Posted on 06/27/2014 6:30:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
How far did the establishment GOP forces backing Senator Thad Cochran go in Mississippi this week? Too far, and their tactics are likely to leave permanent scars in a civil war with Tea Party forces that are out of all proportion to the importance the establishment placed on saving one 76-year-old senator’s ability to please Washington’s K Street lobbying interests.
“This is a win for the establishment, but it’s a win with an asterisk, because it’s so tainted that it might be one of those things where they’re going to be sorry they ever won the runoff in Mississippi,” Craig Shirley, a political consultant and the author of two respected biographies of Ronald Reagan, told Yahoo News this week.
The key to Cochran’s surprising victory was a disproportionately high turnout in precincts with high Democratic registration. Mississippi law permits voters to cross party lines in primaries, but it prohibits members of one party who voted in their party’s primary to participate in a runoff of the other party. It also bars them from voting in the runoff unless they intend to support the resulting nominee in the November election — an unenforceable requirement, but one that showed that the intent of the election law was, in this case, to let Republicans determine their own nominee.
The tactics used to convince black Democrats to vote for Cochran included the same kind of race-baiting that Republicans have complained about for decades. “The Tea Party Intends To Prevent Blacks From Voting on Tuesday” was the headline on a flier that indefatigable journalist Charles Johnson (twitter #chuckcjohnson) discovered had been distributed in heavily black precincts before the June 23 vote. Along with that unfounded incendiary message was a list of issue comparisons between Cochran and Chris McDaniel. Cochran was credited with such unconservative positions as support for federal pork projects and food-stamp funding. The flier carried no identification as to who produced it, a violation of federal law.
Curiously, another flier put out by the pro-Cochran Mississippi Conservatives PAC last week described Cochran’s positions in nearly identical language as the anonymous flier and even carried an identical photo of the senator. The slogan that Thad Cochran “Supports All Mississippians” is the same in both fliers.
“I don’t know who put it out,” former governor Haley Barbour, who raised boatloads of money for the Mississippi Conservatives PAC, told my colleague Eliana Johnson. “I can’t imagine the Cochran campaign did that.”
But the Mississippi Conservatives PAC did engage in its own questionable tactics. A mysterious robo-call went out to thousands of Democratic households just before the June 23 vote. The female narrator’s message was as follows: “By not voting, you are saying ‘take away all of my government programs, such as food stamps, early breakfast and lunch programs, millions of dollars to our black universities . . . everything we and our families depend on that comes from Washington will be cut.”
As the Washington Examiner reported: “It turns out that former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s pro-Cochran Super PAC, Mississippi Conservatives, shelled out $44,000 for an offensive robo-call urging black Democrat voters to vote for Thad Cochran in the Republican primary Tuesday.”
There has been much speculation about the offensive robo-call, which trashes the Tea Party for “their disrespectful treatment of the first African American president.” The female narrator claimed that Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel would cause “even more problems for President Obama.”
As I said, the wounds from all of this are likely to be long lasting.
“This just threw gasoline onto the flames of the civil war,” Richard Viguerie, the author of Takeover: The 100 Year War for the GOP’s Soul, told reporters this week. “What happened yesterday in Mississippi will resonate for years to come. It will become the battle cry, just like the Alamo. We will remember Mississippi.”
I thought the attempt to embarrass Cochran with pix of his wife was about as dirty as politics gets.
I think this election shows how much better the Rats are at seeing the "long game". They have now created a great opportunity for a Rat to beat cochran. The GOPe is so concerned with keeping their perks that they get out maneuvered at every turn.
I hope Childers wins. I hope Mconnell loses. I don't really care if the Pubs as presently constituted win the Senate.
You seem to expect political campaigns to be fair. Why?
He's already on the scene! Ted Cruz, Scott Walker both come to mind.
For instance, 89% of white voters supported Romney in 2012.
If that voting bloc starts to break down, Cochran could easily lose this election.
And, the news gets worse.
The Democrat nominee for Senate is a Congressman with a moderate record:
He voted against ObamaCare.
He is pro-Life and pro-Gun.
In 2010, he was endorsed by the NRA and by “Right to Life.”
I spoke at length with John Fund at a Freeper pro-impeachment rally where he also gave a speech, way back in 1999. The gist of his speech was that all of us, himself included, should be proud to be part of the vast right wing conspiracy that was undermining the Clinton Administration's pro-statist and corrupt agenda.
He was Tea Party long before there was Tea Party.
Prospecting for Democrat votes in an open primary is a legitimate tactic. But Cochrane's campaign went over the line when it aimed racist slurs at fellow Republicans.
If you subscribe to the tea party, you've just been tarred as a racist -- by the very party you normally vote for and identify with.
There are thousands of committed, conservative blacks who have been working to improve the image of the party among blacks. And this particular campaign tactic cut the legs right out from under them.
The fact of the matter is that the GOP-e's campaign tactics did more damage to the Republican brand than it did good for the Cochrane campaign.
The Democrats had Weekend-at-Lautenberg's vote in their pocket for many years after his mind left for that great socialist utopia in the sky.
That's the model the GOP is copying with Cochran. They'll stick a battery up his butt if his heart stops.
"Meanwhile, Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Sr. of the New Horizon Church in Jackson is affiliated with a super PAC called "All Citizens For Mississippi" that has run advertisements and distributed pro-Cochran fliers. The newly-formed PAC shares an address and chief financial officer with the church, raising questions about whether the church is illegally participating in the campaign."
From the story in my post; There is money from this church PAC as well. Thew difference is, they are straightforward about what they wanted to do - get Democrats from their churches to vote for Cochran (which is illegal, but hey; there Demorats and get away with it!).
Sorry, it’s the 3rd paragraph.
Thanks for that link. Great stuff!
Oh well then that makes it all ok.
That might be true if you figure the Barbour camp as democrats.
pfony1 wrote:
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I thought the attempt to embarrass Cochran with pix of his wife was about as dirty as politics gets.
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Can you point to any evidence that Chris McDaniel was behind that?
By the way, there are breaking news reports that the man who took pictures of Cochran’s wife inside the nursing home is now dead (suspected suicide). Do you think McDaniel is responsible for that too?
Democrats will put that out for us... they’re not loyal to Cochran...
First rodeo?
No.
I’ve been around long enough to know that fighting an entrenched big-spender like Cochran requires a strong candidate.
As I research more, I'm finding out Barbour's brother had a lot to do with it. So I'm back at square one - Demorats in line with RINO's.
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