Kerry campaign did attack the SBV's, and all it did was net the SBVs a lot of unanticipated contributions and a lot of irate veterans coming out of the "woodwork" to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Second, in anticipation of the aftermath of the usual slander tactics of the dims, restraint was probably counseled. One usually counsels restraint against those who would attack a hornets nest as well.
What is most laughable is that all of this is a self-inflicted problem. Aren't there any adults in the DNC who could foresee that Kerry was precisely the wrong guy to run against Bush?
Didn't it occur to anyone that there are millions of Viet Nam era vets who will eat glass before they will vote for Kerry?
The country is split 50-50 along ideological grounds, but for veterans its personal. Anyone as experienced as Estrich should have seen this train wreck coming in time to get out of the way.
Because you never saw the true nature of terrorists, the question Susan is why would you be able to defend us if you can't defend the country? If after 16 years you can't figure out how to fight Lee Atwaters students why do you think we don't trust you to defend the country? You can't fight the students of Arafat, bin Laden or Hussein.
I'm glad she is crying it shows how weak they are and why Jimmy Carter, Dukakis and Kerry are losers. Klinton won because he was a coward and cowards are good at making people like them before they back shoot them.
Pray for W and Our Troops
171 posted on 09/03/2004 11:20:32 AM PDT by OnTheDress (His legacy is a stain on the dress.) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
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Dude for that you deserve a weeks time out.
Oh man, I just 
I don't know, is a traitor and a communist sympathizer ever cured? I mean meeting with representatives of the party you are at war with without the approval of the government while still a member of the US Military is TREASON.... So why should we trust a traitor as Commander in Chief?
Should we trust a man to be in charge of our military that at one time spit in the face of our military? That encoraged others to do so? That encourage feces to be flung at our servicemen? Who portrayed them as oppressors and occupiers and not the noble liberators that they are?
Dems are beside themselves, just like the arab terrorists, lashing out at everyone because their own house if crumbling around them and doing so because of their own actions... but instead of accpeting they refused to put forward a serious canidate in an age of seriousness... they just lash out like a Rabid dog at anything rather than look at themselves.
You had your chance to choose a serious contender, but your party turned its nose up at Lieberman and Ghephart, you picked a pretty boy, panzy with connections to communist sympathizer and co-founder of an organization that plotted the assassination of US Senators, lied about the good servicemen of this country during war time and provided aid and comfort to the enemy through these actions that directly led to extending the war by at least 2 years, costing another 10,000 to 15,000 americans to die! You made your bed Dems, don't be blaiming the republicans that your party is not a party full of serious people... you made your bed, now lie in it.
You can see Kerry doing his Dean Martin impression at http://www.c-span.org/ , just look at the links on the left of the page.
CSPAN just replayed it... I don't know of a copy online.
HEY IDIOT SUSAN PESTRAGEN,
The dirt on our boy is well known as are the extreme lies of your side about him.
It's not our fault that the SWIFT BOAT PATRIOTS ARE TELLING THE TRUTH!
It's not our fault that your guy is a not-so-closeted Commie hell-bent on destroying our way of life and turning us over to a world government as fast as he can shred the Constitution!
Wake up Susan. Traitors are amongst the first to hit the gas chambers!
Yeah, absolutely, Suze...he was so fair that he let convicted first-degree murderers and robbers out on furlough so they could rape people. Yeah. Really fair. And really...what's the word you guys used...competent. Uh, no, it isn't. That sucks...no matter what race the crook is. You want to know why Poppy Bush handed Michael Dukakis his butt in 1988? It's not because of whatever "lies" you think Bush's campaign told about him. It's because the truth was worse (dare I say more lethal?) than anything Lee Atwater could possibly make up.
Susan Estrich, CROAKING TOAD - HIDDEN BRAIN.
Good...I've been looking forward to this bunch of spoiled whiners to conclude. There was never any doubt that they would be their own undoing. I'm a little surprised Froggy is so enthused about it, though.
The Dems are definately defacating masonary
Considering her track record, the more the Dems involved ole Satchel-Mouth the better for us!
GOTCHA, Smartypants!
great response nerd girl...
nick
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