Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to endlessly repeat it.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) and by extension its satellites; state committees, 527s and fat cat related interest groups which serve as tentacles for a multi-pronged strike; are doing a fine job at laying out multiple level smokescreens. They are hoping against hope that Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president and they are doing everything within their power to help her win.
They know, this year more than ever, they cannot win on the issues. John McCain, who doesn't have a clue about national economics, is proposing a continuation of the Bushbaby's policies that have bogged the country down into a recession. He is against the new GI Bill because, as the White House reasons, if you give the servicemen and women too many benefits they won't feel the need to stay in the Armed Services. And if McCain wins the presidency he is going to need for the soldiers and sailors to stick around because we are going to be in Iraq for a really, really long time.
McCain was touring African-American communities last week pretending to be a different type of Republican. During that excursion he announced that he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women.
Since virtually every word that comes out of the mouth of Grumpy, Sleepy and Dopey (McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham) flies in the face of the economic and social interest of the majority of Americans, Republicans have to engage in distractions, pursue the politics of destruction and seek to divide, and thus conquer, the Democrats.
Distractions
When the Terri Schiavo case came to prominence in 2005 there was some really bad news for the Busbaby Administration starting to come out regarding Iraq. Using Mrs. Schiavo as political cover, the Republican Party energized their base and created a major distraction in the media. Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, a doctor, used only a short video of Mrs. Schiavo to diagnose her as a cognizant woman who should not have her feeding tube removed.
At the same time, the so-called "Schiavo Memo" was leaked to the media. It was written by Brian Darling, the legal counsel to Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez. It suggested the Schiavo case offered "a great political issue" that would appeal to the party's core supporters and could be used against Sen. Bill Nelson because he had refused to co-sponsor Terri's law which was a bill that congress cooked up to try to use to circumvent the courts.
When the feeding tube was removed for the third and final time Mrs. Schiavo passed away. The autopsy on her brain showed that she had lived the last five years of her life in a persistent vegetative state. Frist's grandstanding medical diagnosis had been completely wrong. The Bushbaby, Brotherbush, Florida governor at the time, Darth Cheney nor Doc Frist ever bothered to apologize.
Republican talking heads now have started chatter about the fact that Obama can't finish Hillary off. What a great distraction to use while the Republican trio of mental dwarfs stumble around the country saying things that the majority of Americans are not going to agree with. In fact, they have been prattling on about the "finish her off issue" for so long that even the main stream media has picked it up.
Well here's a newsflash; Clinton is doing even worse at finishing Obama off.
The Politics of Destruction
When Tennessee polls were indicating that Harold Ford, a black candidate, was moving ahead of Bob Corker, a white candidate, in the 2006 Senate contest, the Republicans were frantic. They put together a TV ad in which an announcer told us that Ford, who was single at the time, had been attending parties hosted by Playboy Magazine. A blond and fair-skinned white woman looked straight into the camera, did that cute little thing with her hand as a phone and said, "Harold, call me sometime."
The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee (RCCC) put mega bucks into the media buy. The ad played statewide but mostly it was concentrated in the eastern part of the state where there is an older, more conservative (and more racist) population.
Corker disavowed the ad, it wasn't his campaign that was doing it, he said, and noted that he had no control over the actions of the RCCC who, in turn, said it was just another one of their commercials and it would continue to run.
Corker won the Senate seat by a couple of percentage points gained from a small majority of voters in eastern Tennessee. There is no doubt in a lot of people's minds, though people speaking officially will never admit it, that the outcome was a direct result of Republican sleaze. They could not win on issues, so their strategy was to appeal to base racial motivations.
On the first day of early primary voting in North Carolina the state GOP posted their first attack ad of the season. Their target is Barack Obama and two of his supporters, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore, Democratic contenders for the gubernatorial nomination. On their website, the state Republican Party describes the commercial, which features footage of Reverend Wright, as an "Extreme Ad." Once again, a Republican product is drawing harsh criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
McCain disavowed the ad, it wasn't his campaign that was doing it he said, and noted that he had no control over the actions of the North Carolina GOP who, in turn, says it is just another one of their commercials and it will continue to run. They can not win on issues, so their strategy is to appeal to base racial motivations.
Divide and Conquer
During the Democratic primary process, Rush Limbaugh's support for Hillary Clinton has been incredible. He put together and drove campaigns in several states to get Republicans to vote for Clinton after the nomination for McCain was resolved. The fact that Democratic voters are polarizing behind Clinton and Obama is wonderful news to the GOP. Democrats don't have to vote for McCain, if they will just stay home it will have the same effect.
Tomorrow, April 29, some 700 protesters, a broad mix of Independents, Republicans and Democrats will be traveling by bus to Washington, D.C., and expect to meet with Congressional leaders on Wednesday. They are a group called Florida Demanding Representation (FDR) and they are spearheading an attempt to drive the wedge issue of counting Florida primary votes as they were cast. Against the rules and in direct violation of candidate agreements, the scorched-earth campaign of Hillary Clinton is cheering them on.
The Clinton presidency destroyed the Democratic Party. When Bubba was elected there was a liberal/progressive majority in congress and eight years later we had a "Contract on America" and the president was thoroughly disgraced. Now the other Clinton is working as hard as she can to achieve the same result. When you pull the lever, push the button or ring the bell for Clinton remind yourself, "I'm doing this because the Republicans told me to."
Meanwhile, the rest of us just watch the endlessly repeating scenes and note that it truly is time for a new kind of politics.