Posted on 09/03/2004 10:48:47 AM PDT by Roscoe Karns
My Democratic friends are mad as hell, and they aren't going to take it any more.
They are worried, having watched as another August smear campaign, full of lies and half-truths, takes its toll in the polls.
They are frustrated, mostly at the Kerry campaign, for naively believing that just because all the newspapers and news organizations that investigated the charges of the Swift Boat assassins found them to be full of lies and half-truths, they wouldn't take their toll. The word on the street is that Kerry himself was ready to fire back the day the story broke, but that his campaign, believing the charges would blow over if they ignored them, counseled restraint.
But most of all, activists Democrats are angry. As one who lived through an August like this, 16 years ago -- replete with rumors that were lies, which the Bush campaign claimed they had nothing to do with and later admitted they had planted -- I'm angry, too. I've been to this movie. I know how it works. Lies move numbers.
Remember the one about Dukakis suffering from depression after he lost the governorship? (Dukakis not crazy, more at 11.) We lost six points over that lie, planted by George W.'s close friend and colleague in the 1988 campaign, Lee Atwater. Or how about the one about Kitty Dukakis burning a flag at an antiwar demonstration, another out-and-out lie, which the Bush campaign denied having anything to do with, except that it turned out to have come from a United States senator via the Republican National Committee? Lee Atwater later apologized to me for that, too, on his deathbed. Did I mention that Lee's wife is connected to the woman running the Swift Boat campaign?
Never again, we said then.
Not again, Democrats are saying now.
What do you do, Democrats keep asking each other.
The answer is not pretty, but everyone knows what it is.
In 1988, in the days before the so-called independent groups, the candidate called the shots. To Michael Dukakis' credit, depending on how you look at it, he absolutely refused to get into the gutter, even to answer the charges. His theory, like that of some on the Kerry staff, was that answering such charges would only elevate them, give them more attention than they deserved. He thought the American people wanted to hear about issues, not watch a mud-wrestling match. In theory, he was right. In practice, the sad truth is that smears work -- that if you throw enough mud, some of it is bound to stick.
You can't just answer the charges. You can't just say it ain't so.
You have to fight fire with fire, mud with mud, dirt with dirt.
The trouble with Democrats, traditionally, is that we're not mean enough. Dukakis wasn't. I wasn't. I don't particularly like destroying people. I got into politics because of issues, not anger. But too much is at stake to play by Dukakis rules, and lose again.
That is the conclusion Democrats have reached. So watch out. Millions of dollars will be on the table. And there are plenty of choices for what to spend it on.
I'm not promising pretty.
What will it be?
Will it be the three, or is it four or five, drunken driving arrests that Bush and Cheney, the two most powerful men in the world, managed to rack up? (Bush's Texas record has been sealed. Now why would that be? Who seals a perfect driving record?)
After Vietnam, nothing is ancient history, and Cheney is still drinking. What their records suggest is not only a serious problem with alcoholism, which Bush but not Cheney has acknowledged, but also an even more serious problem of judgment. Could Dick Cheney get a license to drive a school bus with his record of drunken driving? (I can see the ad now.) A job at a nuclear power plant? Is any alcoholic ever really cured? So why put him in the most stressful job in the world, with a war going south, a thousand Americans already dead and control of weapons capable of destroying the world at his fingertips.
It has been said that in the worst of times, Kissinger gave orders to the military not to obey Nixon if he ordered a first strike. What if Bush were to fall off the wagon? Then what? Has America really faced the fact that we have an alcoholic as our president?
Or how about Dead Texans for Truth, highlighting those who served in Vietnam instead of the privileged draft-dodging president, and ended up as names on the wall instead of members of the Air National Guard. I'm sure there are some mothers out there who are still mourning their sons, and never made that connection. It wouldn't be so hard to find them.
Or maybe it will be Texas National Guardsmen for Truth, who can explain exactly what George W. Bush was doing while John Kerry was putting his life on the line. So far, all W. can do is come up with dental records to prove that he met his obligations. Perhaps with money on the table, or investigators on their trail, we will learn just what kind of wild and crazy things the president was doing while Kerry was saving a man's life, facing enemy fire and serving his country.
Or could it be George Bush's Former Female Friends for Truth. A forthcoming book by Kitty Kelly raises questions about whether the president has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion. As Larry Flynt discovered, a million dollars loosens lips. Are there others to be loosened?
Are you shocked? Not fair? Who said anything about fair? Remember President Dukakis? He was very fair. Now he teaches at Northeastern University. John Kerry has been very fair in dealing with the Swift Boat charges. That's why so many of my Democrat friends have decided to stop talking to the campaign, and start putting money together independently.
The arrogant little Republican boys who have been strutting around New York this week, claiming that they have this one won, would do well to take a step back. It could be a long and ugly road to November.
To find out more about Susan Estrich, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
Someone should email her this thread so she can feel better.
This woman is nuts. Simply delusional...
Have Kerry and Edwards make a midnight campaign stop in some place like Ohio and then, (hee, hee) when they get there have them pretend they are drunk.
Hey, let Kerry slur some words and let Edwards tell about how Kerry was in Viet Nam. Hell, have Kerry talk about the rice, oops, shrapnel in his leg (hint: have him point to the same leg as before when he did this)and then....you're gonna love this one,
Have Kerry talk about how Dick Cheney avoided the draft....before there was a draft. Makes Cheney look like a flip-flopper, huh? Avoided the draft before there was a draft? Get it, huh? Huh?
They are already lining up their excuses for the humiliation that is coming their way in November.
#1 Show me a clearly exposed lie from the Swiftvets Ms. Estrich...
What she doesn't understand is that Mr. O'Niell is an Annapolis man ... and to call one of us a liar or dishonorable is simply .. well .. fighting words. Personal honor, the honor of our comrades, and the honor of the Navy are among the things we hold most dear, not just for 4 years in the Yard, or during our time in the fleet. It is something we take to the grave.
#2 Kerry responded before he didn't ... LOL
What planet are you from? It sure wasn't loving Democrats who knocked a NYC Policeman from his motorcycle and stomped him! It sure hasn't been ration and reasonable and loving democrats who have been screaming "BUSH LIED" and the "ELECTION WAS STOLEN"... it sure wasn't nice Democrats out there spreading lies and ignorance like "NO WAR FOR OIL" or "We Brought 9/11 on ourselves"....
Democrats aren't mean enough? My God, your party has been the poster child for MEAN since the late 60s.... And continues to be to this very day.
Yeah, Bring it on Susie baby.
Ah, a warning. Perhaps the same piece of "news" that Hillary has been alluding to? A bunch of hot air, most likely. And even if they have a flush they'd be foolish to believe that the Prez isn't holding at least a full house.
She's lost her mind.
Someone pleeeeeeeeeeeze get a vid cap of that!
It is gonna take the Jaws-of-Life to un-bunch those panties !!!
Somebody, please, double the dosage on Suzie's anti-hallucination meds!
John Kerry's military record has been sealed. Now why would that be? Who seals a perfect military record?
Qwinn
LOL!
Forgot to add: Nice to see she's the one comparing Kerry to Dukakis.
bwaaaaaahahahahahaha
Now that the campaign has turned the final corner and is in the home stretch, the mentally fragile are starting to loose their grip on reality, as this vicious screed by Susan Estrich demonstrates -- http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=sesIt seemed that every time I surfed over to FNC during the GOP convention, Susan Estrich's was on. This partisan hack is way over exposed on Fox. It was because of her seeming omnipresence on Fox that very early in the week I decided to watch the convention coverage offered on CSPAN -- without inane pundits telling me what to think at every turn. Now that Ms. Estrich has taken off the gloves with the above linked column, and shown us the decayed condition of her dark soul, Fox should be warned that any time it has this hag on any show, this viewer will be bailing out, and tuning in the Food Network.
This is like the end of Mars Attacks! when they're driving around with the truck loudspeaker blaring yodel music and the aliens' heads explode one by one.
I'm sorry. I missed the part of this article where John Kerry has the better plan for America. I'm sure it's in there somewhere.
Susan,
How hard is it to type such prose with your head in such an odd location?
That picture of Estrich must be 20 years and a truckload of cigarettes ago!
Separtaed at birt? Estrich and Charley Rangle. Close your eyes and listen. Ever see them in the same place?
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