From Where The Ugliness Will Come
Thank you to our reader, Epiphany, for the heads-up, and to TPM, for exposing the incipient dirty tricks that will be part of this presidential campaign. Seems that the RNC is hiring Tim Griffin to do oppo research on Barack Obama.
Griffin was going to be rewarded the position of US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, replacing Bud Cummins, when seven U.S. attorneys were controversially fired on December 7, 2006. As a protoge of Karl Rove, it was suspected that Griffin, among others, was to receive an interim appointment as a reward for his Republican loyalty. A little-known March, 2006 revision to the Patriot Act made it so that interim appointees could serve indefinitely, thus avoiding the Senate confirmation process. When Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified that Cummins was dismissed to make room for Griffin, Griffin decided not to pursue the job.
Griffin did oppo research on John Kerry last time around, and in a 2000 BBC documentary called Digging the Dirt, Griffin, is seen during the first Bush-Gore debate standing next to a sign reading “ON MY COMMAND-UNLEASH HELL (ON AL)”, and then describes his role by saying, “We think of ourselves as the creators of the ammunition in a war,” he says. “We make the bullets.”
Which side do we think will play dirtier?
Obviously, it will be your side, Alan.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
So Griffin is a protege of Karl Rove, who is a protege of Donald Segretti, who was hired by C.R.E.P., the Committee to Re-elect the President named Nixon, and who ultimately plead guilty to three misdemeanor counts for dirty tricks and was sentenced to six months incarceration.
Small world.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Way to go Epiphany.
Has anyone seen HBO’s Recount movie yet? It’ll play again tomorrow at 9pm. What a good movie about the 2000 Gore/Bush campaign.
I know about as much as anyone when it comes to Obama (My wife likes to say I didn’t jump on the Obama band wagon -I built the wheels) but even a Barackmaniac like me doesn’t need to stretch the imagination to see what the dirtiest attacks against him will be,
“How could he sit in this horrible racist pastor’s pews for 20 horrible racist years! His wife is a horrible racist, and he won’t wear the flag pin or respect the national anthem!”
This sort of attack will work with a certain demographic but the question will be can Barack convince Americans to examine his character without prejudice?
Thanks again E.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:03 am
So was RECOUNT a good movie? I heard Laura Ingraham say that liberals just couldn’t let that go. That really irritated me.
Regarding this article, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fact-finding. The problem is that when cons do it, they take the facts they find and twist them into some horrible “liberals are dangerous and unpatriotic” scenario. They have an undying double standard that says “we can dig as much dirt on you as we want, but if you do it you’re EVIL”.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Yes it’s very good.
And I’d be worried about a country that dismissed such an unfortunate historical precedent.
Basically, they didn’t want us to count the votes back then and they don’t want us to remember the votes today.
And like you said earlier “There’s nothing wrong with fact-finding” Like I said about Michelle Obama, “The argument isn’t the scrutiny and criticism”, the complaint is when you so easily and maliciously pervert and distort the obvious truth of the manner.
I wonder if America has wisened up to the lies and agendas of certain politicians? If so we can enter a new informed era where we’ll look back on this year and say “The tactics of those who chose to lie, distort, and mislead were matched and defeated by the honest debates of the informed, inquisitive, and honest.”
That would be nice.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
FUCK THE FUCKING REPUBLICANS!!!!!
I’m just sayin…
May 26th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Be nice, Haywood. Not all repubs suck.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Oh boy. Just what we need – another KKKarl Rove.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
“The problem is that when cons do it, they take the facts they find and twist them into some horrible “liberals are dangerous and unpatriotic” scenario.”
If you swap out the words “cons” and “liberals” you could easily say the same thing about Michael Moore, Moveon.org, and Daily Kos.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Possibly, but that kind of thing is typically done by those on the far-right like yourself.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:48 pm