One of the least endearing features of the Dem primary thus far has been the tendency of the rivals to accuse each other of theft.
Just about all of the serious campaigns have accused their competitors of “borrowing” everything from catch-phrases to strategies to policy ideas. It hasn’t been pretty.
I suspect that in most instances, this has been largely accidental. Most of the candidates, who aren’t terribly dissimilar ideologically, are talking about similar issues. It’s only natural that there’s going to be some overlap in ideas and rhetoric and occasionally it may appear like stealing, even if it’s unintended.
Other times, however, it’s harder to dismiss.
Howard Dean has been one of the most aggressive accusers of theft. Every time a rival says anything even remotely similar to something Dean has said, he whines that the other candidates are stealing his ideas. When Kerry gave a speech in June saying that the U.S. doesn’t need “Bush-lite,” Dean said it was he who came up with that line. He told reporters, “I heard [Kerry] did a great job giving my speech.”
If Dean is so concerned about proprietary ideas, how does he explain a new petition on his website about Bush’s controversial overtime plan?
As you may recall, a few days ago I mentioned that Kerry had launched an Internet-based petition drive to generate opposition to Bush’s overtime proposal.
The idea was for Kerry to collect signatures online as a way to demonstrate to the Bush administration that his proposal, which would ultimately deny overtime compensation to as many as 8 million American workers, was unpopular with the public.
At the time, the Dean campaign chided Kerry, suggesting that any Internet-based strategy was an effort to imitate Dean.
It was quite a surprise, therefore, to swing by the Dean for America site today and discover — you guessed it — an Internet-based petition drive to generate opposition to Bush’s overtime proposal!
The Dean campaign is telling its supporters that the Bush administration has “put overtime pay at risk for more than 8 million Americans.” It says “there’s something you can do today,” and urges visitors to the site to sign their petition.
It is, without a doubt, the most blatant stealing I’ve seen in the campaign so far. The Dean camp has effectively taken Kerry’s idea, which they were deriding just three days ago, and put the exact same idea on their site.
Somehow, it appears that the Dean folks have forgotten to mention that the Kerry campaign came up with idea first.
Stealing a rival’s idea is bad, hypocritically stealing the idea is worse. I wonder if the Kerry campaign knows about this…