The Politics of Character Assassination, Republican against Republican 7
Of course, this is nothing new; the Bush campaign started whisper campaigns against its primary challengers (from the Annenberg FactCheck.org). But this is more than a whisper campaign; it involves forged headlines:
A Republican candidate in Illinois is running TV ads using fake headlines.
Jim Oberweis launched the ads against the frontrunner in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Judy Baar Topinka. He accuses her of being part of a “culture of political corruption.” Besides Oberweis’s fakery, he misleads by resurrecting decade-old allegations that came to nothing.
March 20, 2006 at 7:51 pm
If you’re really that interested in a candidacy that was never going to go anywhere to start with, there’s more about this story at http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A5149
March 20, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I am always interested in wierd and whacky political stories. Thanks for the link.
It says something for him that he made FactCheck.org. They do only about two or three stories a month.
March 20, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Illinois Times is an excellent newspaper. Hopelessly liberal in its outlook, but still a valuable asset to our community most of the time.
I say “most of the time” because they do go through dry spells. They tend to find excellent young reporters who go on to better paying jobs, and sometimes when they lose a good one it takes a while to find the next. Dusty Rhodes is my current fav.
March 21, 2006 at 6:51 pm
“Dusty Rhodes”?
Is that a stage name?
Regarding papers with liberal editorial policies, I always suggest that anyone who thinks the hopelessly middle-of-the-road Washington Post is liberal should spend a little time reading the Boston Globe. It’s one of the nation’s ten best papers, right up there with the Post, the L. A. Times, the Sacramento Bee, and the Chicago Tribune, and their editorial pages are a lesson in liberal positions.
March 21, 2006 at 7:44 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if Dusty Rhodes is a nom de plume. (For you Internet Explorer users, that means “pen name.”)
Ditto about the Boston Globe. I used to read the Globe back in my first stint with Simplex, when I’d go to the corporate headquarters in Massachusetts once in a while.
I was in a restaurant in Gardner one evening while Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings were going on and the Anita Hill controversy arose. There were guys from all over the country at the table and I forgot I was in Massachusetts. A bit more pointed in my younger days, I made a loud insult about the hypocrisy of Senator Edward Kennedy sitting in judgment of a man accused of sexual harassment. A chef who had stepped out of the kitchen for a moment glared at me. It took me a good thirty seconds to realize why.
March 22, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Yeah, it’s true. Republicans have no monopoly on hypocrisy or stupidity (grin, duck, and run!).
I call it Ki.
K = Constant.
i = idiot.
When you gather enough people into a room, a certain percentage of them will turn out to be idiots. It’s just human nature.
But I must say, with much sadness, that in our public–I emphasize public–life right now, it seems to me that many more persons who lean right than those who lean left deal in hatred.
March 23, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Holy cow, I read that article you linked to, and I have to say you hit the nail on the head. Why would anyone write anything that hateful? I about fell over when I read: “Please note: Being informed is one reason why academics tend to be more liberal than the population at large. Want another? They’re more likely to be smart.” If I were as bitter as that guy is, I wouldn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. I wonder what objectives he had in mind when he set out to write that.