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 will our Susan say what the Swifties come out with in October? 'The elephant squashing a gnat' ad. She wrote this hatefilled essay around the time a drunken Kerry was lurching around his stump stop last night..with hecklers audible in the background. So it's understandable that she'd lose it. Gone is the mask of 'our friend, Susan.' We see her as she truly is, warts and all, and it ain't pretty, folks.
If Rats decide the only thing Kerry can do is smear 24/7, voters will be turned off, the few left watching him. Besides, everybody knows it's all lies. As Nov. draws near, they want to hear particulars, are you going to raise my taxes stuff. Kerry's already coyly said that's a big secret, along with everything else he'd do as pres. except hand the keys to the nation to the UN and France. Susan's just mad that he didn't call her up and beg her to join his staff. She'd probably tell him to forget the shades and racing gloves when windsurfing. Oh, and stop overdressing for stump speeches. She'd never fit in. She's far better off making a complete fool of herself in public on Fox.
Poor bass-mouthed Susan is having a bad case of deja vieux (spelling--don't speak Fr.) She is reliving the Dukakis implosion when she was running his campaign.
Hope she doesn't get over it.
vaudine
Seems apropos when the screaming banshee Estrich once again wallows in the Demoncrat tactic of demeaning their worthy opponents.
>>Bwa-Hahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!!<<
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking!
I wonder if the alleged perp lived.
Suzy has been completely retro-actively insane.
When history repeats itself, and you're the one history calls an idiot, being upset is a given.
Suzy's biggest problem is she has no clue what main stream America is concerned with. Nada, zip, zilch.
>>The Dems won't give up without a fight. Things will get much more ugly than that Estrich creature. The Left will get desperate and fiercely angry. What you see now is nothing by comparison.
Before it is over there will be war.<<
My father and I were talking about this several months ago. We think there is a better than 50% chance that there will be serious rioting all over the country when Bush wins. At least, in the blue counties. 8^>
Hmmmm... Maybe it's just me...
The hate emanating from this photo is scary!!!!
Did anyone else catch this?
"Who said anything about fair? Remember President Dukakis? He was very fair. Now he teaches at Northeastern University."
Funny, I dont remember a President Dukakis...anyone else?
I wonder how the FReepers here, who a few months ago were saying that they like Susan, feel about her now.
I don't remember any of the names but many seemed to be warming up to her.
Not me. Once a rat always a rat.
Its time to drive the final nail in the RAT party coffin!
" and I can go on." Awh, pissjones, go on!
I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything.
The Kerry campaign was sure that the liberal ("mainstream") newsrooms would do what they always do - - cover for and prop up the Democrat candidate. The Kerry campaign made a 1992 decision in 2004 and that miscalculation demonstrates magnificently the utter incompetence of the Kerry campaign, and thus, the incompetence of John Effin Kerry himself.
LOL, you mean Bush didn't make his Texas driving record the centerpiece of his campaign?
"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?)"
What "war hero" would not release his stellar military record?
"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"
BWHAHAHAHA. Translation: If you guys don't knock it off we will be forced to continue pummeling your fist with our face.
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.