Republican operatives give the ol' Georgia smear routine one last shot
By David Neiwert Tuesday Nov 25, 2008 3:00pmThey really don't come much scummier than Freedom's Watch, the wretched excuses for human beings who smeared Democratic candidates this past campaign with lying robo-calls. The DCCC's anti-FW site has the goods on their deep GOP ties.
Supposedly they're about to go out of business. But evidently -- like the dying sting of a scorpion -- they're taking one last stab.
Now they're running truly vicious ads attacking Jim Martin, the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia currently facing a runoff election:
Yesterday, the struggling Freedom’s Watch released an attack ad against Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin, saying that he “failed to look out for Georgia’s families.” “First he actually helped block stiffer penalties for drunk drivers,” warns the voice in the ad, which echoes previous GOP ads. “And then, Martin voted against tougher sentences for domestic abuse.”
As it happens, Martin built much of his political reputation as an effective advocate for protecting children from criminals -- no doubt a product of having his then-8-year-old daughter kidnapped. So he made an ad responding to the Freedom's Watch ad by pointing this out. As you can see, it's incredibly effective.
Of course, this is all too reminiscent of the way Chambliss won in 2002 -- with Republican operatives assailing the patriotism of Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran who left limbs on the battlefield.
It may have worked in 2002. In 2008, though, the national mood is different. Recall what happened to Elizabeth Dole when she tried pulling similarly nasty tactics near the end of her campaign against Kay Hagan in North Carolina -- she was spanked by an even wider margin than polls had indicated.
Most people are tired of this nonsense -- they want serious people who will go to work to solve the nation's problems. Hopefully, the voters of Georgia will be thinking likewise.
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The South is the best place to sell racism - that's for sure.
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I appreciate the sentiment, I am having a hard time seeing how it applies here.
have reason -- as they see it -- to hate Northeastern elites, given Sherman's destruction of Atlanta and march to the sea.
But they should know that a vote for Chambliss is a vote for each and everything that is deplorable about our country.
First off, Sherman was from Southern Ohio, not exactly the Northeast.
Secondly, his scorched earth policy wouldn't be favored by most Northeastern elites these days, but ironically, the "red" Southern states.
As for hating Sherman's March, it has been pretty much the preferred method of U.S. military operation ever since. From the genocide in the Philippines (almost a million killed), to the flattening Hiroshima and Nagasaki AFTER the Japanese surrender, to genocide in Vietnam (1.5 million killed) to the carpet-bombing of Cambodia and Laos, to "shock and awe" in Iraq, Americans have revered Sherman's example.
but I'm afraid many Georgia voters will stay home for this runoff and Chambliss may win. Just a feeling, not based on anything substantial. Jim Martin is a decent good man, and Saxby Chambliss is a vicious one.
This election season has been brutal and people are worn out. I fear that the voters who turned out so enthusiastically for Obama will feel less inclined to stand in line for hours for the Senate race (hell, I'm exhausted and all I have to do is take my absentee ballot to the post office). At this point, I believe it's only the diehards who are still really paying attention. What keeps my hope alive is that I'm hoping the Republicans in Georgia are fed up too and that they decide to stay home or go Christmas shopping or deer hunting or whatever (I know my own Republican father is far more likely to be sitting in a tree stand with a rifle looking for Bambi than he is to be at the polls on election day).
Only in the South would people believe an elected official would vote against stiffer penalties for drunk drivers and domestic abuse. Terminal dumb ass runs deep.
Shakes head
Martin needs to specifically call out by name his opponent and the despicable campaigns he has run. Dole lost because white voters in North Carolina finally became ashamed of their support for her. The voters in Georgia need to realize what an embarrassment Chambliss is to their state.
If Martin loses (which at present he is losing) it will be because he didn't play this card. He has to make Georgians ashamed of Chambliss and his tactics, and willing to realize they're being lied to and bamboozled.
Wasn't Chambliss the one who at least twice blocked an investigation into combustible dust after a sugar factory exploded years ago?
Between this, Chambliss bemoaning the fact that the GOP didn't get out enough of "our people" (read: white people) to the polls and all the other putrid crap he'd pulled during this election, you'd think he'd get voted out.
But this is Georgia we're talking about hee-ah, now, ya'll and these are largely the same people who were hoodwinked by Chambliss and his patriotic platform 6 years ago. Politicians always think ahead to the next election cycle whereas voters cannot seem to look back and learn from the last election cycle.
The trouble with America, as I see it, is that we're too forgiving of Republicans and too quick to endlessly condemn Democrats for far lesser crimes. Hopefully, Bush will prove to be a useful idiot and to serve as an object lesson as to what happens when you let Republicans run the roost.
But, frankly, I doubt it. This, too, shall pass.
started by Bush`s first press jerk,Ari Fleischer.It was super sleazy just like he is.Ari,"Watch what you say,"Fleischer is nothing short of beyond scum.If I would ever see him in my neighborhood I will make a citizen`s arrest for his war crimes.
"Every American needs to watch what they do and watch what they say." - Ari Fleischer Sept. 2001
Chilled me to the bone.
GOP win because of the Labeling By "northern liberals" It has to stop if southern states are going to vote for democrats.
I'm a anti-Organized Religion, Pro choice, Pro Stem Cells, Pro gay marriage, Gun control, pro evolution, I believe science not religion should run our government, but I also Support Enforcing our Immigration laws.
When you label the whole of the south you are at fault for the rift, It doesn't help Martin Who I voted for when people send out slander about a whole region. May-be people should learn about what the North did to the south during the civil war, about how many really owned slaves, and what the war was really about It wasn't about freeing the slaves that was just a Moral after thought.
BTW if you hadn't guessed I'm Born and Raised GA, And I have a harder time supporting Democrats when I keep seeing the labeling of where I live over and over again.
I was born and raised in Georgia too, until I had the good sense to get out (and leaving the state wasn't enough for me - I left the country). "[a]nti-Organized Religion, Pro choice, Pro Stem Cells, Pro gay marriage, Gun control, pro evolution" people (like you say you are, as am I) are vastly outnumbered by racist numbskulls who loathe the well-educated (we're "elite", dontcha know, and we remind them of their inadequacies) and they're obsessed with gays, guns, abortion and religion. That's it, that's all they care about, and anybody who doesn't share the same hateful worldview is suspect in their eyes.
No, it's not right to paint the entire south that way, but until there's more of us than there are of them, what do you expect? My family's been in Georgia since the late 1700s and I have no lllusions about what most of the people in that state are like. Outside of Atlanta, Athens and a few other little liberal pockets, Georgia is a hellhole.
I voted yesterday - Kris votes tomorrow. We are trying to bring the scum down.
I didn't receive my absentee ballot until yesterday - and I live in the UK. Even if I get to the post office first thing Wednesday morning, the chances of it arriving before the deadline are pretty slim. I can't help but wonder if this was deliberate, but I hope I'm just being paranoid.
How about we pony up some money - Obama proved we can do that, at least - and take out some ads calling out Ari Fleischer and the rest of the scumbags? Show their histories and demonize them? Remember, most have never run for office and never will, so feel they can slime with impunity. Let's give tham a little of their own back!
Cheers
I could go for that.
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