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(newsflash! - Michael Brodkorb continues the Swifboating of Al Franken.)
Yesterday, Brodkorb ignored Sack’s cartoon and started a post that essentially accuses Franken of forgery, without accusing Franken of committing forgery. It’s this type of “throw crap against the wall and see if it sticks” “journalism” that Brodkorb is infamous for. But since Michael and the Republican Party of Minnesota (as if there’s any difference) want to dwell in the past, let’s take a look back at the republiCon’s Contract On America, or why Congress is such a FUBAR today (we’ll get back to the Brodkorb-inspired regularly programmed reporting on republiCon Ron’s paperwork problems later this week).
The first thing to remember about the republiCon Contract On America, is that it was written by one of the most egregious hypocrites in American history, Newt “Is She Well Enough To Divorce Yet?” Gingrich, who rolled his sorry ass outa some bimbo’s bed to go do the dirty work of rippin' Clinton for doin’ some bimbo. Hypocrisy, thy party is Republicans.
A sorrier excuse for “The Moral Majority” never existed. Well, actually, that’s not quite accurate; ‘cause from Larry Craig to Mark Foley to David Vitter, the GreedOverPrinciples party has a whole buncha contenders for the “Sorriest Excuse” title, but that’s a tangent.
Anyway, while Gingrich was gettin’ ready to change wives, he was also working on changing the way Government – specifically, congress – worked. And the results are not pretty. As was noted in Capital Hill Blue
on the 10th year Anniversary of Newt’s Contract On America:
By Doug Thomspon
March 30, 2005
Ten years ago, the Republican Party shocked political pundits by seizing control of both the House and Senate in Congress. They swept into office on a wave of promises called the Contract With America. A decade later, nobody in the GOP mentions the so-called contract. It, like so many political promises, lies forgotten in the dustbin of history.
From the moment they took control of Congress, the Republicans started reneging on their contract.
(more, here at Capital Hill Blue)
Now, some folks might be wonderin’ why the ol’ TwoPutter is bringin’ up the Contract On America, today.
Here’s why: Congress’ republican leadership broke a whole bunch of promises with their Contract On America; Minnesota’s republican leadership broke a whole bunch of promises with their stewardship of party finances.
Meanwhile, Ron Carey and Michael Brodkorb continue to make baseless attacks against Franken. Why? Because Norm Coleman cannot win on his record. Make no mistake – Coleman is behind these baseless attacks on Franken; Carey and Brodkorb are merely the surrogates carrying out the attack.
And part of the record Coleman cannot run on, is his record in the Senate in the Contract On America Era.
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This makes me sick. But Al's campaign chicken's are coming home.
I am a Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer supporter and this hack job makes me sick. I don't for a minute believe that Al is any but a nice honest guy who's trying to do some good.
But Franken's support is slipping amoung Democrats because he is now seen as less electable. If only he had been pitching his candidacy formost on issues rather than electablity, then his percieved strength as The Most Electable would not be slipping.
Sorry, but I want my Senators (and Presidential candidates) to run on something more substantial than electability and inevitablity.
If JNP Gets The Endorsement
He'll be Swiftboated, too.
That's the point.
I'm an ABS (AnybodyButSmokescreen) guy; And if anybody but Franken gets the endorsement, they're next.
Count on it. It's in their playbook.
The Kerry conundrum
I agree with you, TwoPutt, that the Republican's will swiftboat whoever gets the endorsement/nomination. So I think we should reflect on that for a while.
The swiftboat preparations against Franken began well over a year ago, with the repeated framing of "Angry Al" and very unsenatorial photos from old SNL skits and satiric quotes pulled entirely out of context from various skits and articles. Truth has little to do with it, as the most recent garbage of "tax evasion" has shown. The problem is that the conversation in a Franken/Coleman election will be entirely about Franken defending his past, rather than about Coleman's own failed record as senator. Which is a very strong place for an incumbent to be during a hotly-contested race.
The swiftboating of John Kerry was somewhat different. They couldn't actually gain much ground attacking his Vietnam war record (although attacking the opponent's strengths with lies instead of attacking the opponent's weakness with the truth is central in the Rove playbook).
What really got traction was attacking Kerry as a flip-flopper on the war. And Kerry's pro-war stance was the basic flaw of his campaign. Instead of coming straight out against the failed Iraq war, Kerry blew it by repeating "hunt them down and kill them" as his debate mantra. It just didn't go with the Winter Soldier hearings of the 70's. In fact, none of it went together. He was for the war before he was against the war before he was for the war.... Hell, nobody knew who Kerry was, except that he came off like an elitist flip-flopper who stood for nothing except wanting to get elected president. It was Kerry's unwillingness to defend his own views that led to his loss against Frat Boy W. In my opinion.
So how will they try to swiftboat Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer? Fairly obviously, they will try to pull a bazillion quotes out of context from his many books and speeches, then try to show how extremist he is. Only they will have a problem: Jack has been quite consistent on his views over the past 30 years. You can disagree with him, but you really can't trip him up. And the whole time you are having that conversation about Jack's quotes, you have thousands of golden opportunities to discuss the obscene policies that Norm Coleman has been supporting. Policies that have led to death, to destruction, to instability that has made the world a more dangerous place for Americans as well as others.
At that point, the conversation becomes about Norm Coleman, the incumbent who has supported a failed war, the incumbent who has failed to investigate the most corrupt administration in recent history despite it being his specific job to investigate these things, the flip-flopper Norm Coleman who changes his stripes quicker than most people change their underwear. And Jack can have that conversation without using a single swear, without calling a single name, without referring to anything that Minnesota nice would find the least distasteful.
You are right, TwoPutt. The Republicans will try to swiftboat Jack as well. But they just can't do it without talking about the issues. And on the issues, the Republicans will lose.
Jack's responses
I have been consistently impressed with Jack's complete inability to "go there" when it comes to distractions from his core reasons for running for Senate.
I think if you try to attack Jack from the "too liberal" standpoint, what you get is a guy who clearly cares deeply, has spent his life thinking about these things, and is completely unafraid to tell the truth about what is going on in the world. "Liberal" words coming out of Jack's mouth sound refreshingly common sense and courageous.
I say, bring on the swiftboating of Jack. His integrity, wisdom, and commitment to doing good in the world will shine through the shit.
Who's Throwing Mud on the Wall Now?
It would be nice if you would at least link to Brodberg's blog post so that we can see what you are talking about. Then you go from complaining about him to the Contract with America? What a stretch. If you wanted to talk about the Contract with America, don't start by commiserating about Franken being caught.
You allude in another blog post to the Republican Party's problems with amended Election reports but give no specifics. You allude that there could be criminal problems, what problems? At least Brodberg does his own research and actually finds these things where nobody else wants to look. Why does it take a blogger to uncover stuff like this. Where's the fair coverage of elections from the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press.