Attack ad goes nuclear

The Denver Post ^ | September 26, 2010 | Vincent Carroll

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

It's such a respectable name for an outfit dedicated to character assassination: Accountability for Colorado.

With such respectable men and women behind the respectable front, too. They include two of Colorado's richest citizens, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker, as well as the Colorado Education Association, the AFL-CIO and the corporate leadership of Xcel Energy and Comcast.

Gill and Stryker each gave the independent political committee $75,000 in recent months — pocket change for them, perhaps, but serious political money — while the CEA chipped in $105,000, the AFL-CIO $50,000, and Xcel and Comcast 10 grand each.

For what purpose? In part to produce what will probably stand as the single sleaziest political flier of the year in this state — no small accomplishment, as you might suppose.

And very likely the sleaziest piece of paid political advertising this year in Colorado, period.

In 2008, I held off until Oct. 29 to identify the most outrageous political flier (and behold: it too was produced by Accountability for Colorado!) but feel no need to wait this time. It's hard to imagine any ad in the next six weeks could possibly out-smear a recent flier attacking Bob Boswell, Republican candidate for a House seat in Weld County.

The flier shows a mushroom cloud over northern Colorado (seriously) with the following text:

"All it takes is one accident and northern Colorado disappears off the map. Bob Boswell wants to bring all of America's nuclear waste to Colorado. Imagine what happens . . . the nuclear waste trucks start coming. Thousands of them every day. . . . And the next traffic accident in Greeley could be the last."

The basis for this hallucination? Boswell says, in a position statement on his website, that he favors "following Europe's lead and allowing the new generation nuclear plants to be built, if the people of Colorado agree," and that "Colorado should take the lead (also like Europe) in reprocessing that waste into usable, safe fuel . . . ."

That's it. He favors nuclear power and reprocessing fuel (which the legislature has nothing to do with anyway), so he's accused, essentially, of having a plan to obliterate his own district.

Even Boswell's opponent, Democratic Rep. Jim Riesberg, said the flier "just astounds me."

You can be sure, however, that it didn't astound Gill, Stryker & Co., because such scurrilous attacks have become their stock in trade.

The Pueblo Chieftain this week denounced as "despicable" a radio ad in that community, produced by you know which group, in which another GOP legislative candidate, Keith Swerdfeger, "is compared to Ponzi scheme criminal Bernie Madoff."

Swerdfeger happens to be the retired owner of a multistate construction company and chairman of the Pueblo Economic Development Corp., the Chieftain explains, "who led the team that brought the Vestas wind tower plant and all its jobs to Pueblo."

He has no more in common with Madoff than Gill or Stryker has with John Gotti.

Of course, many political groups and candidates, of both parties, distort the truth or tell outright lies, and I could devote every column from now until Election Day to a review of them. But linking an opponent to potential nuclear catastrophe has got to take the cake.

On the secretary of state's campaign finance reports, Gill and Stryker both identify themselves as "philanthropist." There must be a better way to describe plutocrats working behind the scenes to defame political opponents.

[Carry_Okie]

The communists in this country are desperate.

Oh really? And just who do you think might be threatened the most by nuclear power generation? Communists? Well sort of, considering who they work for, but it's not the story commonly held.

Might I suggest you learn more about how environmentalism and corporate energy racketeering really work.

[Lancey Howard]

I get sick of the whining. Wow, the scumbag Democrats are sleazy... (yawn) Surprise, surprise.
Where are the Republican ads warning Coloradans that the Democrat candidate... oh I don’t know... supports free child porn on public library computers? Whatever..

Stop whining, jump into the sewer laughing like a maniac with a sword in each hand, and fight the scumbag Democrats where they live. With relish.

[VeniVidiVici]

Their favorite tactic is to make an anonymous complaint against their opponent with some allegation that authorities are forced to investigate. For example, take domestic violence.

So a Democrat candidate, like that schmuck Grayson for example, would call the local authorities and say that his opponent is a wife beater. Forced to investigate due to the type of complaint the cops start an investigation. The very next day an ad by the Grayson camp is aired saying that Republican so-and-so is being investigated for domestic violence.

Naturally, the person accused denies all charges and the Democrat camp just looks sweetly at the camera and announces the ad is certainly true. There is an investigation going on.

Frankly they should make this type of election rigging a felony.

[EDINVA]

Worked for LBJ in ‘64 as I recall

[17th Miss Regt]

I was about to comment on the “Daisy” ad that worked so well for LBJ.

[Oceander]

That's just the tip of the raw sewage bucket coming from the demofascists. They won't run on their voting records, they won't run on their "accomplishments," they won't run on their promises, all they can do is run on insults to their opponents. That is the fetid stench of raw sewage and abject fear.

[jospehm20]

It would also take out a butt load of Mexican nationals.

[Seattle Conservative]

Morgan posted the link below to an article on the “Colorado Model” on the Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread yesterday. While the article was written in 2008, it is still relevant and includes more info on Stryker, Gill and their associates as well as their strategy for helping to win elections for Dims.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/316nfdzw.asp

[GraceCoolidge]

Two points came to mind as I read this: the first is that for all we hear about how we should copy Europe, how sophisticated they are, how much smarter they are.... somehow that never translates to work on nuclear energy.

Second, with all due respect to the author of the article, I still think Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad gives this one a run for the money in the sleaze department. And I suspect that Grayson will come up with something even sleazier in the weeks to come.... So while this might still win for sleaziest flier, I'd put my money on Grayson for sleaziest ad overall...

[Morgan in Denver]

If you want to see how this pays off for the millionaires on the left, see this link.

I am constantly saying politics is about money and power and this proves the point. In this case the issue is energy and the environment. While activists on the left benefit in their mind, the real tragedy is how it works. We the people pay for all of it. Markey is a Dem rep and Stryker one of the gang of four who are among the group pulling these stunts.

http://completecolorado.com/stories/markey-stryker-pay-to-play.html