The Shell Game
Republicans are very good at fund raising and swift boating. Swift Boating is a term that's come to mean (according to Wikipedia):
Congressman John Murtha was "swiftboated" after calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq for example. What's interesting is the shell game Republicans play with all the money they raise. The GOP is quite adept at using fear for fund raising. Contributors get regular letters and emails demonizing Democratic leaders like the Clintons, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore (who isn't even a Dem) and Nancy Pelosi. These campaigns claim that voting for a Democrat means the Bible will be banned, homosexuals will take control of the local schools, terrorists will blow up your town, etc.
People respond to the fear mongering as they always have. The GOP has always had someone to hate and bash. For fifty years it was the awful Commies. Once the Cold War ended they needed new whipping posts and chose gays and immigrants. They regularly whip their base into a frenzy creating the fear and then use this to raise money. It's very effective. But where does all that money go?
The Abramoff investigations illustrated how much goes into the pockets of lobbyists and people like Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist. This article in The Huffington Post goes into great detail about one such GOP consulting operation in California. The Republicans, infamous for their campaign dirty tricks like the phone jamming in New Hampshire (still being investigated and now connected directly to the White House), bury these operatives in layers of organization. Those push poll calls being made in the Seventh CD? One company is paid by another company which got paid by a campaign or Party committee. Nothing shows up directly on the FEC reports.
Read Dave Johnson's fine piece of reporting and see where some of this cash went.
"Swift Boating" or "swiftboated" to describe any attack on a person that they see as using "cherry-picked" half-truths taken out of context, innuendo, and lies; particularly if such an attack is against critics of the Bush administration.
Congressman John Murtha was "swiftboated" after calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq for example. What's interesting is the shell game Republicans play with all the money they raise. The GOP is quite adept at using fear for fund raising. Contributors get regular letters and emails demonizing Democratic leaders like the Clintons, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore (who isn't even a Dem) and Nancy Pelosi. These campaigns claim that voting for a Democrat means the Bible will be banned, homosexuals will take control of the local schools, terrorists will blow up your town, etc.
People respond to the fear mongering as they always have. The GOP has always had someone to hate and bash. For fifty years it was the awful Commies. Once the Cold War ended they needed new whipping posts and chose gays and immigrants. They regularly whip their base into a frenzy creating the fear and then use this to raise money. It's very effective. But where does all that money go?
The Abramoff investigations illustrated how much goes into the pockets of lobbyists and people like Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist. This article in The Huffington Post goes into great detail about one such GOP consulting operation in California. The Republicans, infamous for their campaign dirty tricks like the phone jamming in New Hampshire (still being investigated and now connected directly to the White House), bury these operatives in layers of organization. Those push poll calls being made in the Seventh CD? One company is paid by another company which got paid by a campaign or Party committee. Nothing shows up directly on the FEC reports.
Read Dave Johnson's fine piece of reporting and see where some of this cash went.
posted by PA progressive @ Thursday, July 27, 2006
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