Democracy Has Prevailed.

September 11, 2006

Republican's Plan: GO NEGATIVE

Read about it here in the Washington Post. The article begins:
Republicans are planning to spend the vast majority of their sizable financial war chest over the final 60 days of the campaign attacking Democratic House and Senate candidates over personal issues and local controversies, GOP officials said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which this year dispatched a half-dozen operatives to comb through tax, court and other records looking for damaging information on Democratic candidates, plans to spend more than 90 percent of its $50 million-plus advertising budget on what officials described as negative ads.
This from the party that controls The House, The Senate and The White House. What can I say? It's obvious that God's Own Party realizes it's a complete failure - why else would it be so willing to go negative?
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has enlisted veteran party strategist Terry Nelson to run a campaign that will coordinate with Senate Republicans on ads that similarly will rely on the best of the worst that researchers have dug up on Democrats. The first ad run by the new RNC effort criticizes Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) for voting against proposals designed to toughen border protection and deport illegal immigrants.
Remember the name Terry Nelson. Via Talkingpointsmemo, we learn that Mr Nelson:
has the unique distinction of being tied to two of the biggest cases of Republican campaign corruption in the Bush era. Nelson was implicated in the infamous New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal and he was an unindicted coconspirator in the political money-laundering case which ended Tom DeLay's career.
Ouchie.

Why does this matter in Pennsylvania? Take a look at this:
That strategy is born of necessity. Republicans are alarmed by the large number of House and Senate incumbents who are trailing or tied in their internal polling. Many are attracting the support of less than 45 percent of likely voters -- a danger zone for any incumbent 60 days before an election. The political rule of thumb is that incumbents rarely draw a majority of voters who make up their minds in the days shortly before Election Day.
It says that an incumbent is in "a danger zone" if that incumbent is attracting support of less than 45%.

Guess where Lil Ricky's sitting these days? Take a look here. Real Clear Politics collects major polling data and then stacks it in one place for frazzled bloggers to see. But take a look at the fourth column. Lil Ricky has never broken 45%.

So you think Rick's ugly now, just wait until Terry Nelson comes to town.

5 comments:

Piltdown Man said...

We can be sure of this; the Santorum campaign, aided and abetted by this national strike force of dirty tricksters, will begin to trash Casey soon. What they are going to do will make the "Billboard" TV ad look meek and mild.

Think "Swiftboating."

It is imperative for Casey to alert voters to this, so that when the ads come, they will take them for what they are.

Anonymous said...

Just using anonymous because I'm paranoid here, but is anyone else getting SPAM texts on their cell to "remember 9/11" and pass it on? I texted back to stop spamming me, because I don't need a spammer to remind me to "remember 9/11" then I get a text back that says, "Do u know who u r talking to?" So I call and a man who sounds like he speaks Arabic as his native language answers, and I ask, WHO IS THIS? He says Mark. Then I tell him I don't have time for this *$&#*. I traced the number to a cell in Mississippi. Has anyone else gotten this spam, and by calling back, have I just given all of my life's information to a terrorist?

Thoughts/comments?

Anonymous said...

You have to admit the billboard ad is funny, even if it is painfully true!

Shawn said...

All I have to admit is that as a representative of the party of "rugged individualism" Rick Santorum is an abject failure. I mean, hiding behind your kids? Now that's funny. In a "my hypocrisy is almost comical" kinda way. In a comsic irony kinda way. In a poignant kinda way.

Anonymous said...

Gerlach Versus Murphy for PA 6th Congressional District

Who are we going to support in the 6th Congressional District? Should we blindly follow the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) or should we think for ourselves? Lets look at the candidates and then we at ChicoMax will tell who we support.

First is Democrat Lois Murphy. What do we know about her? There are only three things we know for sure. She is a woman, a lawyer, and the Democratic nominee. When it comes to her positions on issues we don't know much because she is running an issueless DLC campaign. Stand for nothing and everything all at once but above all take no definitive stand on any issue that might be controversial. Her issue statements on her website are so vague they might as well have left the space for more pictures. The list of people who have endorsed her might provide clues to where she stands. If that is true then the gay community had better be careful because there are people on her list that supported the state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Where does Lois stand on marriage equality or civil unions? No one really knows because she has been avoiding the gay community and gay organizations like they have communicable diseases. There are no answers from her about where she stands. The only thing we know for certain is that she dislikes her opponent. Politicians rarely change their tactics or their values and if Murphy won't work with the gay community before the election then we can only expect that if she wins she will continue to be dismissive of it after the election.
When weighing who to support in this race ChicoMax looked at both candidates and found them both lacking. We find Congressman Gerlach's record to be the deciding factor. He has a record. Candidate Murphy does not, we have only her word as to where she stands on issues. We do not doubt her word our problem is that there are so few of them that actually talk about issues. Sure she wants better schools and safe communities but who doesn't. The only thing she is clear about is that she thinks she would be better than Congressman Gerlach. Mr. Gerlach has twice voted against the federal Marriage Amendment and that is record we can stand behind. ChicoMax has decided to support and endorse Congressman Jim Gerlach for reelection to congress. Read the rest here.