Gillespie Memo: Kerry Campaign as Inside Joke

Republican National Committee ^ | August 20, 2004

[RWR8189]

To: Congressional Leadership, RNC Leadership & Members of Congress

 

From: Ed Gillespie

 

Subject: Kerry Campaign as Inside Joke

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Responding to the fact that Senator Kerry missed 76% of the of the Senate Intelligence Committee's public hearings, his campaign’s senior adviser called the statistic “misleading” because it represents only public hearings and not the numerous non-public hearings the committee holds.

So surely Senator Kerry will authorize the Senate Intelligence Committee to make public his and his running mate’s record of attendance at non-public hearings, right? Don’t bet on it. Their campaign thinks they can cite non-public hearings as discounting a dismal public attendance record with a wink, then refuse to authorize their public release with a nod.

The Kerry for President Campaign has taken political cynicism to a new low in this election, openly scoffing at what they consider to be the public’s-and the media’s-gullibility on issues as important as intelligence funding, national security, people’s jobs, the Federal budget, our nation’s energy supply and funding for our troops in combat, and even as trivial as “home cookin’.”

In a long series of “on background” and “off-the-record” comments, campaign officials and advisers have laid bare some remarkable hypocrisy:

• Kerry Campaign advisors believe his promise to make the United States independent of oil from the Middle East is “unrealistic and misleading”, and that his “jabs at Saudi Arabia could be construed by many in the Middle East as anti-Arab, at a time when the United States may need the help of other Arab nations to improve the situation in Iraq” are “irresponsible” and “asinine.” (New York Times, 8/7/04)
• The constantly changing rationale for voting to cut off funding for body armor for our troops in combat after saying it would be “irresponsible” to do so is well documented, but the real reason is now explicitly stated. “As one of his advisers put it to me, ‘off the record, he did because of Howard Dean. On the record, he has an elaborate explanation.’” (The New Yorker, 7/26/04)
• Despite Senator Kerry’s promise to end outsourcing of jobs, “campaign officials acknowledged that the new plan would not stop the broader trend of outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries.” (New York Times, 3/26/2004)
• Senator Kerry promises deficit reduction, “although Kerry’s aides privately admit the Democratic candidate cannot fulfill all of his campaign promises and still reduce the deficit by half as promised…” (Washington Post, 3/23/04)

After stopping at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant for a photo-op dinner, the Kerrys retreated to the campaign bus to sup on “Shrimp Vindaloo” and “Diver Deep Sea Scallops,” previously ordered from a nearby country club. Days later, after feigning a hankering for some “baby back ribs and a vanilla malted” from a famed Wisconsin diner, Senator Kerry was found dining on filet mignon at a nearby restaurant.

With the winks and nods to reality “on background” and “off the record,” the public is left to see only the stage-managed imagery on television and on-the-record comments of the candidate in print, which are explicitly designed to mislead. The Kerry Campaign has become naked in its disdain for the public’s ability to discern reality and mocking of the media’s traditional role of referee in the political arena, acting as though print reporters and TV news producers are part of some “inside joke” perpetrated on the voters.

Such contempt for the electorate and the media rarely, if ever, succeed. As a great Republican President once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” Senator Kerry’s blatant hypocrisy will not be able to fool the voters in November, nor will he be able to count on reporters to stand inside his campaign looking disdainfully out at the public and laughing at the inside joke instead of outside his campaign looking skeptically in at his promises and asking the tough questions.

[MarkL]

This guy eats like a horse. He must have a hollow leg.

No, that's the OTHER Kerrey, the one that the Kerry campaign seemed to get mixed up with their own candidate! (He's the one who was the chairman of the Intelligence committee).

BTW, Bob Kerrey served in Viet Nam too, but he's a "real" war hero! While this Kerrey is still a liberal "whack job," and I deplore what he did on the "9-11 Commission," he lost part of a leg and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in Viet Nam.

Mark

[Tacis]

Why wouldn't some 527 group put out an ad claiming that TRaitor John attended only 6% of all public and private Senate committee meetings, maybe with an asterisk for "estimated," and force Kerry to rebut it or shut up and accept it. He'd either have to prove it wasn't 6%, it was really 24% or shut up and accept the number.

At this late date, is there any 527 group that would take on some wild ass anti-Kerry ideas? I have a couple of off the wall concept that the Good Guys shouldm't/wouldn't touch. I'm looking for a 527 group run by a guy like Carville, but a Carvile who had opted to oppose the forces of filth, corruption and evil.

You know the dems right now are putting together nasty stuff in a 3 to 10 day turn time.

[adam_az]

"You know the dems right now are putting together nasty stuff in a 3 to 10 day turn time."

I'll bet a dollar they will try to bring up the DWI thing again with some new twist.

Probably have Ted Kennedy do the docs dump or something equally shameless.

[Tunehead54]

Bump for a copy to my gullible friends ... ;-)

[LouisWu]

nor will he be able to count on reporters to stand inside his campaign ... instead of outside his campaign ... asking the tough questions

This is fantasy. The MM is never gonna ask him the "tough questions", right down to the end, no matter what they have to cover up or lie about.

They've for some weeks now been painting Hussein as if he's just a poor, old, ill, beleagured man, whittling away his last days gardening and writing lovely poetry. No death camps, no rape rooms, no teaching his pre-teen sons to murder political dissenters in cold blood. Nothing is too low for this Newsertainment cartel.

The toughest question John Fraud Kerry will ever receive from anyone in the big-money mainstream press will likely begin somehting like "If we could be one one-hundredth as wonderful as you...."

[mylife]

[nopardons]

bttt

[Jim_Curtis]

Why wouldn't some 527 group put out an ad claiming that TRaitor John attended only 6% of all public and private Senate committee meetings

We need more 527 groups. We need several of them and we need them getting the truth out. The rats can direct all of their legal power at one 527 with only the swift boat vets out there.

Why aren't there several vet groups coming out with their own ads against this traitor? It is clear that Kerry is a crackpot traitor and embellisher of his war record.

[Conservative_Rob]

Ya know, Kerry has always seemed like Doug Neidermeyer from "Animal House" to me.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>This guy eats like a horse. He must have a hollow leg

Hollow heard.

[Keith in Iowa]

Oops.. head. Dang fat fingers...

[YankeeReb]

The rats can direct all of their legal power at one 527 with only the swift boat vets out there.....

True, but then again look at the way its got the Heinz-Kerry campaign all in a twist. Reminds me of the days of Willard the Stainmaker. The closer to the truth the charges were the more they'd try to destroy the messenger.

If John 'Effin Kerry had to take 1/10th the abuse that Bush has taken he would have had his Howard Dean moment back in April. This is being done with about $200,000 compared to the millions spent by Soros, and on the Michael Moore schlockumentary

[The Old Hoosier]

Responding to the fact that Senator Kerry missed 76% of the of the Senate Intelligence Committee's public hearings,

This is factually incorrect. Kerry actually missed 78% of the hearings.

:-)

[WillVoteForFood]

Said Kerry, "I missed 76% of the hearings before I missed 78%."

[jws3sticks]

Ya know, Kerry has always seemed like Doug Neidermeyer from "Animal House" to me.

Save that the pro-log said that Neidermeyer was shot by his won troops. Too bad the same thing did not happen to this sap.

[GSlob]

Well, a knee jerk response to his attendance numbers for private meetings would be to have someone from that intelligence committee to (publicly) ask "kerry who"? and claim not to recognize the face.