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.
The Democrats are hysterical...complete melt down. We already know Dick Cheney had a several DUI's in the 60's (I can't remember the number)...Somehow I don't think this will work. As for the abortion deal, I heard that before..you pay someone enough, they might say anything. Kitty Kelly is not believable...don't think anyone but the most partisan Democrats will care about what she has to say. However, this strategy will surely drive independent voters away-it reeks of desperation. Susan ran an inept campaign for Dukakis... if any Dem in their right mind listens to her then they are idiots. I can see it now...the Dems talke about alcoholism and the Repubs talk about protecting all Americans from terror which has become only to real-after the Moscow hostage situation. Susan-bring it on!
...inflicting his own wounds.
Who seals a perfect driving record?
I don't know, Susie. Who seals a heroic military record?""
Who seals a will? Does the will of Mama T's late husband state that IF she remarries, she gets totally cut off from the $$$$?
If so, are Mama T and Skerry married or not?
If they are "living in sin", won't that play well in Peoria with Catholics? Anyone who follows their established religion?
The newspapers that are trying to get these records unsealed need to accomplish this soon.
Where and when did Mama T and Skerry alledgely get married? Or is that part of his hidden life, also.??
Seems there are more shoes to drop in the private life of these 2. September surprise??
Does this person have a profile on Am I Annoying .com? If not, she should have.
She forgets that Mike Dukakis did not lose in 1988 because of GOP "lies". He lost because he was an unabashed liberal and admitted it before the campaign was over. Nor is Mike Dukakis the kind of fellow you'd like to have over to the house for dinner. He's a very unusual person(i.e., a creep).
Who will ever forget his positively dreadful and mealy-mouthed answer to that now famous 1988 debate question: "What would be your reaction if your wife were raped?"
Dukakis is a prig and a cheapskate. After all, how else could he attract such extraordinarily awful people such as Ms. Estrich? Candidates tend to attract people like them as staff. Now there's something to contemplate!
No soup for you, Susan!
Let's see: four years of Bush stole Florida, Bush is a racist, Bush is a moron, Bush is a Nazi, Bush lied and people died, Bush trumped up the war for political gain -- yeah, it's time the 'rats stopped pulling their punches and got down and dirty.
If draft dodging presidents didn't bother you in the 90s, my dear, it shouldn't bother you now.
If lies and half-truths didn't bother you out of Democrats' lips, it shouldn't bother you out of anyone elses.
And if using national tragedies (Vietnam) doesn't bother you with Kerry, using 9-11 by Bush shouldn't bother you now.
.
.
Unless you're a hyprocrite.
Bloodspawn of Carol Channing and Satan.
They are just starting to learn the meaning that paybacks are hell. The Pubbies used to not be mean but under Gingrich and the current leadership they have started to learn.
Her and Irwin Cherwinsky and -- jeez that place has gone politically into the crapper since I graduated...
They have, Susan: he was flying F-102s, full time, for 4 years. If 240 members of the Texas Air National Guard got together to claim Bush is unfit for the presidency, I'd listen to what they had to say. I'll bet they'd get much more sympathetic coverage in the MSM than the swifties have. The fact that no such group has come forward says a lot.
"Estrogenich" is a lawyer. No more needs to be said about her capacity for honest communication.
The story of Susan's life.
She is the She-Creature or She-Beast.
lol
Kerry wasn't being mean enough so the Clintonistas come to his rescue? Isn't that good of them? Hillary's minions are reporting for duty.
Gee, Susan, what if we found out that the commies were ready to surrender had it not been for Jane Fonda and George Bush? What if we found out that men were tortured in Vietnam because of Bush's words? What if we found out that Bush attended a meeting where they voted on whether to assassinate U.S. Senators but he did not report it to the FBI? Then what, Susan?
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