Saturday, October 28, 2006

Sen. Kean: "Have You No Sense of Decency, Sir"

The ANNOTICO Report

 

In the New Jersey US Senate Race, Tom Kean Jr. has Not Yet Instructed his "Friends" to pull a Anti Italian Bigoted TV Ad,  Nor has he Disavowed it !!!!

 

It appears to be part of Campaign Acts of Desperation by Conservatives who are going "Dirty", as they have against:

Georgia Senator Max Cleland, a war hero and triple amputee, claiming he was less patriotic than his draft-dodging opponent.

Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a veteran who lost both of her legs in Iraq, claiming she would cut and "run" from Iraq.
Tennessee Harold Ford with jungle drums being played every time his name is mentioned in a radio ad.

 

And defy logic just as slandering  Italian Americans when the Republican's opponent is a Cuban American, Bob Menendez.

 

WHERE IS JOSEPH WELCH WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

The California Majority Report

Sherry Greenberg

October 27, 2006 

 

Back in the 1950s, the red-baiting, right-wing wacko Senator Joseph McCarthy was finally exposed as a misanthropic opportunist by attorney Joseph Welch who memorably said to McCarthy: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[...]  Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
 
McCarthy's lists and Senate hearings on supposed communists were the final acts of a devious political career.  In his first successful election to the Senate, McCarthy exaggerated his own military career, accused his opponent, Senator Robert La Follette, of not enlisting during World War Two and implied that LaFollette had been a war profiteer.  The fact that LaFollette was 49 when Pearl Harbor was attacked and serving in the US Senate was of no concern to McCarthy. Nor, apparently was it to the people o! f Wisconsin.  They fell for the deception.  Who can blame them?  They had just gone through the horror and privations of a world war and were terrified by the unknown of the emergence of the Soviet Union and the nuclear age. And, that lesson was not lost on McCarthy nor, regrettably, is it lost on today's generation of Republican politicians -- especially in light of the fears generated by 9/11.
 
In 2002, Republicans employed McCarthyesque tactics to unseat Georgia Senator Max Cleland.  Cleland left three limbs on a Vietnamese battlefield.  Yet, remarkably, he was assaulted by advertisements that linked him to terrorists and claimed that he was less patriotic than his draft-dodging opponent. When it was pointed out that Cleland was a war hero and triple amputee, right-wing talking heads, such as Ann Coulter, set forth even more audacious claims that Cleland's wounds were self-inflicted and not really combat related. Remarkably, the ads and ! Coulterisms worked.  Cleland was defeated.
 
The success of the anti-Cleland ads gave rise to the Swiftboating of John Kerry.
 
This campaign season, we have a plethora of McCarthyesque ads and invectives that appeal to the deep seated fears and prejudices of voters and that are just downright mean.  In Tennessee, the Republican National Committee appeals to the basest of instincts in its ad suggesting a sexual relationship between African -American Congressman Harold Ford and a blonde bimbo.  Ford's opponent also is playing a radio ad that features jungle drums every time Ford's name is mentioned. 

 

In New Jersey, Republicans employ a "mafioso" type character to malign Bob Menendez (don't ask me why they chose to slander Italian Americans in a race featuring a Cuban American). 
 
Illinois Republican Peter Roskam claimed during a debate that his opponent would cut and run from IraqRoskam's opponent is Tammy Duckworth, a veteran who lost both of her legs in Iraq.  
 
Indiana Republican Hostetter is running a radio ad that claims Nancy Pelosi will advance a homosexual agenda if she becomes Speaker.  Every time Republican talking heads discuss who will lead a Democratic Congress, they talk about Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel, Alcee Hastings, John Conyers and Barney Frank -- a woman, three African Americans and a gay male.  I wonder why they don't discuss an Agriculture Committee headed by Colin Peterson or an Appropriations Committee chaired by David Obey.  Could it be that they are left off the list ! because they are straight white men?
 
And, now, we have Rush Limbaugh physically and verbally mocking Michael J. Fox and questioning the veracity of Fox's Parkinson's symptoms displayed in ads for Clare McCaskill and Ben Cardin. I suppose that Limbaugh's own pharmacological experience provides him with a special level of expertise to determine from a video tape whether Fox is taking his medication.  If Fox is such a phony, why didn't Limbaugh call him out when Fox appeared in a similar ad for Republican Arlen Spector in 2004?
 
Welch's comments marked the beginning of the end of McCarthy's reign of terror.  We need someone like Welch to call out McCarthy's modern day fellow travelers.

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