Posted on 09/08/2004 6:25:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
In an e-mail sent late Wednesday to supporters, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie warned Republicans to "brace yourselves" as the Kerry campaign has begun implementing what he calls "a strategy of vicious personal attacks against the President and Vice President."
Gillespie's letter follows:
To: Bush-Cheney '04 Grassroots Team
From: Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee Chairman
Subject: Brace Yourselves
In response to President Bush's Agenda for America's Future and a critique of his policies and Senate record, Senator Kerry's campaign is implementing a strategy of vicious personal attacks against the President and Vice President.
The campaign is bringing in a bevy of former Clinton henchmen, including CNN commentators James Carville and Paul Begala. In August alone, Begala called President Bush a "gutless wonder," said he has a "lack of intelligence," and called Vice President Cheney a "dirt bag." Carville said the President is "ignorant big time" and said "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are a couple of nobodies."
It's not like Bob Shrum needed encouragement to engage in personal attacks. At a Kerry rally Friday morning in Ohio, campaign surrogate John Glenn compared the Republican Convention to a Nazi rally, and Kerry called the President unfit to lead our nation and once again sought to divide the country by who served and how 35 years ago.
Of course, the President was called a "cheap thug," a "killer" and a "liar" at a Kerry-Edwards campaign event in New York, Mrs. Kerry has called the President's policies "unpatriotic" and "immoral" and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe falsely accused the President of being AWOL.
Democratic strategist Susan Estrich outlined the strategy last Wednesday in a column warning Republicans to "watch out." "I'm not promising pretty," she wrote before going on to call President Bush and Vice President Cheney alcoholics, then ask "is any alcoholic ever really cured?" ("I can see the ad now.") She deems the President's service as a National Guard fighter pilot "draft dodging," and says, "a forthcoming book by Kitty Kelley raises questions about whether the President has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion." (Interestingly, the New York Daily News reported back in February that the Kerry campaign intended to spread such a rumor in pro-life chat rooms late in the campaign.)
So the former Dukakis campaign manager has an advance copy of Democrat donor Kitty Kelley's book, which promises to throw unsubstantiated gossip at President Bush in the same way she falsely maligned the late President Reagan as a date rapist who paid for a girlfriend's abortion and wrongly castigated Nancy Reagan as an adulterer who had an affair with Frank Sinatra. A recent story says Kelley's book alleges President Bush used cocaine at Camp David while his father was President, which is as credible as her story that then Governor and Nancy Reagan smoked marijuana with Jack Benny and George and Gracie Burns.
And tonight on CBS, longtime Democratic operative Ben Barnes – a friend of, major contributor to and Nantucket neighbor of Senator Kerry's and vice chair of the Kerry Campaign – will repudiate his statement under oath that he had no contact with the Bush family concerning the President's National Guard service. (Anyone surprised that Barnes would contradict a statement he made under oath probably doesn't know his long history of political scandal and financial misdealings.)
So brace yourselves. Any mention of John Kerry's votes for higher taxes and against vital weapons programs will be met with the worst kind of personal attacks. Such desperation is unbecoming of American Presidential politics, and Senator Kerry will pay a price for it at the polls as we stay focused on policies to continue growing our economy and winning the War on Terror.
Time for that girl that Kerry was associated with to return from hiding in Africa.
Batten down the hatches. We're in for a typhoon while the MSM and libs try to destroy the reputation of the entire Bush family in one shot. They won't succeed though, any more than Moore or Flynt did.
It all gets down to how Rove responds to all this crap.
I think people's impressions of Bush cannot be changed, positively or negatively at this point.
"Beware the desperado" is thereful a useful pre-consideration. Hopefully Rove knows how to play the Game.
The rats [communists] have really gotten bold. Are they not fearful of losing life and limb in any future internal conflict begun to rid our country of the socialist cancer which has infested it?
To me the real question is:
How far will the MSM follow Kerry into the gutter?
At some point they have to abandon him, don't they?
The problem is, once beaten, Kerry will slink back under his Senate desk, but the deplorable media talkin heads will still be on their thrones. How do we repudiate them?
Kerry's 71 testimony, his trips to Paris to meet with the enemy and his continued association with VVAW after they discussed assasinating US leaders trumps anything they dig up against Bush.
Hanoi Jane at least apologized for any harm she did against American fighting men and women. Kerry has not been so inclined.
Paul Begala was a real attack dog four years ago on MSNBC. He co-chaired a program with Ollie North and they both sent out daily newsletters. Begala was attack-attack all the time.
Well, depends. If it looks like all hope is lost they may be motivated by their instincts for survival to ditch him. This is dependent on the notion they haven't entirely given themselves over to hate.
I'm hoping they don't abandon the cause. I want to sink Old Media as badly as I do Kerry, infact, even more.
As far as they can.
To the MSM and the Democrats, this is Armageddon.
They know another presidential loss will fairly well sink the Democrats/Socialists, so it's all out warfare for them.
The closest answer I've seen so far is Zell's attitude toward chris matthews. He treated chris like a child, threw comments back into his face, threatened to cancel the interview, and of course, alluded to challenging tweety bird to a duel. Bob Dole displayed a similar vim and vigor in defending his comments about kerry "not bleeding" for his purple hearts. Still, these men are in the twilight of their careers. I don't see many politicians daring to fight back this way against the media.
"Brace yourselves"? Not me. Nothing could surprise me now. And nothing is going to change the fact that W is in for four more years. (And no, I will not sit back and relax. It will just inspire me to fight harder for his re-election.)
In case you didn't receive one, two, three or more of these emails, please read and pass them on to anyone wondering what is going on with all the negative articles/shows against President Bush. It is the RAT Plan of Action!
The MSM will dump Ketchup Boy like a bad date the minute the Clintons tell them to. In a way, I think it's already begun. Subtlely, they're already explaining why the Gigolo will lose in November. As we move closer to November, the Swifties will start to get more attention, and their charges will start to stick where it matter most, the media. Also, look for nastier stuff to come out if it looks like he's coming back in the polls. The only October Surprise will be on Jean Francois.
There was never any chance of the Clintons allowing Cabana Boy to win this year. Everything is being set for Hitlery to run in 2008. But if they can make it look like the GOP is responsible, and no blame falls on them, so much the better.
My husband got at least one E-mail with this,but it really did need to be posted to FR! Thanks for the ping. :-)
I love that the Dems are doing this and I'll tell you why.
The Democrats win elections on the women vote. Sorry it is true. Clinton lost in 1996 among men. The Dems always brag about their gender gap, failing to mention the other gender gap, which is the male prefernce for the GOP. I think that these below the belt attacks will turn off the all important woman vote and even deliver it to president Bush who already has the male vote in the bag.
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.