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.
Ain't enough scotch in the world for that.
You seriously don't want to bring up Drinking problems in a week where Gore just got tagged for Speeding, and Kerry just delivered a speech where he honestly looked a bit tipsy. And yes, I did just see the replay.... and he definately sounded and appeared to have imbibed a bit in the spirits before getting on camera in front of a national audience to attack a President do you? Well then again given how badly Dems have handled this entire campaign from the primaries on maybe you do.
Egads. She is vicious today.
This is why I don't trust FOX?
Every talking head she comes on with says "my good friend" Susan Ostrich?
Who could be friends with that vile woman? And, why would you want to?
People already know who GW and Cheney are. Thats why assassinating their character isn't going to work.
And people are starting to see what Kerry and Estrich and the mobs are all about. The louder they scream, the greater the contrast between them, the snarling misfits, and the normal, happy optimists on the Republican side.
Estrich seems to think that if you are going over a cliff the answer is to kick it into high gear and honk the horn.
Hey Fox producers ... this is what I do too and how many other of your viewers turn off Fox when this hag is on .... my suggestion ... get rid of her ...
You'll be counted as part of her "hate mail" now!
Once again, the Democrats demonstrate hysterical possessiveness over tactics they think they have sole rights to.
Susan has been so smug and cutsey for months, like liberals are when they think they're firmly in the driver's seat. Now that the reality that they have "Misunderestimated" our fine President once again is hitting her, the false veneer is off and the viscious wolvereen that she really is, is there for all to see again.
The T&C of this site prohibit obscenities.
Please cease and desist before you start a barfarama.
Is there any video of this? Anyone?
Ewww....cancel the ice....put a bag on the hag.
The guy 60 Minutes is trotting out is an active fundraiser for Kerry, his story is old, and was debunked by the LA Times back in 1999. CBS is cutting its own throat by putting giving major time to this liar.
The President will be out talking to folks telling them more about the vision he layed out in his acceptance speech. Voters are eager to hear his positive plan for moving America forward with bold new economic initiatives such as revamping the tax code.
While all this is going on, Kerry will be stuck in the mud flailing away and sinking slowly out of sight.
I started with the mute button, graduated to another channel or turning off the TV entirely. Works for me.
"Has America really faced the fact that we have an alcoholic as our president?"
Funny, Susan, you're supposed to be an insightful professor of Political Science. How did you miss the positive message in the President's recovery from alcohol abuse?
Yes, the president did recognize that he abused alcohol. Your party brought his DUI to everyone's attention just a few days before the 2000 election day. It probably cost the president a few points too, and made the election close.
But fact is, he's been alcohol free for years now.
Maybe we should bring up too, the fact that the twins may be at risk for the disease. It may bring comfort to many parents out there who are having difficulty dealing with the epidemic of drug use in our high schools.
In fact this discussion is sure to help the 20 million or so alcohol and drug abusers in this country who are struggling with their disease. I think they would find inspiration in the president's story.
And while we're at it, let's ask John Kerry about his marijuana use and if he thinks it should be legalized.
Fact is, Susan, you're a political science light weight. I think the only reason they put you on these talk shows is for entertainment. You had your fun these past several months, bashing the president; glowing in the polls that showed your candidate ahead in the polls.
Crawl back into your hole and re submit this dribberish you call political insight.
Nick
PS-By the way what class do you teach over there?
My email to Susan Estrich:
Dear Susan,
Your article trying to paint Cheney as an alcoholic is laughable. You are a day late and a dollar short here Susan. I enjoy you immensely on Fox news, as you entertain us as much or more than any other liberal they could find to do the devil's advocate thing. But this article is pathetic, and although I don't have any complaint about your tactics (all is fair in love, war, & politics) - you are screeching at the top of your lungs as yet another ship you've tied your name to sinks.
This race is all but finished. Why be known as the national voice for sore losers?
If every woman were as ugly as she is, there would be NO more abortions anywhere on the planet.
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