A footnote to Howie's post (below) about blatantly illegal McCranky campaign fund-raising: Say, gang, let's play "If the shoe was on the other foot"!

[C'mon, you know the drill: Click to enlarge.]

by Ken

I was just reading Howie's post below containing some of the more squalid new revelations about the fiscal debauchery of the McCranky campaign, solidly in the tradition of the candidate's personal history of financial sleaze, and my first response was: Goddamn, the slimy son of a bitch is going to get away with it!

Not so much from a legal standpoint, though I think he'll probably get away with it that way too. You know, maybe eventually pay some paltry fines ordered by the FEC -- after he's moved into the White House. No, the sumbitch is gonna get away scot-free, because the public just doesn't care about this technical crap like campaign-finance violations.

So here we are in our little corner of the political universe, working ourselves into a lather over these vile misdeeds. The likelihood remains, though, that until some security camera catches Senator McCranky in the act of personally robbing a bank or convenience store, which isn't bloody likely given that the lovely Cindy could just put that bank or convenience store on her American Express card, the public just won't give a damn. All most voters hear is "politicians blah-blah money blah-blah improprieties," and to them it's "same old same old, they're all on the take, don't bother me."

That, as I say, was my first response. My second response was to imagine, as I imagine you too have imagined frequently since the onset of the Age of Bush:

What if the shoe was on the other foot?

From the morass of McCranky campaign finance depradations, pick out the absolutely most trivial allegation that's been raised, and then imagine that being even rumored about, say, a Democrat. Within hours the entire Right-Wing Noise Machine would be on alert, shrilling in cacaphonous unison. You know, Comedian Rush, and Billo, and the whole mangy brigade of clown-suited Fox Noisemakers. For days, or weeks, or if necessary months we would be hearing about it 24/7. Why, that quarterly report that was turned in an hour past the deadline, it would represent an immediate threat to the very existence of the United States of America -- just what we would expect from those America-hating liberals.

Are you going to sit there and tell me you can't already hear the brain-dead bellowing of that spawn of Satan Sean Hannity? The chances are awfully good that within a couple of weeks a large chunk of the American electorate would know deep in its gut that that miserable terrorist-loving (shudder) Democrat is a damned crook who'd be swinging from a gallows if there were any justice in the world.

No moral here -- unless you choose to extract one. Me, I'm just saying.

#

It turns out Obama would have been pilloried if he HAD visited those wounded troops in Germany. In 2008 do you HAVE to lie to be a Republican?

"Steve Schmidt . . . is playing the Rovian playbook that says that it doesn’t matter if it’s true as long as your target audience (non-college educated white working class voters) won’t bother to find out the actual truth, and believe that it 'sounds like it might be a true.'”

-- Business Week Senior Correspondent David Kiley,
on the magazine's website Monday

by Ken

We've all heard and seen more than enough, I think, of the McCranky "campaign" (still have to use those quotes around "campaign") ad that smeared Barack Obama for not visiting wounded U.S. troops in Germany -- all concocted from utter lies fabricated by the "campaign"'s team of liars. The team appears to include a cohort of morons as well, since the ad, which made the idiotic claim that Senator Obama was too busy to visit the troops but wasn't too busy to go to the gym, used for the "gym" video of the senator, not in Germany but in Kuwait, shooting hoops with U.S. troops.

Really, at that level of dishonesty and stupidity, you need to exercise your Second Amendment right and take a gun to your head and just keep shooting till you start feeling less dishonest.

But wait, it turns out that that wasn't the full level of dishonesty at play here.

On Monday, on Brand New Day, Business Week's "advertising, marketing and media" blog, Senior Correspondent David Kiley tore the anti-Obama ad -- produced by "McCain’s new ad/communications honcho Steve Schmidt" -- to smithereens. Citing the "blatant lie" about Obama's scheduling, he opined:

Steve Schmidt, a disciple of Karl Rove’s who worked on George W. Bush’s 2004 ad/communications effort, though, is playing the Rovian playbook that says that it doesn’t matter if it’s true as long as your target audience (non-college educated white working class voters) won’t bother to find out the actual truth, and believe that it “sounds like it might be a true.”

However, correspondent Kiley had a bit of news -- or perhaps a bombshell (I incline to bombshell) -- to add:

What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was...wait for it...using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents -- a lie.

This is interesting, no? But let's not stop here. Kiley has some interesting things to say on the subject:

This is what some people are calling the Hannity strategy. Right wing nut-muffin Sean Hannity employs a slick strategy of repeating canards very quickly over and over, day in and day out, which aren’t challenged by his TV co-host Alan Colmes or by any of his radio listeners. By relentlessly repeating falsehoods day after day, the theory goes, it becomes embedded in the media. There is truth in this. In 2004, the Bush campaign ran an ad and daily repeated that John Kerry was a flip flopper, running a Kerry clip with the Democratic candidate saying he voted for an $87 billion military appropriation before he voted against it. It sounded bad when ripped out of context. Kerry voted for it in committee, and then voted against in on a floor vote when the bill included giveaways to Halliburton he didn’t support.

The distortion took on a life of its own, parroted by mainstream media including Chris Matthews, and even the Tom Brokaw and the late Tim Russert. It is a case study in how effective advertising can work when it is done relentlessly and consistently…even if its untrue. Hannity enployed the same strategy conflating a passing acquaintance between Obama and former unconvicted Weather Underground activist William Ayers with "an association" with Obama...for months. He talked it up every day. He finally goaded ABC's George Stephanopoulus to ask Obama about it in a televised debate. It didn't matter that Obama has nothing that could be construed by a thinking person like "an association" with Ayers. He raised the question just by repeating it daily.

Welcome to the new McCain cum Schmidt cum Rove campaign.

I've written good things about McCain's ads in the past, and I expect I will again if they ever return to a level of at least being for grown-ups.

Oh, and one more thing -- this parting shot Kiley takes at the insufferable Sean Hannity:

By the way, lest Hannity try and pretend that he isn’t a tool of virtually any GOP campaign, it’s worth noting that he echoed almost point for point the actual daily McCain campaign talking points on Obama's trip last Friday night, including his “takeaway from the Obama trip” that he had time to work out in a gym but not visit the troops in the hospital. Hannity went into the tank again the same night that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that the White House does, in fact, provide Hannity and other Fox News and on-air talent their daily and weekly policy “talking points.” We knew that, but it’s nice to hear someone admit it who was in on the transaction.

Just a while ago I found myself responding to a commenter who wanted us to believe that the subpoena and congressional contempt action against Karl Rove is merely a partisan "fishing expedition." Of course that's the talking point the Judiciary Committee Republicans were spewing after the committee vote on contempt, and it's so self-evidently drivel that I meant to mention it myself in my post on the subject: Those GOP-ers may not be Einsteins, but they're not that stupid. You have to assume they're just lying, right?

And in replying to that comment, I found myself wondering whether we've really reached the point here at the dawn of the 21st century where to be a Republican you have to be either a moron or a pathological liar. As anyone who reads DWT at all knows, we have our problems with an awful lot of Democrats, but in the year 2008 Republicans are something else again.


FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH (AND I'M NOT SURE IT'S MUCH) --

In a weird and largely incoherent MSNBC interview today with Andrea Mitchell, McCranky "campaign" manager Rick Davis denied the report that the "campaign" had an alternate ad ready for the troops visit. It's not entirely clear to me, though, that Davis would have known, or that he would tell us the truth if he did.

Here's the exchange in the transcript that reached me:

MITCHELL: Were you ready with an advertisement as some has suggested, in case he had visited the troops, to criticize him for doing it while on a political trip?

DAVIS: No. I mean, frankly, we learned about the trip from the media. We, like many people in the media, weren't very well informed in what details of Barack Obama's trip was going to be. But, when we learned about it, you know, it was disappointing to us. Because I am very confident that the soldiers at Landstuhl would have enjoyed a trip and a visit by Barack Obama. So, from our perspective, you know, look, we think he made a mistake in judgment. We think those are the kinds of things that people are evaluating.

#

McCAIN REMOVES ANOTHER OF HIS CORRUPT LOBBYSISTS FROM THE DRIVERS SEAT OF THE DOUBLE TALK EXPRESS-- OR DID HE?

Steve Schmidt now in charge of all McCain's negative messaging

As McCain's campaign manager, shady lobbyist Rick Davis has caused McCain endless problems and is a walking reminder that McCain's entire campaign is infested with the sleaziest congregation of Inside the Beltway special interest lobbyists ever assembled for any political campaign. He has been McCain's connection to the Russian Mafia and a key player in the developing Telecom scandals. Today Davis announced that although he would remain a key player in McCain's operation-- especially where it comes to the major donors at the heart of everything McCain does-- the day to day work (and the media spotlight) would go to Schwarzenegger's former campaign manager Steve Schmidt. He "will coordinate the campaign's daily pro-McCain and anti-Obama message but also will have an increased role in shaping most every facet of the organization including scheduling, policy, coalitions and surrogates."

Now, accounts diverge on the exact nature of the new chain of command. One top McCain source said that Schmidt "assumed full operational control of the campaign today" and described Davis as "a general manager."

But Charlie Black, another top adviser, said Davis was still in charge.

"Steve is going to function under Rick as a [chief operating officer]," Black said. "Rick still has authority over all things. Steve works for Rick."

But Black made sure to not diminish Schmidt's elevated role in the campaign.

"He'll be the maestro who conducts the symphony," Black said of Schmidt's position in driving McCain's message.

Yet McCain sources say Schmidt's imprint will be felt beyond a campaign message that, until recently, had not been clearly defined.

A handful of his fellow Bushworld veterans are also taking on more high-profile roles.

UPDATE... AHHH... IT WAS A SHAKE-UP

Tomorrow's NY Times says McCain was "responding to Republican concerns that his candidacy was faltering" and that's why he decided to centralize the power structure and put in the Rove character.

The elevation of Steve Schmidt — who worked closely with Karl Rove — at Mr. McCain’s headquarters represented a sharp diminishment of the responsibilities of Rick Davis, who has been Mr. McCain’s campaign manager since the last shake-up nearly a year ago.

The shift was approved by Mr. McCain after several of his aides, including Mr. Schmidt, went to him about 10 days ago and warned him that he was in danger of losing the presidential election unless he revamped his campaign operation, two officials close to the campaign said.

The move of Mr. Schmidt is the latest sign of increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove’s shop in the McCain operation. Nicolle Wallace, communications director for Mr. Bush in the 2004 campaign (and in his White House), has joined the campaign as a senior adviser, and will travel with Mr. McCain every other week.

Greg Jenkins, another veteran of Mr. Rove’s operation who is a former Fox News producer and director of presidential advance in the Bush White House, was hired by Mr. Schmidt last week after a series of what Mr. McCain’s advisers acknowledged were poorly executed campaign events.

Mr. Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s senior political adviser until he left the White House last year, was said by Mr. McCain’s advisers to have offered advice in recent days to Mr. Schmidt and others on how to get Mr. McCain’s campaign on track, but has stayed mostly on the periphery. Mr. Rove is aware, his associates said, that his own legacy could be helped should Mr. McCain win the presidency.

Is he still denying he's the embodiment of 4 more disastrous years?