posted on August 28, 2004 03:54:33 PM new
And...who is the MOLE? Anyone have a guess?
Bush’s Sleeper Cells
All it takes is a wink and a nod from the White House, and this network springs into action WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 3:50 p.m. ET Aug. 27, 2004Aug. 27 -
Karl Rove makes Chuck Colson look like a girly man. Colson didn’t have the audacity to go after John Kerry’s military record when President Nixon was looking for dirt on antiwar leaders. After researching Kerry’s medals, Colson, who now heads a prison ministry program, backed off. “Maybe Chuck knew he was going to find Jesus back then because he had a degree of shame,” says a senior staffer to a Senate Republican.
The Kerry campaign thinks it has succeeded in discrediting the scurrilous attack on Kerry’s military service, but Rove got what he wanted. Instead of talking about a failed war in Iraq and a new report that shows 1.3 million more Americans living in poverty, we’re debating what happened in the Mekong Delta in 1968. The strategy “came straight from the West Wing,” says the GOP staffer. “Nobody should be confused.” Asked to explain, this Republican says Rove is smart enough to keep technical distance. But all it takes is a well-placed wink to activate a web of Bush family hit men, confidantes and deep-pocket donors. “They know what to do—it’s like sleeper cells that get activated,” he says, likening the players to “political terrorists.”
They sprang into action in 2000 when Bush was running in the primaries against John McCain. After getting beat in New Hampshire by McCain, Bush’s first event was at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Standing next to Bush on the stage was a veteran who went right at McCain, questioning his Vietnam service while Bush remained silent. A whisper campaign told voters that McCain had a black child. (The McCains have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh.) McCain lost the primary; the veteran became a Bush administration appointee.
The charges advanced by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth would never hold up in a court of law. These men would have us believe, contrary to Navy records and countless eye witnesses, that Kerry did not act heroically and had a grand plan to manipulate medals from the military.
Too bad Bob Dole got hauled into this mess. Once known principally as a GOP hatchet man, Dole had rehabbed himself over the years to war hero and sardonic wit. Then over the weekend he said all Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can’t be Republican liars. It’s the old where-there’s-smoke-there’s-fire routine. Why would Dole allow himself to be used like that? He must have forgotten how Bush’s father provoked him during the 1988 GOP primaries with sleazy allegations. When Vice President Bush approached him on the Senate floor, Dole blurted out, “Quit lying about my record.” The remark helped sink Dole’s chance for the nomination.
My Republican mole on Capitol Hill says the green light has gone out to Republicans to do whatever it takes to get Bush elected. “This is the way we hold onto power,” he says with disgust. Pollster John Zogby’s survey of battleground states taken last week as the Swift Boat controversy raged shows no fundamental change in the race. “It’s running its course, and it may boomerang,” he says of the attack on Kerry’s heroism. The fact that the sleeper network has gone nuclear is evidence of Bush’s weakness, not his strength, says Zogby. “If [the Bush team] weren’t seeing serious damage, they wouldn’t be hitting so hard so early. The president is on the ropes; there’s no other way of looking at it.”
A lot of Vietnam vets will never forgive Kerry for accusing them of committing atrocities. Kerry has conceded some hyperbole in his 1971 Senate testimony, but didn’t the Toledo Blade win a Pulitzer this year for uncovering Vietnam-era atrocities? Have we forgotten about the My Lai massacre and Zippo lighters burning down hooches? Maybe a few masochists want to debate whether Vietnam was a noble cause, but 58,000 of our soldiers died. The war was a waste whether you were on the right or the left. Kerry leveled most of his criticism at political leaders who didn’t tell the truth, and who sanctioned “search and destroy” missions that invited war crimes. By the time Kerry testified in 1971, 44,000 American soldiers were already dead. The war had almost no popular support, yet another 14,000 lives would be lost.
The irony is that Kerry does have courage—the very quality this smarmy campaign seeks to denigrate. The rap on him is that he is slow to battle, that it takes a near-death experience to get him fully engaged. By assailing his heroism, the GOP may have done Kerry a favor. Maybe they’ve awakened a sleeping giant.
posted on August 28, 2004 04:20:03 PM new
It's my opinion that whoever wrote this article...is not connected to current reality. Too many incorrect statements made as facts.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"One thing is for sure: the extremists have faith in our weakness. And the weaker we are, the more they will come after us." --Tony Blair
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"The War on Terror will not be won until America is united. And as long as Democrats target the Bush administration -- not the terrorists -- as the enemy, we are in trouble." --Oliver North
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Those are only two reasons why we need to:
posted on August 28, 2004 05:32:45 PM new
Excuse me, I know how to find Clinton death squad lists, for example http://www.etherzone.com/body.html or http://cbn2.tripod.com/passport.html are good. But where can I find a Bush list? drdolittle posted, "But all it takes is a well-placed wink to activate a web of Bush family hit men, confidantes and deep-pocket donors.", and I am interested in finding out more. Thank you.
posted on August 28, 2004 06:24:15 PM new
I don't think they had murder in mind, parklane. Since the article is about the assault on Kerry's military medals, it's reasonable to think that they are they are referring to Cheney, Rove, the Swift boat crew and Bush's campaign director. The donors have been mentioned in news reports.
posted on August 28, 2004 06:52:49 PM new
Parklane, I am quite sure that the wink and nod is as physical as these political terrorists get.. I haven't heard of any death squad yet... but I can see where one might get confused with the wording..a web of Bush family hit men, confidantes and deep-pocket donors..does have the ring of Mafia about it..LOL
I believe this paragraph sums it all up..
The Kerry campaign thinks it has succeeded in discrediting the scurrilous attack on Kerry’s military service, but Rove got what he wanted. Instead of talking about a failed war in Iraq and a new report that shows 1.3 million more Americans living in poverty, we’re debating what happened in the Mekong Delta in 1968.
In my opinion, I think Kerry has not handled his campaign as strategically as he should have.. he seems to have been played and maneuvered into a corner where his military record has become the entire format of his campaign..instead of realizing what was taking place and fighting back hard on the issues and on Bush's failings..he has spent most of the campaign fighting to defend his military record. I am not convinced that it is to late.. the debates can make all the difference. Doc
posted on August 28, 2004 07:01:15 PM new
doolittle, I will say this: Kerry is not a stupid man. He was a prosecutor and he knows the law and how to manipulate words to his advantage. But 'his people' are not too brite with the advertising. They are running a new one here... All goes well with it, until the end. They show a warped record wabling on a phonograph. But see, in my mind now, that is more associated with Kerry than Bush. ???
They are not doing something right. I dont know what it is, but its missing a beat somewhere.
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~~ Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues(forces)of life..Proverbs 4:23~~
posted on August 28, 2004 07:23:09 PM new
Yes, Neroter, there is something off as you said.. I agree with you too that Kerry is to intelligent to have let this happen.. that is what I can't understand.. it seems so clear to me that this entire Swift Boat Veterans attack was an obvious ruse to deflect attention away from the more important issues and the present war, and Bush's failings.
I have to believe that Kerry saw this.. but perhaps allowed it to play out with the belief that it would blow up in Bush's face?
posted on August 28, 2004 08:20:49 PM new
I dont know, doc. But if I get a revelation on it and think it sounds right -I will surely post it here and see if it sounds true to you and the others.
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~~ Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues(forces)of life..Proverbs 4:23~~
posted on August 28, 2004 09:09:31 PM new But where can I find a Bush list? drdolittle posted, "But all it takes is a well-placed wink to activate a web of Bush family hit men, confidantes and deep-pocket donors.", and I am interested in finding out more. Thank you.
I posted this in another thread. Here it is again, if you really do want to find out more.
posted on August 28, 2004 09:41:29 PM new
Death Squads?????
http://www.ledgeofliberty.com/2004/06/who_killed_marg.html Who Killed Margie Schoedinger?
"On December 2, 2002, Texas resident Margie Schoedinger, filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush"
9 Months later, she's found dead with gun shot wound to the head.
