The Dirty Tricks Campaign

Gather ^ | January 31, 2008 | Tim Phares

[TBP]

Every campaign cycle, you hear complaints that this is the dirtiest campaign ever. Modern campaigns, disgusting as they sometimes get, would have a long way to go to beat some elections in the early days of the Republic. But this one has featured a number of flat-out dishonest tricks.

John McCain has always been ethically challenged. In Florida, McCain's campaign was making calls to voters accusing Mitt Romney of supporting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, even though Romney had said on national television that if such a timetable came to him, he would veto it. When talk radio played the tape and exposed what Romney had really said, McCain's campaign insisted that they were telling the truth about Romney's position in spite of the evidence.

But what do you expect from the last standing member of the Keating Five?

In New Hampshire, Hillary sent her state chairperson's husband, Bill Shaheen, to suggest that Senator Barack Obama had been a drug dealer. Then she denied knowing anything about it. Later, her supporter Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, repeated the charge. Then Johnson transparently apologized. Somehow, all this is happening without Hillary knowing anything about it.

The Clintons have a long record of pushing black folks aside. They installed their friend Terry McAuliffe as Democratic National Committee chair when Bill left office, shoving aside the former mayor of Atlanta, the late Maynard Jackson. Bill Clinton pushed Carl McCall, the black Comptroller of New York, out of the 2002 gubernatorial primary in favor of Andrew Cuomo, who lost the general election.

The Clintons have also had repeated fundraising scandals. Hillary's fundraiser Norman Hsu was convicted of fraud. Hillary has claimed that she returned Hsu's money, but has she really? Remember, the Red Chinese, through Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, and the Lippo Group, played a significant role in funding Bill Clinton's reelection campaign. Hillary has also had an unresolved scandal regarding a fundraising event in her 2000 Senate campaign, about which she has now filed four false reports with the Federal Election Commission.

Then there is Mike Huckabee, who claims to be a conservative despite a very liberal record as governor of Arkansas. Huckabee prepared a smear ad against Romney, then held a press conference to denounce his own ad, say he was withdrawing it, and then show it to the media. Huckabee didn't have any money at the time. In South Carolina, his campaign distributed flyers that lied about Fred Thompson's record on abortion. (Interestingly, Huckabee is from the same town as Bill Clinton, Hope, Arkansas. There must be something in the water.) Huckabee is a fundamentally dishonest person, in my opinion, despite being a pastor.

The standards of this campaign and the things that some candidates will do to get to the White House are shameful. Is it any wonder that many Americans can't be bothered to get out and vote?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Did someone post Huckabee’s flier attacking Thompson here on FR? I don’t remember seeing it.