Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dirty Tricks: Then and Now
Townhall.com ^ | October 25, 2016 | Cal Thomas

Posted on 10/25/2016 1:03:33 PM PDT by Kaslin

Students of the Watergate era (or those old enough to have lived through it) will recall the "dirty tricks" played by Richard Nixon's henchmen, most notably Donald Segretti. Segretti, who was hired by Nixon's deputy assistant, Dwight Chapin, was tasked with smearing Democrats, including senator and 1972 presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie of Maine. Among several "tricks," Segretti composed a fake letter on Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA) had fathered a child with a 17-year-old girl.

In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal, even forged, campaign literature and served four months of a six-month prison sentence.

I mention this sordid history because some Democrats are playing similar "dirty tricks" on Donald Trump.

Videographer James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas and National Review columnist Stanley Kurtz have exposed Democratic dirty tricks in this presidential campaign.

O'Keefe's videos purport to show Democratic activists, allegedly hired by the party, describing tactics they use to deceive the public. The most notable comes in a clip in which Scott Foval, national director at Americans United for Change, tells of hiring people to demonstrate and even start fights at Donald Trump rallies. The objective was to encourage the media to treat the disturbances as spontaneous responses to Trump's rally rhetoric, which some lefties called "hate speech." Predictably, the media, especially CNN, which gave the disturbances nonstop and repetitive coverage, bought this narrative and willingly spread it without investigating the background of the disruptors. That's probably because the resultant free-for-alls fit the left-leaning media's narrative about Trump.

The equally predictable response from the left was that the videos must have been edited. Democratic Party operatives and Hillary Clinton deny any knowledge of such tactics. Do you really expect them to admit it?

In an Oct. 20 column for National Review, Kurtz reminds us that these tactics are straight from the mind of the late "Rules for Radicals" author and community organizer, Saul Alinsky, a Hillary Clinton pen pal.

Another of O'Keefe's videos is of Robert Creamer, an Alinskyite from Chicago, an experienced community organizer and a man who, according to Breitbart News, visited the White House 340 times and on 42 of those occasions met with President Obama. Creamer admits to being the brains behind hiring and paying for Trump disruptors. He was also sentenced to five months in prison for bank fraud and a tax violation.

While in prison, Kurtz writes, Creamer authored a book titled "Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win." In it, he instructs his fellow lefties how to handle conservatives: "In general our strategic goal with people who have become conservative activists is not to convert them -- that isn't going to happen. It is to demoralize them -- to 'deactivate' them. We need to deflate their enthusiasm, to make them lose their ardor and above all their self-confidence. ... [A] way to demoralize conservative activists is to surround them with the echo chamber of our positions and assumptions. We need to make them feel that they are not mainstream, to make them feel isolated. ... We must isolate them ideologically ... [and] use the progressive echo chamber. ... By defeating them and isolating them ideologically, we demoralize conservative activists directly. Then they begin to quarrel among themselves or blame each other for defeat in isolation, and that demoralizes them further."

Creamer is not alone. George Soros has long funded various groups who engage in similar tactics of disinformation, even violent behavior. Neither the mainstream media, nor Republicans, have sufficiently exposed these dirty tricks and their intent to swing elections toward the Democratic candidate. Federal authorities -- from the compromised FBI, to higher ups in the Justice Department -- won't do anything about it either, mostly because they back Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy.

And somewhere Richard Nixon is shaking his head.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hillaryrottonclinton

1 posted on 10/25/2016 1:03:33 PM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Two sets of rules. God help us if Trump doesn’t win.


2 posted on 10/25/2016 1:06:08 PM PDT by New Jersey Realist (America is the land of the free BECAUSE of the brave)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Actually, Dick Tuck was a brilliant political trickster who the Democrats employed against Nixon.

Having Nixon’s train pull away while he was making a speech from the caboose was one. Embarrassing signs in Chinese hanging behind Nixon was another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tuck


3 posted on 10/25/2016 1:10:27 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: New Jersey Realist

God help us even if Trump wins... this is the mere beginning of a gnarly battle


4 posted on 10/25/2016 1:18:40 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

My favorite bit from Watergate was at the hearings. When someone asked Butterfield about the heretofore unrevealed WH recordings, it was reported that Butterfield “broke out in a$$holes and $hit himself to death.”


5 posted on 10/25/2016 1:19:13 PM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RedStateRocker

Tuck claimed that the Watergate break-in was an attempt to access information held by Larry O’Brien,......I have read (hard print from years ago) the Watergate break-in was to get info on known traitor John Kerry’s involvement with the VVAW to assassinate members of Congress who supported the VN War. Anybody read that?


6 posted on 10/25/2016 1:29:09 PM PDT by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

7 posted on 10/25/2016 2:22:27 PM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Segretti once had hundreds of pizzas delivered to some democrat function. Boy, he was one mean dude! /s


8 posted on 10/25/2016 3:02:34 PM PDT by Terry Mross (This country will fail to exist in my lifetime. And I'm gettin' up there in age.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

They can’t pull it off without full media support. The media should be so ashamed of themselves. They are in so deep, they have forgotten, and no longer care.

While in prison, Kurtz writes, Creamer authored a book titled “Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win.” In it, he instructs his fellow lefties how to handle conservatives: “In general our strategic goal with people who have become conservative activists is not to convert them — that isn’t going to happen. It is to demoralize them — to ‘deactivate’ them. We need to deflate their enthusiasm, to make them lose their ardor and above all their self-confidence. ... [A] way to demoralize conservative activists is to surround them with the echo chamber of our positions and assumptions. We need to make them feel that they are not mainstream, to make them feel isolated. ... We must isolate them ideologically ... [and] use the progressive echo chamber. ... By defeating them and isolating them ideologically, we demoralize conservative activists directly. Then they begin to quarrel among themselves or blame each other for defeat in isolation, and that demoralizes them further.”


9 posted on 10/25/2016 3:44:44 PM PDT by HollyB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

‘How Progressives Can Win” sounds like the homosexual agenda,


10 posted on 10/25/2016 7:23:14 PM PDT by NetAddicted (Just looking)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson