States won by the actual Lee Atwater are in blue.
States won by the "Democrat Lee Atwater" are in red.
Posted on 09/07/2004 11:08:29 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
WASHINGTON — John Kerry has brought veteran political operative John Sasso into his campaign, the clearest sign yet that the Democratic nominee intends to take off the gloves against President Bush.
Few Kerry advisers have the kind of bare-knuckle experience Sasso, who had been serving as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has gained from nearly a quarter-century in Boston politics.
"He is the Democratic Lee Atwater," Brown University political science professor Darrell West said Tuesday, referring to the late GOP political operative who played a key role in the first President Bush's sharp-toned 1988 race against Michael Dukakis.
It was in that campaign that Sasso, Dukakis' campaign manager, produced an "attack video" showing Sen. Joe Biden, a rival to Dukakis for the Democratic nomination, using some of the same language in a speech as had been employed by Neil Kinnock, then the leader of the British Labor Party. The video, leaked to the press, eventually led to Biden's dropping out of the race.
Sasso initially denied being behind the attack. But eventually he confessed and Dukakis reluctantly fired him, though he brought Sasso back for the final two months of the general election campaign.
"Nobody has sharper elbows than John Sasso," Michael Goldman, a former Boston political consultant, told Newsweek magazine. "He can hit as hard as the Republican hit machine."
In addition to Sasso, the campaign last week added Stanley Greenberg, a polling mastermind who guided liberal groups that have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking Bush and registering voters.
Greenberg said he was concerned about what appeared to be the campaign's drooping poll numbers in August but could help the campaign only if he left his position as the pollster for MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and America Coming Together because of campaign finance rules barring coordination between advocacy groups and the campaigns.
Dukakis, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said that as well as being "a superb manager," Sasso had important firsthand experience with political smears — the kind Dukakis believes are being used against Kerry under the guise of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad campaign, which claims Kerry lied about his Vietnam combat record.
Lindsay Taylor, Republican National Committee spokeswoman, said, "That is just dead wrong. The Republican strategy is to talk about John Kerry's record in the U.S. Senate. . . . [and] the last thing the Kerry campaign wants to talk about is John Kerry's Senate record, so I can understand why they would want to confuse people with these types of ludicrous statements."
The Swift Boat ads have been compared to the "Willie Horton" ads used against Dukakis. They featured a mug shot of a black convict named William Horton who attacked a Maryland couple while free under a Massachusetts prison furlough program that Dukakis oversaw as governor.
The ad was financed by the National Security Political Action Committee, which had no formal ties to George Bush's campaign. But Atwater, Bush's campaign manager, had repeatedly vowed in public forums to "make Willie Horton Michael Dukakis's running mate."
Dukakis had been forced to fire his campaign manager, John Sasso, along with political director, Paul Tully – both admitted to having orchestrated the smearing of Joseph R. Biden Jr. Sasso. ?Mary Matalin, says Democrats blamed Dukakis' stumbles on campaign manager Susan Estrich.
Atwater, Bush's campaign manager, had repeatedly vowed in public forums to "make Willie Horton Michael Dukakis's running mate."
"By the time this election is over," gloated Lee Atwater, "Willie Horton will be a household name." (This story was originally floated by the Gore campaign.) Now the Swift Boat Vets have become a household name.
1988-Time Magazine posed the rhetorical question: If Michael Dukakis was such a competent manager, why was his campaign so poorly managed?
Yep he really dilivered for President Dukakis didn't he?
Kerry doesn't do hardball politics well. He comes across as sour and mean...kind of Nixonian.
What is going to be funny is they are taking off the gloves because they think Rove has. Rove hasn't even swung at the YET.
Susan was on with Brit Hume tonight; she talked all about how they are forming this "informal forum" where anybody who wants to can "contribute" to the Kerry campaign; she basically said that they were going to do it together to STOP them from doing it outloud on TV and in the papers.
She seemed genuinely excited, which made me feel a lot better because I can't remember the last time she was right about anything.
The Clinton people have control of this campaign now; Mary Beth and Shrum should start packing. And typing up resumes.
States won by the actual Lee Atwater are in blue.
States won by the "Democrat Lee Atwater" are in red.
I love Rove's hat!
Kerry is going to find out the difference between running nationally as opposed to Massachusetts.
Just hope I get to see more of Susan Estrich. She is soooo hot? Her voice just makes me melt.
Why does fox have this fur tooth frog on every night? I feel her husbands pain. His ears must bleed every single time she opens that pie hole.
Caulk up another injury, this time to a pinkie, to obtain another purple heart.
He is obsessed with it apparently.
LOL - trying to hang Willie Horton around GHWB and Lee Atwater; Al Gore is the one who introduced Willie to an astonished America during the primaries...
GW has just brought Baker on board for the rest of the campaign and he will put a stop to that very quickly. That is as illegal as hell for her and the others to act as paid media while campaigning on air.
Well, how illegal is it for Begala and Carville to keep working at CNN?
That's who I meant. Look for a real stink from Bush's campaign soon. The democrats are so damned ANGRY they are making rookie mistakes.
That map is hilarious. How did Dukakis manage to lose his home state? Sadly, Kerry could get caught on tape raping a handicapped kid, and probably still win Massachusetts.
"GW has just brought Baker"
This is great news. Jim Baker is one of the most astute people in the country. He could take on the entire Kerry campaign with one hand behind his back.
On Labor Day weekend 16 years ago, with his campaign foundering and the Bush machine taking huge bites out of his support, Michael Dukakis brought John Sasso back to rescue his presidential bid. He lost 40 states.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/09/05/wrong_man_for_kerry/
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