Posted on 06/29/2006 11:23:51 PM PDT by RWR8189
The Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean Jr., intends to make a campaign film that accuses his Democratic opponent, Robert Menendez, of "being wrapped up in the rackets for 30 years" despite public records and statements by former federal prosecutors that contradict Mr. Kean's most serious charges.
Mr. Kean's chief campaign consultant, Matt Leonardo, a strategist for Republican candidates, disclosed the plans in an interview and said the film would be "very similar" in purpose to the commercials used to attack the military record of John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race.
Kean campaign officials have sought to erode their opponent's public biography, charging that virtually every moment of Mr. Menendez's career has been mired in graft and bossism. That includes his early days in Union City, where Mr. Menendez has said that he acted to thwart a racketeering scheme involving his own political associates and organized crime figures — a claim that is documented in public records and corroborated by independent authorities.
Nevertheless, the Kean campaign will challenge that biography in "a long-form film," Mr. Leonardo said, just as commercials broadcast in 2004 attacked Mr. Kerry's military record. Those commercials, relying on claims by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, purported to expose Mr. Kerry's military decorations as exaggerated or fraudulent. Although the premise and many elements of the Swift boat advertisements were strongly disputed, as a whole they were seen as successful in hobbling the Kerry campaign.
"The similarity between the Swift boat ads and this movie — you have two individuals who have told stories for a political purpose and the facts just don't jibe," Mr. Leonardo said. "And these two individuals were able to get away with telling it their way for more than a decade and
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A preemptive strike by the comrades at the NYT! They're getting worse every day.
kean junior is just like senior, big time RINO.
his last commercial was the tom kean show starring john mccain, say no more. unfortunately, in my neck of the woods, this is what we get.
bttt
"We are going to fabricate from (near) whole cloth a 'grassroots' ad campaign, pre-announce it to NYT reporters, generally act like contestants in the upperclass twit of the year competition, and retreat into our country clubs and remorse on the heartening but ultimately unsuccessful campaign Tom's son entertained us with."
Brilliant!
Why is it 'Swift-boating' to attack a Democrat, but the Democrats can attack Bush and other Republicans without the 'Swift-boating' label ever being applied?
Note that "strongly disputed" is in no way a synonym for "false".
What is ironic is that the New York Times was whining at the time about how John F. Kerry was not disputing the Swift Boat Vets strongly enough!
Swift Boats are the new 'Rat Willie Horton, which is to say their universal label for anything effective done by the 'Pubbies. I would say that if the worthies at the New York Times are upset about this campaign, it must mean that Kean is on the right track.
Running against Menendez without talking about corruption would be like trying to film an episode of Baywatch without showing any bathing beauties. What would be the point?
Kean Jr. is the best that we can hope for from NJ. At least he'll organize with the Rs and we might get his vote half the time. Half a loaf is better than none. When I lived in NJ 35 years ago it was a competitive state. Now its solid blue.
Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its ILLEGAL to have an argument with a Democrat.....
If he gets elected, as a freshman Senator if he has any hopes to accrue some standing, Kean will be voting with the Republicans a heck of a lot more than half the time.
With few exceptions, freshman Senators basically do what they're told to do by Party leadership.
"Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its ILLEGAL to have an argument with a Democrat....."
Heh Heh!
Well .. maybe Kean should check out his staff and find out who's leaking info to the NYT - and fire them!
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