Down goes the DCCC ad

July 15, 2006

Desperate for something fresh to complain about, congressional Republicans launched quite an offensive this week against the DCCC for an online video that that laments the crises that Republicans have mismanaged in recent years, and includes an image of caskets of U.S. soldiers coming home. The GOP called it “despicable.” Now there’s a new name for it: gone.

It seemed, to an extent, that the controversy over the video had backfired. After several days of intense Republican whining, the clip that had been largely ignored for two weeks suddenly was driving lots of people to the DCCC’s site to see what all the fuss was about.

Bill Burton, the Democratic campaign committee’s spokesman, said the Republican criticism had boosted traffic for the short video. Until Thursday, only about 1 percent of visitors to the campaign committee had bothered to watch.

But that changed Thursday, he said, with “tens of thousands” of people clicking on the ad. Thousands of those people had signed up to either contribute or volunteer for the Democratic campaign, he added.

Great news, right? There was nothing offensive in the clip and the still image of flag-draped coffins simply served as a reminder of the tragic U.S. casualties in Iraq. The more people who saw the video saw a fairly powerful Dem message about giving the nation a “new direction.”

Or rather, they used to. Yesterday, the party yanked the video from the website.

Democrats pulled an Internet ad that showed flag-draped coffins Friday after Republicans and at least two Democrats demanded it be taken down on grounds the image was insensitive and not fit for a political commercial.

The ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called for a “new direction” and displayed a staccato of images, including war scenes, pollution and breached levees as well as a photograph of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay doctored to look like a police mug shot.

The campaign committee replaced the ad with a radio commercial that targets Rep. John Hostetler, R-Ind., for opposing an increase in the minimum wage. Democrats have made a minimum wage increase a central theme of this year’s election.

Now, it’s possible the DCCC had planned to keep the video up for two weeks all along. Maybe yesterday’s move was just part of the schedule and GOP criticism had nothing to do with the change. Or maybe not; I don’t know.

If the party yielded to pressure, however, that does not bode well for Dem toughness through the campaign season. There was nothing wrong with that video. Mark McKinnon, who made some pretty scurrilous ads for Bush-Cheney ’04, agreed that the imagery was entirely “appropriate.” And best of all, people were actually beginning to see the video, which was supposed to be the point from the outset.

I can only hope the party didn’t back down because some right-wing opportunists tried to score some cheap points on this. We have four months of campaigning to go before a key midterm cycle in which the Dems have a chance to take back Congress. If they wilt every time the GOP whines, it’s going to be a long four months.

The party with no balls. Ask me again why I’m not a democrat.

  • It’s not that they have little backbone. They have trained themselve to be the lapdogs of the right. Captives whom sympathize with their captors, hoping to get an extra piece of gristle in their gruel at feeding time.

    What we need is a new, stronger, labor party. Green party with teeth, per se.

  • The Democrats always have my vote, but they won’t get my money until they show me that they will fight and win. I thought the video was good, and I hope it returns to the DCCC site. What’s despicable is a war that we didn’t need to fight, that will kill at least as many Americans as 9/11, that is killing innocent Iraqis, and that will cost more than $1 trillion.

  • As these comments show, the Democrats need to start worrying less about what people who hate them think, and more about what people who already support them or might support them think.

    That the RNC seems to have more sway over them than either their own rank and file voters or independent, persuadable voters, is really just sad and disgusting.

  • i’d like to know which two democrats demanded that the ad be taken down: they should not be allowed to hide behind anonymity. please do your best to find out their names so we can tell these DINOs very directly to go fuck themselves and leave politics, where they obviously don’t belong.

    the struggle with the republican party over whether american will continue to be a great country or whether it will continue to sink into a right-wing totalitarian state is for real: any dem who doesn’t get that has no business in our public life.

    what a couple of worthless sacks of shit.

  • Pathetic.

    Can we at least get the video and post it all over the web (utube, etc)? It won’t be as good as being on their site, but maybe we can help the Democrats in spite of themselves.

  • Howard…

    ***Democratic Reps. John Spratt of South Carolina and Chet Edwards of Texas***

  • shargash,
    I wonder if that was the DCCC’s objective.

    I saw the ad on Your Tube, with quite a number of peoplecommenting positively on it, and it seems to be on almost every progressive website in the country, at least the ones I’ve seen.

    Had this been a TV ad, once it left the air, that’s the last you’d see of it. But on the Internet, even if the DCCC website stops showing it, it’ll live on other sites.

    Maybe I’m giving the Dems too much credit for being creative, but they are a lot better at understanding the impact of the Internet than Republicans and conservatives.

  • Carrie’s not a Democrat because she has no balls.

    Ball envy.

    Grow some balls, Carrie.

    Big ones.

    And get a DFA spine while you’re at it.

  • I absolutely can not believe the hysteria coming out of the Republicans on this one. The flag draped coffins was only 1/5th or less of the whole ad.

  • Hey howard and Steve,

    I would remind you that South Carolina and Texas were part of the traitorous Confederacy and now known as the Republican Party. How Unionist (Northerners) can accept any elected federal officeholder to be a Republican is beyond. Let’s purge Congress of northern Republicans in 2006.

  • Pretty sad news when you remember that last week Bill Clinton praised Bush for his immigration initiatives and the next day they blamed him for N. Korea’s intransigence.

    How many times do you have to get punched in the mouth before enough is enough?

    Apparently a couple of thousand times….

  • Nothing wrong with that video in my opinion. The DCCC shoul grow a pair and put it back up. Or better, put it on tv.

    Some comments:

    1. Nix the Clinton imagery coupled with the quote. Not because there’s anything wrong with Clinton, there’s not, but because it underscores the fact that there is nobody like (as good as) Clinton in the current heirarchy. Use the quote as a voiceover, and even show it written out and attribute it to him, but don’t show him with his hands up.

    2. Aren’t there REAL mugshots of Delay? Why fake ’em?

    3. Love the music and the evil Cheney scowl shot. that guy is right out of central casting, IMO.

  • I am not sure why I need to grow a set, and not sure what that comment was about, Oy.

    Xeroman, I’ve never registered for a party in my entire voting life, which started in 1973 when I turned 21 (they had just changed to voting age from 21 to 18 around that time, so I was not able to vote before I turned 21). I have voted for more democratic candidates in my life, and being in California, I’ve voted for a few republicans. I voted for Ross Perot for president, and one year, I wrote in Mickey Mouse. Given what I know now about voting irregularities, I suppose my entire ballot was discarded once I voted for Mickey.

    I say “ask me why I’m not a Democrat” because I’m one of the people this party seeks to sign up, if not as a registered voter, at least in contributions and confirmation that I will vote a Democratic ticket.

    I see absolutely no difference between the two parties, as they stand before us today. I believe the Democratic party is doing a piss poor job in their recruitment, especially since I’m a prime candidate … but when they cannot even stand up for an internet ad, come on. I lose all interest in the “whaaa whaaa” of the party.

    That’s not to say I’m leaning in any fashion or manner toward the other party. It just reinforces my belief, as a die hard liberal and newly converted progressive, the Democrats are not giving me any sign that they are alive and kicking.

    Never before have I felt the displacement politically as I do these days, and I am not alone. Perhaps a third party might realistically emerge in the coming years, one that would actually represent the vast majority of disenfranchised voters.

  • At the risk of sounding like the Rude Pundit, I was going to call the Democrats “pussies” for this retreat. Then I saw Carrie’s post (#1) where she says the Dems are “The party with no balls.” I think that is more apt.

    The Dems are like neutered/castrated boys. They can’t fuck in the traditional sense, and can only get screwed in the ass; just like the Rethugs always do to the Dems at the polls. I’m not into anal sex, but there are many who claim it is very satisfying — I’m sure that the DCCC leadership must fall into that category because they sure do bend over every time the Rethugs scream and set the RightWingNoiseMachine into gear.

    Just a bunch of scared, pathetic little boys waiting for the scraps left over in the K Street trough after the pig Rethugs are done sucking on the public and corporate teats.

    P.S. Is there a more revolting word than “pathetic” to describe these losers? Where is the Harry Truman of today’s Democratic Party that is willing to tell the truth about the Rethugs and have it be Hell for the Rethugs? [My own answers: “”excrementalism” and “cleaning up behind the elephants in the circus parade.”]

  • I highly recommend reading the comments on utube after following the link in post #17 above.

  • Taking the ad down after two weeks doesn’t seem all that abrupt, considering we’re still months away from the elections. If it had been two days that would be different, but they may have felt the ad had done it’s job by then and might as well not give the Retardicans a free shot at getting their mindless base all worked up right now.

    What will tell the tale is what happens down the road. They could well bring the ad back again later, now that they’ve seen how effective it is. That would be a real hoot, wouldn’t it?

  • Certainly an excellent commercial. Why we have to listen to a pair of sixth-generation southern traitors tell us what to do with the party is beyond me. Some moron from the Capitol of Treason, South Carolina, and the Capitol of The Traditional American Criminal Class, Texas. Bah!

  • If they wilt every time the GOP whines, it’s going to be a long four months.

    months years

  • “Now, it’s possible the DCCC had planned to keep the video up for two weeks all along. Maybe yesterday’s move was just part of the schedule and GOP criticism had nothing to do with the change. Or maybe not; I don’t know.”

    Who needs Republicants and rightwingers when Democrats and progressives need only rely on themselves to tear their party down. “No balls”, “little backbone”, “lapdogs”, “gutless”, “pathetic”, “pussies”, “neutered/castrated boys”, “scared, pathetic little boys”? Carrie is the only one to openly admit that she is not a Democrat, but the rest of the comments make me wonder if this posting was simply to encourage trolling. Despite the above quoted paragraph from the posting, the tone of the posting and most of the comments assume that we know the DCCC’s intention behind pulling the video.

    The appropriate thing to do is to ask or demand to know why they pulled the video and then express our APPROPRIATE anger and disagreement. What’s worse than skipping an important step here is that this posting and resulting comments are a rightwingers dream come true. Who needs to make up offensive rightwing commentary when they can just go to Carpetbagger Report and just quote its comments about how Democrats and progressives feel about themselves. And that’s exactly how it can be used, regardless of whatever replies you may make to me.

    I want that video up too. But most of the above posting and discussion has been inappropriate and hurtful to the cause. We need to keep our eyes on the target,… but we also need to watch how we get there.

  • steve, thanx. i don’t know anything about spratt, but chet edwards is a swine. i’m willing to help out democrats in hostile territory, but not to this extent: fuck ’em.

    as i’ve (slightly more politely) let both of them know in emails to their offices.

  • They should have left the video up, on the grounds that it was gaining them exposure that they cannot get through the MSM—and for the even greater reason that it was getting them a lot of donations, both in money and in volunteers.

  • I tried to post the following comment over at YouTube, but it was rejected for being more than 500 charaters.

    The flag draped coffins which are apparently the “dead soldiers” referred to in the headline is only a brief part of this video. The faux outrage over it is typical of BushCo. apologists. It isn’t that Democrats have gone too far with this ad; it’s that Democrats may be too effective with this ad. Hence BushCo. sends in the sob sisters to claim that their delicate sensibilities have been damaged by the three second clip of soldier’s coffins.
    What about the damage done to those soldier’s families and all of the injured and maimed soldiers? That is real damage. Damage which has been done in the service of a corporatist foreign policy which has made America less safe. Where is the outrage-genuine outrage-over that?

  • >I see absolutely no difference between the two parties, as they stand before us today.

    Then you are in dire need of glasses. If the last six years have done anything, they have proved beyond question that the Naderite 2000 claim that there wasn’t a dimes worth of difference between the two parties was delusional at best. That the Democrats, lacking any power, are divided and disorganized is true, but even if I agreed that most elected Democrats aren’t progressive (and I don’t) it wiould still remain true that most elected progressives are Democrats. That the Democrats are inept in opposition is simply more reason to put them back in power: they may be poor campaigners but they can actual govern sanely.

    If the Dems lose in November I am repeatedly told it will be because they failed to inspire the progressive base. I should think the last 6 years of GOP rule ought to be all the inspiration anyone needs. Of course those who stay home or vote for some fringe party aren’t really cutting off their nose to spite their face, since most of them are comfortably middle class (looking at the demographics of Green voters). No, they will be cutting off the noses of all those people, from Iraq to New Orleans, who have suffered because Bush and not Gore is in the WH.

    You want to punish Dems who waffle or are too close to Bush? Support someone against them in a primary-CT is showing how it is done. But Politics is not about self-expression (that’s Art) or ideal choices. Politics is about deciding who gets power to affect human lives, and the choices are always between the flawed and the appalling. The Dems are certainly flawed; the GOP is certainly appalling. Not really a difficult choice.

  • I guess some would prefer the exploiters (dividers not uniters who claim to be the opposite) of a few hot button issues in order to advance their cynical and rapacious agendas to those who are restrained by their tendencies toward fairplay rather than motivated by a take-no-prisoners mentality. If you want the lock-stepped, goose-stepping efficiency of the neocon carpetbaggers–then go be one. If you can’t stand, on the other hand, what they REALLY stand for and are doing, cut your whining, roll up your sleeves and get into the fray. Doc Rock

  • That the Democrats are inept in opposition is simply more reason to put them back in power: they may be poor campaigners but they can actual govern sanely.

    I put my glasses on, and nothing’s changed. And as for “governing sanely,” I’d ask you to elaborate, but I have to stop laughing, first.

    Both parties are deep in the “doodoo” with their irresponsible corporate partisanship, and both Democrats and Republicans have been selling out their constiuents for years. Perhaps the Democratic party could step up and be the party that eschews corporate donations …yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.

    Until we get corporate hands out of the back pockets of our politicians, I stand on my belief that there is little difference between the two parties … “as they stand before us today.”

  • Meanwhile, Mike DeWine (R – OH) is using 9/11 images in his campaign ads. Where is the outrage? That is not a crass manipulation of a tragedy for political purposes? Not when you are a Republican, I suppose.

  • “Carrie” is a perfect example of a Bourbon Leftist-they’ve learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

  • As a fully repentent Nader voter from 2000 (albeit in NY, where we knew Gore would win anyway), I echo tdraicer’s comments in post #32. It’s not that the Democrats are wonderful, or that “the Republicans,” considered generically, are even all that bad. Republicans from Lincoln through TR to Eisenhower and even (his staffing decisions notwithstanding) Ford have played honorable roles in American history, and even in today’s cohorts there are honorable public servents to be found.

    It’s that *these* ruling Republicans–the DeLay/Cheney/Rove/Norquist/Dobson Republicans–are what Krugman has called “a revolutionary force.” They represent something unprecedented and profoundly dangerous in our national life, unashamedly calling upon the ugliest aspects of human nature: greed, callousness to the suffering of others, tribalism, religious bigotry, the exultation of violence. Never doubt that if they could, they’d create a one-party state.

    The Democrats, manifestly flawed as they are, offer the best organized entity to resist this right-wing movement. So, IMO, patriotism itself compels us to support them.

  • All this talk about Democrats not having balls. What a frigging joke.

    Take note:

    You need GIANT BRASS BALLS TO BE A DEMOCRAT

    1- You need to be willing to speak out against the overbearing, arrogant, hateful, racist little weenies who keep telling you “Bush is our President – that’s why you have to respect him”. Respect is something you earn because you did something right — not because you have a title. I don’t play status games. I’m not someone who loves to drool over people with fancy titles or suits.

    2- You need to be objective, have a conscience, be willing to listen to your heart & head – not your bible, preacher, or any other over-bearing authoritarian figure who says you’re gonna burn in hell because you swear too much or had a three-way in college once. You need to stop giving into fear-mongering and start giving into your heart. You already know deep down inside what’s right and what’s wrong – and you need to remember that.

    3- You need to be willing to speak out – LOUDLY – and consistently – whenever there is wrongdoing. Don’t listen to those who wanna label leftists “whiners” or “muckrackers”. So what if you speak up and no one agrees with you. The important thing is that you did it. Deep down inside, they’re all wishing they had balls like yours.

    DEMOCRATS – SIMPLY BY BEING WILLING TO STAND WITH THOSE WHO REPRESENT THE UNDER-REPRESENTED – ARE ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF **BALLS**.

    NOW GO USE THEM!

  • I’m more of a Rum and Vodka leftist, myself. With enough of that stuff, I learn nothing and forget everything. And these days that’s a real blessing, sometimes. 😉

  • So, it was just a drinking reference, then? My bad.

    Time to pour me another Bacardi and diet Coke, and crank up the stereo.

  • >I have no clue what a Bourbon leftist is. Perhaps a link would be helpful?

    It was said of the French Bourbon dynasty when they resumed the throne after Napoleon’s fall, that they had “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”
    Which applies to those who (after 6 years of the worst administration in US history) still hold to Nader’s 2000 arguments that there is no difference between the Dems and the GOP.

  • This thread is ancient history at this point, but I’m putting in my 2 cents anyway …

    Lay off of Chet Edwards. Despite Tom Delay’s efforts to gerrymander him out of the House, he fought hard and held his seat in ’04. And he didn’t do it by being a DINO– the man is a warrior for Church/State separation, among other things.

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