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Morris: Lehane Behind Dean's 'Political Assassination'
NewsMax ^
| 1/17/04
| Limbacher
Posted on 01/16/2004 10:17:39 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Acting at the behest of Bill and Hillary Clinton, a senior campaign aide to Gen. Wesley Clark has carried out the "political assassination" of Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean, former top Clinton advisor Dick Morris contended late Friday. "I believe we have witnessed a political assassination of Howard Dean by the Clintons," Morris told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" - hours after polls showed that Dean's once formidable lead in Iowa had evaporated.
Morris named Clark communications director Chris Lehane, a former Gore campaign spokesman who cut his teeth as a key operative in the Clinton White House's attack machine.
"Chris Lehane has been the source of a lot of these negative stories [about Dean]," he explained. "He's a vehicle for Clinton feeds."
Morris said that other candidates don't have the resources for the kind of opposition research that Lehane has been carrying out for Gen. Clark, whose campaign is staffed wall-to-wall with Clinton White House veterans.
"The places that have the money for negative research are the Democratic National Committee and the Clintons," said Morris.
On Friday the New York Times detailed Lehane's role in the current campaign, calling him "such a shrewd practitioner of what one admiring strategist called 'the political black arts' that lately, when a negative story appears, rivals point to him."
The Times referred to Lehane as Gen. Clark's "secret weapon" in his campaign's war against Dean and other rivals.
In 2000, it was then-Gore aide Lehane who took an innocuous Republican campaign ad that flashed the word "De-moc-rats" across the screen and turned it into a major scandal.
After Lehane told reporters that the word "rats" was an attempt to use subliminal advertising to smear his party, the story turned up on the front page of the Times and dominated the news cycle for days.
"Chris understands the essential dynamic of politics, which is punch or be punched," Jim Jordan, Sen. John Kerry's former campaign manager, told the paper.
But some say Lehane's tactics against Howard Dean go further than that.
"Like criminals, most good political operatives have certain M.O.'s," one unidentified Lehane "friend" told the Times. "He's very aggressive and he's very thorough and very good at getting reporters what they need to do a hatchet job on your opponent."
TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; clintonistas; clintons; dean; dickmorris; howarddean; lehane; makingalist; oppositionresearch; snarlingweasels
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To: Howlin
Who's on the list so far, Howlin?
21
posted on
01/17/2004 12:15:40 AM PST
by
LibertarianInExile
(When law is used to promote inequity, those oppressed will inevitably use it to turn the tables.)
To: LibertarianInExile
You want on?
22
posted on
01/17/2004 12:46:41 AM PST
by
Howlin
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
Could be worse... end up in Ft. Marcy Park in an Arkancide.
23
posted on
01/17/2004 4:15:49 AM PST
by
Feckless
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
hours after polls showed that Dean's once formidable lead in Iowa had evaporated.I don't want to be picky, but Dean never had a "formidable lead" in Iowa. That was just media spin. At his peak, he was only a few points ahead of Gephardt. I don't even know if it was ever a greater lead than the margin of error.
24
posted on
01/17/2004 4:18:27 AM PST
by
Timesink
(I'm not a big fan of electronic stuff, you know? Beeps ... beeps freak me out. They're bad.)
To: Howlin
I'll hunt you down one by one!My sword sir is ever ready should you need assistance!
25
posted on
01/17/2004 4:22:53 AM PST
by
Northern Yankee
( Freedom needs a soldier...)
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
"Chris understands the essential dynamic of politics, which is punch or be punched," Jim Jordan, Sen. John Kerry's former campaign manager, told the paper.Jordan knows all about sucker punching. It's his wife who was the AP reporter that wrote the Rick Santorum hit piece.
26
posted on
01/17/2004 4:24:25 AM PST
by
Timesink
(I'm not a big fan of electronic stuff, you know? Beeps ... beeps freak me out. They're bad.)
To: Buck W.
Lehane's tactic was so successful that we still call them "RATS" today.It sure is amazing how Lehane is considered some sort of political master even though his candidates always prove to be complete losers (Gore, Clark, etc) and his biggest "achievement" has been to create a new, permanent insult for the Democratic Party.
27
posted on
01/17/2004 4:29:05 AM PST
by
Timesink
(I'm not a big fan of electronic stuff, you know? Beeps ... beeps freak me out. They're bad.)
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
"The places that have the money for negative research are the Democratic National Committee and the Clintons," said Morris. I thought they were synonymous.
IIRC, Lehane the viral strain was working for Kerry before jumping like a flea to Clark.
28
posted on
01/17/2004 4:30:28 AM PST
by
auboy
(Take some time each morning to count your blessings.)
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
I figured this out several days ago, from a report I heard on NPR.
It doesn't hurt (except sometimes your blood pressure) to listen to what "the other side" is saying.
29
posted on
01/17/2004 4:33:44 AM PST
by
Amelia
To: adam_az
the lame 30 year old DWILame? We might think so, but it is widely credited for having cost W all of his rather substantial popular vote lead.
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
"Political assassination" has a sexy ring, but it's nothing but good old-fashioned opposition research, a technique practiced by political campaigns of all stripes since time immemorial. So long as the information revealed is not false, I see nothing wrong with it.
To the contrary, I'd say it can serve a useful purpose. For example, I don't know if it was Lehane or someone else who dug up Kerry's past proposal to cut the Dept. of Agriculture. But from the point of view of an Iowa voter, I'd say that's relevant information, not "political assassination."
Comment #32 Removed by Moderator
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
Morris sees the Clintons everywhere. I wonder if he checks under the bed and in his closets for them when he gets home....
33
posted on
01/17/2004 4:55:50 AM PST
by
txzman
(Jer 23:29)
To: txzman
Morris sees the Clintons everywhere. I wonder if he checks under the bed and in his closets for them when he gets home....The problem is, 6 out of 10 times, there they are.
34
posted on
01/17/2004 5:02:42 AM PST
by
Lazamataz
(New York City has always been, and always will be, America's switchblade.)
To: Lazamataz
Republican War Room = working on strategies to defeat enemies of the US
Democrat War Room = digging up so-called dirt on one's political enemies
We are in a real war on terrorism and most people can see the difference.
35
posted on
01/17/2004 5:39:04 AM PST
by
chgomac
To: CyberAnt
"a result of that ad, the DEMOCRAT party has tried to change its name to the DemocratIC party to keep the repubs from using the "rat" or "rats" against them"
Doesn't matter. Up here in Lyme disease country, the "tics" are just as dangerous as the "rats", as far a spreading disease is concerned. Spreading disease is an apt description of democrats.
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
Looks like the Democrats have their own Donald Segretti.
Remember what they called it at CREEP in 72?...Rat F^&*ing.
37
posted on
01/17/2004 5:48:08 AM PST
by
philo
To: Howlin
To the people on this site who are bashing Bush day in and day outAnd if, God forbid, a Dim were to win in November these same people would snarl and rip and bash them even more. Taking no responsibility for their own role in what happened.
Certain people are simply perpetual complainers. Single-issue voters frequently fall into that category.
Prairie
38
posted on
01/17/2004 5:56:05 AM PST
by
prairiebreeze
(God Bless and Protect the Allied Troops. And the families here at home---they are soldiers too.)
To: Mo1
You were right on target. What we need is some dirt to be dredged up about Lehane. Keep him busy that way
Prairie
39
posted on
01/17/2004 5:57:55 AM PST
by
prairiebreeze
(God Bless and Protect the Allied Troops. And the families here at home---they are soldiers too.)
To: Feckless
Could be worse... end up in Ft. Marcy Park in an Arkancide. Could be worse... end up on Howlin's list.
40
posted on
01/17/2004 6:01:49 AM PST
by
Allan
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