Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Smearkrieg No. 1: Republicans Laying the Groundwork

One of the most predictable occurences of any presidential campaign will be the right-wing smear campaign against the Democratic candidate. According to Dan Moldea (via Digby), a muckraker who has investigated GOP sleaze for almost a decade, the Republicans are already laying the groundwork for Smearkrieg 2008.
"I have it on very, very good authority that major opposition research has already been conducted on Bill Clinton, and it's going to be a massive smear campaign against him," A group of former intelligence officers, he says, is "going to try to cripple Hillary through Bill."
Too bad for the Republicans that Hillary hasn't tipped her hand about her vice-presidential preferences. That way, the Republicans could start the process of smearing that person as well.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

But Bill makes it soooooooo easy.

Regardless, I'll continue my recent theme of stating it definitely isn't unique to either side of the aisle. The dems however have the smarts to use somewhat less connected agents to achieve the same effect.

Ric Caric said...

I don't think it's unique either, but the Democrats are not nearly as energetic about smearing or as good at it. To give one example, it was pretty well known that Bush was a coke user as a young man and an alcoholic right through his 40th birthday. But the Dems did very little to document the extent Bush's coke use or all the embarrassing incidents connected to his alcoholism.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the Democrats are just sooooooooooo pure. Good gawd. Are the candidates going to smear each other? Yup. Are Michael Moore and George Soros going to continue to spew vile at the Republicans. Yup. This whole getting the vapors innocent thing does not play well when your side is out doing the same things.

Anonymous said...

SmearKreig - Nice Nazi reference. Too bad that the Left has cornered the market on thought crimes and stifling speech. Hell, NY city councilmembers tried to ban words, and nary a peep from their leftist brethren. The National Socialists were Leftists, no matter how many times you attempt to claim otherwise.

Ric Caric said...

And Lincoln was the president of the Confederacy.

Anonymous said...

"But the Dems did very little to document the extent Bush's coke use or all the embarrassing incidents connected to his alcoholism."

http://tinyurl.com/372xh9

Only a little over 1.6 million hits. And still climbing, I might add. In this case the Democrat smear machine is still in full-gonzo mode, somebody just needs to tell them Bush isn't running any more.

Anonymous said...

Far be it from me to question the wisdom of an anonymous PW "reader", but where were the campaign commercials? The book deal? The hour long TV special to air on the Sinclair stations? Just curious.

Here's another and better difference: saying George was a drunk and a cokehead is TRUE, whereas besmirching a war hero for his medals was demonstrably not. Oh, I know, you Bob Perry fueled, Jeff Goldstein inspired folks like to argue otherwise, but various news organizations and the US Navy disagree with you.

I'm informed by watching the Beauchamp circus that the military is the last word on these subjects, so, since the US Navy said Kerry deserved his medals, can you just point out the TV ads ran about George's substance abuse problems?

Anonymous said...

[silence] Just as I expected

Anonymous said...

Had Bush called all his fellow cokeheads babykillers to further his political career some of them may have been willing to make some statements about him.

Anonymous said...

ef, is that what the Swift Boat folks accused Kerry of? No, they demeaned his service, called him a liar, insinuated he was a coward, and misrepresented their presence at the events in question.

Check it out at factcheck.org. It's a pretty sad record.

As for Winter Soldier, it was testimony to Congress for Christ's sake, and backed up by the testimony that is in the Congressional record. Kerry faulted the leadership of the Armed Forces for creating "free fire zones," for ordering the burning of villages as part of (listen closely) Search and destroy.

I am aware the old farts who troll Protein Wisdom love to re-hash their old Vietnam grievances with respect to Senator Kerry (hell, that jackass Happyfeet did it just today), but the Swifties were about lying about Kerry's actual in-country service, not his testimony afterward. Hell, John O'Neill completed his lying about that back when Nixon resigned.

Anonymous said...

I say tomato, you say right-wing-conspiracy-machine-assaulting-the-very-favric-of-our-national-existence.

Anonymous said...

"One of the most predictable occurences of any presidential campaign will be the right-wing smear campaign against the Democratic candidate."

The only thing more predictable is the Leftist candidate race-baiting, playing class warfare, and pandering to every special interest group funding them.