WashPost editorial pins Ossama/Dean ad on Gephardt connections

[dajabr]

Mr. Gephardt's Reform Values

Tuesday, December 16, 2003; Page A36

OKAY, POLITICAL MONEY buffs, it's time for a game of connect-the-dots.

The machinists union endorses Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). The machinists union makes a "significant" contribution to Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values (AJHPV), according to union political director Richard Michalski. The same AJHPV, a new organization, runs television ads in Iowa and elsewhere attacking former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Mr. Dean is Mr. Gephardt's leading rival for votes in the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

With us so far? Then continue: Leo Hindery, a cable television executive, is a national finance co-chair of the Gephardt campaign. Mr. Hindery is also a backer of AJHPV. The organization's chief fundraiser is a former Gephardt fundraiser, David Jones. Its president, Edward F. Feighan, a former Ohio congressman, has given the maximum $2,000 to the Gephardt campaign.

Is a picture beginning to emerge?

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3412-2003Dec15.html

[killbotfactory]

1. Nice...

I wonder if this group pop up to help fight Dean, since Geppy is running out of money and getting close to the spending cap?

[slinkerwink]

2. ahhh, it was Geppy all along----no big surprise

We need to spread the news in IOWA that it was HIS campaign that did this dirty ad.

[drfemoe]

3. ack

but .. the stop Dean movement is counting on Gep in IA!!!! :(

[jmaier]

5. Actually ... not

Speaking from a Clark perspective, I'd prefer to see Dean defeat Gep in IA, but not by a landslide, and knock him out of the race. It's good to see these folks fall by the side to get to the final battle to be the "One." :-)

[slinkerwink]

8. why, if Dean doesn't win IA, and Geppy becomes the Anti-Clark....

what then? ;-)

[tameszu]

9. Oh, then this Clarkie would go work for Dean as soon as the Gen. dropped

Definitely interesting mendacity over eyebrowless boredom.

[mikehiggins]

11. Two sources?

The editorial in the WP is interesting, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Machinists were behind the ads, if they indeed were large contributors to the group that produced them. I have long been involved with unions in New York City and we were never above a stunt if it appeared necessary to back our candidate. There is no evidence submitted, however, to link this to Gephardt or his campaign directly.

I know appearances seem damning, but then again the courts are coming to learn that even eyewitness testimony is not always accurate in criminal cases. Presenting as proven a connection between the ads and the Gephardt campaign then makes the Dean campaign appear to be libeling a fellow democrat in Iowa.

Shhhh! Careful. It may be a trap.

[jmaier]

4. Hmmm ... no smoking gun

but I wouldn't be surprised if it is Gephardt's supporters. I get the impression listening to Kerry lately that he is mostly in the running to sell his message and is beating up on Bush even more frequently -- that's great for Dems in general. The fire, limited has it may have been, seems to have gone out of him as a candidate.

Gephardt, on the other hand, is in a death fight in IA, and looks like he still believes that he can make a run. Especially given the Clyburn endorsement in SC.

[Cocoa]

6. still speculation

I wouldn't be terribly surprised, I've gathered that both Gephardt and Kerry have been known to play dirty.

But this WP editorial is still just speculation.

[loyalsister]

7. I wish we could run him out of Missouri

The depth of my disgust for Gep right now reaches farther than you can begin to imagine. He chooses who runs in our state. By choosing who gets $$. Gep is pretty much state DLC at work with trial lawyers and other parts of the state political machinery behind him. He sure didn't count on Dean, though.
Take our last Gov. race. It should have been Roger Wilson who ran. But Gep put money and weight behind Holden. It seems weird when you notice that Wilson has endorsed Gep. But then again, not. Because he knows that candidates in the mid Missouri districts in this region depend on it because our state reps aren't endorsing him. This dirty trick doesn't surprise me in the least. It's all in his MO. He's a political opportunist and people are pawns in Gephardt's political game.

[annagull]

16. Gep's campaign mgr caught threatening unions

News > Story

Two union leaders accuse Gephardt staffer of making threats
By Deirdre Shesgreen
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
12/03/2003

Presidential hopeful Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
(Reed Saxon/AP)

WASHINGTON—Two top union presidents accused one of Rep. Richard Gephardt's senior campaign advisers Wednesday of threatening the unions with political retribution if their Missouri members campaigned for Gephardt's Democratic presidential rival, Howard Dean.
<snip>
Aboussie threatened to send the letter calling for repeal of the order to the two top Republicans in the Missouri legislature, House Speaker Catherine Hanaway of Warson Woods and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau. She said 18 House Democrats and four Senate Democrats had signed the letter, but refused to name any of them.

Gep's a little bit of a Soprano at heart, eh?

edit for link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/0/BC77BA05E9D625C886256DF10073C9F6?OpenDocument&Headline=Two+union+leaders+accuse+Gephardt+staffer+of+making+threats

[eileen from OH]

10. Well, Jeebus. . .

I keep my own running scorecard, with preferences. And Gep, because of his longtime labor advocacy, managed to hang in the front of the pack (but not #1) EVEN with the whole Rose Garden thing. But this is the shits, the absolute shits. Yeah, I know nuthin's been proved, but he sure as hell ain't acting like an innocent bystander.

eileen from OH

[DoveTurnedHawk]

12. Score Another One for the Crystal Ball

;-)

DTH

[JNelson6563]

15. hahaha You were my first thought

when I read the headline. Good call.

Julie

[dfong63]

13. so has Gep publicly condemned the ads yet?

[ozone_man]

23. Ha, that is the question.

Or whether it will continue to run.

I was hoping it wasn't Kerry, since one of the people came from his campaign. Gephardt I can certainly believe.

[KaraokeKarlton]

14. Looks like Gepfart's been busted...

Is this a Kovak story? If not, I say we put him on the story, because he'll run his mouth about everything!

[tlb]

17. Nothing is " pinned" on Gephardt.

Throwing some names around plus an insinuating question is what I see.

The editorial may be right, but the thread title led me to expect something solid.

[dajabr]

19. You read "Gephardt Connections" in the title...

And expected it to be pinned directly on Gephardt and not his connections?

I'm not following your logic.

:shrug:

[maddezmom]

18. speculation....I want hardcore proof. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

20. When it comes to Dickless Gephardt, here is all the proof I need...

President, House Leadership Agree on Iraq Resolution



President George W. Bush along with bipartisan leaders from the House and Senate announced the Joint Resolution to authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iraq. "The statement of support from the Congress will show to friend and enemy alike the resolve of the United States," President Bush said during the announcement in the Rose Garden, Wednesday, October 2, 2002. White House photo by Paul Morse.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021002-7.html

[NewJeffCT]

21. Why?

Why aren't we making ads about the Bush / Osama connection? Or how Bush blew it with terrorism by ignoring the Hart/Rudman report? How about is one dictator with no WMD worth 450 American lives, $150 billion and the enmity of most of the world?

[dusty64]

22. If only the candidates

would put as much effort into defeating the rightwing!

[John_H]

24. Politics is ugly, sweethearts.

Are we going to have to listen to you folks whine until November if Dean wins the nomination? 'Cause KKKArl will make that add look like a minature Dean rally.

[dajabr]

25. We'd expect this kind of ad from the RNC...

And should condemn it when it comes from OTHER Democrats.

We're better than these sleazy tactics - aren't we?

I suspect that if Dean wins the nomination, a lot of DUers won't stick around this place to hear us say anything, let alone whine.

[ShaneGR]

26. My cousin's sister's roommate's aunt's brother knows a guy who

Edited that commercial, it's all my cousin's fault!

[Padraig18]

27. I see smoke...

... but no fire. It will be interesting to see where this goes, however. :)

[dajabr]

28. NY Times weighs in...

New Democratic Group Finances a Republican-like Attack on Dean
By JIM RUTENBERG

Published: December 16, 2003


A new Democratic group that is running advertisements against Howard Dean and has not yet disclosed its sources of financing has introduced by far the toughest commercial of the primary election season.

Though the advertisement, which began running on Friday in South Carolina and New Hampshire, is paid for by Democrats, it offers a taste of a likely Republican strategy against Dr. Dean should he win the presidential nomination.

The spot opens with a Time magazine cover featuring Osama bin Laden as synthesizer music seemingly out of a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie is heard.

--snip--

"Whoever is behind this should crawl out from underneath their rock and have the courage to say who they are," said Tricia Enright, a spokeswoman for Dr. Dean. "It is hateful, it's cynical, it's exactly the kind of ad that keeps people from voting, that keeps people from getting involved in the process."

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/politics/campaigns/16ATTA.html?ex=1072155600&en=fe09ad390aea0a78&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE