Mehlman has no shame

March 21, 2006

Last week, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman tried to capitalize on the Feingold censure resolution with a rather scurrilous alert to party members, arguing that when it comes to Democrats, “Weakening our national security is their agenda.”

Today, Mehlman’s RNC launched a 60-second radio ad in Madison and Milwaukee. If there’s even one honest sentence in the entire thing, I can’t find it. Here’s the ad’s script:

“September 11 changed our country and it changed how America responds to terrorists. President Bush is working to keep American families safe, passing the Patriot Act, which has disrupted over 150 terrorist threats and cells, making sure the U.S. is monitoring terrorist communications. But some Democrats are work against these efforts to secure our country, opposing the Patriot Act and terrorist-surveillance program.

“Their leader is Russ Feingold. Now Feingold and other Democrats want to censure the President, publicly reprimanding President Bush for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda.

“Some Democrats are even calling for President Bush’s impeachment. Is this how Democrats plan to win the War on Terror? Call Russ Feingold and ask him why he’s more interested in censuring the President than protecting our freedom.”

People who believe Feingold’s resolution is a good idea will likely see this as proof that he’s making the GOP nervous. People who see the resolution as a bad idea will interpret the ad as proof that Feingold is giving the Republicans’ campaign ammunition.

And people with any sense at all will realize that the ad is proof that the RNC is so desperate, it’s given up on honesty and decency altogether.

“And people with any sense at all will realize that the ad is proof that the RNC is so desperate, it’s given up on honesty and decency altogether.”

The Rethugs gave up on “honesty” and “decency” long ago; Mehlman does not have even a nodding acquaintance with the concepts.

To parahrase what Forrest Gump would say, “Thugs are as thugs do.”

  • “And people with any sense at all” are far too few
    in this nation, which is how we wound up with this
    disastrous administration in the first place.

  • “September 11 changed our country and it changed how America responds to terrorists.”

    Well, that sentence is true – not good, but true.

  • I just flat-out don’t believe that “September 11 changed our country”. I don’t notice any sacrifices being asked of the American public – except to make up for the tax cuts we gave the obscenely rich. I don’t notice increased security for our ports – except asking old ladies to take off their shoes at airports and turning over ownership of our sea ports to emirs. I don’t notice any increased anti-government activity on the nation’s campuses (the troops actually in Iraq seem to be more anti-war, 72%, than the current crop of college students). I don’t notice any governmental appeals for bacon fat or tin cans or bandages or anything else which might help the “war effort”. I don’t notice the Republicans in control our government acting any further in the national interest than they did before September 11.

  • Isn’t there some sort of public organ in the US that reviews political spots like these? Because we got something like that here in Holland, which reviews these political spots and mainly finds out whether its contents are true, based on fact and so forth.

  • And people with any sense at all will realize that the ad is proof that the RNC is so desperate, it’s given up on honesty and decency altogether.

    Hopefully all twenty of those people can make a difference.

  • Amazing that these bald-faced lies can get into the American airwaves, but if some progressive group (i.e. MoveOn.org) wants to (pay for and) air their views, too many broadcasters find it too “controversial” to air.

    Here’s our problem:
    Two people are addressing a crowd, Mr. Dem & Mr. Repug.
    Mr. Repug has a bullhorn, slick advisors, and an unlimited budget for special effects.
    Mr. Dem has none of this, and seems kind of confused.

    Who’s side is the majority of the crowd going to hear?

    It.Is.Control.Of.The.Media.

    Even if the opponents of the current crime family in office got as polished as possibe, we don’t have the money, or the access to the media.

  • Too few people will understand the message for what it is: crap. Too many will simply agree because they are unable to reason through it, or are affraid to be labeled as supporting the terrorists.

    It’s time to stop thinking it won’t matter just because the message isn’t true.

  • 2Manchu, which is just one additional sign that Osama bin Laden has kicked George Bush’s ass in this entire unfortunate and disturbing episode of our Nation’s history.

  • Maybe I’m too optimistic (you should see my rug), but I think the more the RNC and the right keep beating this dead and false horse, the more ridiculous it sounds. Recent poll results may bear this out.

    They are partying like it’s 2002 and they don’t realize people have moved on from the urge to rally around the president. Go ahead, run on national security for the third cycle in a row. Four years ago you hadn’t put us as deep in debt as we now are. Four years ago what are now your public failures were only bold predictions. People live in the difference, and they can see everyday that you are taking the country in the wrong direction. Nobody is as scared now as they were then. It rings hollow after you hear it for the 10000th time.

    People may indeed vote against their own self interest- as certainly happened in 2004 – but sooner or later they catch on. I picture Rove, Mehlman, and company sweating and with rumpled shirts and ties. Their hair is messy. Glasses are askew, and collars are unbuttoned as they stammer through phrases like, “Seriously people! National Security! We keep you SAFE!” But the audience is slowly filing out of the stands. The party’s over.

  • Ed (at #6),

    I’m not saying 9/11 should have changed the US or actually changed the world (ie – we were not safe from Al Queda before nor are we now) – but it enabled a Presdient with low approval to take advantage of the trauma that so many Americans suffered (and still do) to railroad through a whole slew of changes – economically, environmentally, legally, militarily, etc – that have been to the detriment of the country, that never would have occurred without 9/11.

  • Well, why are we sitting here whining? What about an add showing the president reading my pet goat while the Repubs shout down a bill to increae port security?

    Cannot imagine more has not been made of that vote–it means either

    –Repubs don’t care about scurity or
    –They’ve been lying when they say it is a problem.

    (I suppose bald ignorance is a third choice…)

  • My question for Ken Mehlman, et al is Why did we let 9/11 change everything? Why did we let the terrorists change us into a nation that tortures, that has given up on our time honored system of checks and balances, that disappears people (guantanamo – enemy combatants), with diminished individual rights. “Some” might say the terrorists succeeded in their mission to weaken us with fear already. 9/11 apparently did change everything, it should not have turned us into snivillers. We should have been brave and tried to beat the terrosits within our principals. If we say that can’t be done that we might as well give up.

  • I still claim that “we” haven’t done anything. The GOP (as it is now constituted) is taking away our freedoms one right after the other. We do nothing. The GOP initiated an unprovoked war, based on the lies and buttressed by lies, and manned through shameless re-conscription of increasingly old and underpaid men and women. We do nothing. The GOP bankrupts future generations while giving away obscene amounts the already obscenely rich. We do nothing. The GOP is aware of real bloodbaths in Africa and possible disease outbreaks worlwide and does nothing. We do nothing. Mehlman acts without shame because he knows: we will do nothing. We come home and turn on the boob tube and do nothing. Nothing.

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