This column is a preview of what the media will say about Clark

[mot78]

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=5649

The Rethugs will put out dozens of hit-pieces a day just like this.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Chronwatch???? I do NOT consider this a good newssource!

Though I must agree that hit pieces in this manner will be thrown at our nomminee!

[economic justice]

5. Actually....it was Chicago Sun Times

Link to the full story was at the end of the rant.

[Hoppin_Mad]

6. Don't get so flustered - It's a Chicago Sun Times article !

That was picked up in Chronwatch.

Here's the original

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn18.html

[SeveneightyWhoa]

22. What else do you expect from..

..a Hollinger-owned paper?
Why is this surprising? Right-wing outlets will always come up with smear pieces on Democrats, it doesn't matter which one it is.

I say, bring it on! The more baseless attacks, the more obvious that they're worried.

[Walt Starr]

2. I found this line very telling

"So I'd say Howard Dean is a sane man pretending to be crazy. Whereas General Clark gives every indication of a crazy man pretending to be sane."

[ihaveaquestion]

19. I hope you mean that your DEMOCRATIC vote

is non-transferable!

Sour grapes isn't going to help our country move forward and away from the neo-cons.

[Walt Starr]

21. My signature says what it says and I mean what it says

:hi:

[Democrats unite]

23. It's called anger. thankfully after the Primary season...

We won't have to put up with it.

[meegbear]

3. YYYYEEAAAAGGGGHHHH!

That was a hilarious piece. It's loons like him that'll help Clark.

[The Magistrate]

4. Steyn Is A Joke, Sir

And a foreign joke to boot. With Hollinger headed to jail, he may well have to take up waiting tables for a living. This poodled puffery will have no effect whatever....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[economic justice]

7. Not Styen

Styen was simply quting a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed piece. The link is at the end of the rant.

[bicentennial_baby]

8. Ah no

It says Parker Ames at the top and the Sun Times article is indeed written by Styen.

[economic justice]

12. You are Right!!! Apologies. <eom>

[The Magistrate]

10. He Is The Op-Ed Scribbler, Sir

His columns have dis-figured that paper for some while: apparantly Mrs. Black, the wife of the owner, takes some unspeakable interest in him, hence the space is granted....

[Hoppin_Mad]

9. They forgot the classic 'I want to be America's Camp Counselor'

This man terrifies me

[The Magistrate]

13. Courage, Sir!

Best not to admit being so easily scared.... This is a business for strong nerves.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[newsjunkie]

29. he seems like a nice man

but I dont feel too well about a life long military person in control of the nation. I like Dr. Dean's approach to being president a lot better.This country is sick...we need a doctor. It bothers me also because Clark isn't experienced or savvy in civilian life politics and that seems to be a real problem in this job.

[kiahzero]

11. Here's a litmus test for an article

If it refers to Pristina as "an insane order", it's probably bullshit.

[The Magistrate]

15. That Is The Sole Item Steyn Produces In Quantity....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[LandOLincoln]

18. It's "probably"

bullshit??? :spank:

[Jerseycoa]

14. Yeah, we know :)

[bearfartinthewoods]

16. clark is evaporating before our eyes, imho

i'm sorry for the clark people.

when i think of all the money that has been sucked out of dem pockets on clark and dean, i could almost cry...

[Leilani]

20. Clark did not have a nervous breakdown

on national TV.

Clark may not become the nominee; he's not a plitician, therefore his run is a longshot.

But Dean has self destructed, & has scared most thinking people. For a seasoned politician, sure was unbelievable.

[Jerseycoa]

26. You're very funny

:7

[Tom Rinaldo]

34. It's amazing how a primary contest to pick a Democratic candidate

...to defeat the Republican Empire, brings out the inner Republican operative in so many highly partisan Democrats. I'm not naming names here, just making an observation about how gleefully some seem to seize on whatever disgusting sleaze right wing sources generate against one of our own, as a tool to pick up and clobber their opponents with, WHO JUST SO HAPPEN TO BE FELLOW DEMOCRATS.

I don't like it one bit, doesn't matter who the specific target is at the moment.

[Buffler]

17. Before I could vote for Clark

I would like to know the absolute truth about why he was fired.

[ihaveaquestion]

24. He answered this on Hardball in Dec.

Here's what he said...

<MATTHEWS: You weren’t relieved as supreme commander as NATO.
<CLARK: No, I wasn’t. No. I was asked to retire three months early.
<MATTHEWS: How is that different?
<CLARK: If you relieve someone, you take them out of command. What happened here was, I was asked to retire early and then it was then leaked to “The Washington Post” in an effort to keep me from talking to Bill Clinton about it. So this was a behind the back power play. Bill Clinton told me himself he had nothing to do with it, And I believe him.

(sorry about the formatting)

Check out the full text at this link - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3660578&p1=0

I've seen the interview video somewhere, but I can't find the link just now.

[Buffler]

30. Clarks says

I prefer to get the reason someone was fired from the person who fired them, not the person fired. So far, his superior said it was because of "character and integrity" issues. What are they?

[kiahzero]

33. According to Shelton

at the Hague, when asked, he replied "just politics."

[maxr4clark]

28. you have the truth

Here's what Clark has said for years, since his book "Waging Modern War" was published:

Clark's boss wanted to test the theory that a war could be won solely by airpower; Clark wanted to end the war without bombing the Kosovar civilians so much that they ended up hating Americans. Clark asked his boss to give him permission to use ground troops, and didn't get it. So he went behind his boss's back to get Clinton's approval to use ground troops--Apache helicopters, mostly. The war ended immediately, and no NATO combatants died in the whole campaign. He was asked to resign three months early out of spite that his boss didn't get to test his pet theory.

He does something to reduce the number of civilian casualties and preserve America's good name abroad, and he is asked to step down three months early. Shelton says he has character problems because he did it. He speaks out against the IWR, and people call him a Republican.

And what does he do about it? He answers questions politely, he denies that the lies are true, he explains the situation every day for months. You are I might be tempted to respond in anger, but he doesn't. He takes it in stride.

I call that Presidential.

[On the Road]

25. The Meme is Being Planted NOW

"Clark says loopy things." "Clark cannot be trusted." "Clark makes creepy statements." "Clark is borderline insane."

If Clark becomes the front-runner, ANYTHING at all which gives fuel to this fire will be used to solidify this impression. He will have his own Dean-in-Iowa moment. It will be manufactured out thin air, if necessary, just like it was with Al Gore.

Policy charges are one thing. But none of us should EVER reinforce the perception of instability or mental problems on ANY one of the eight candidates. It's a shame this even has to be said.

[genius]

27. They can't touch Clark. Bush wouldn't have a chance.

That is why I don't want Dean to be the nominee. He is the most beatable.

[silverlib]

31. Conservative journalist

are going to take every opportunity to print every bungle and exaggerate it to the highest level of evil possible. Obviously they are not going to print negative truths about their own party and their own candidates. This is how it has always been and will be. It's our job not to buy into what is wrong with our party, other than to participate in constructive ways to improve it. It is our job not to find ourselves on the defensive, but to stay on the offensive. There are a lot less wrong things going on with any of our candidates than there are right things going on with theirs. I will stay focused - I will not waiver and I will not sway. I will stay focused. I will not waiver - I will not sway. I will stay focused. I will not waiver - I will not sway. I will stay focused. I will not waiver - I will not sway. I will stay focused. I will not waiver - I will not sway. I will stay focused. I will not waiver - I will not sway. I will not waiver - I will not sway.

[Tom Rinaldo]

32. This has been on the radar for a long time.

First take a look at this, from a great buzzflash interview with the co-author of "Hunting the President", Gene Lyons where he outlines the attack campaign the Republicans will use against Clark, among other things.

This written on October 22, 2003:

BUZZFLASH: You're probably one of the most well-informed journalists on how attack politics play themselves out with a culpable media, based on your extensive research and writing on the Clintons. How do you think the right wing is going to go after Clark? What can he expect? What advice would you give Clark and the people who are working for him?

LYONS: Well, the outlines of it are already evident. They're saying he's too tightly wrapped, which is kind of akin to what they tried to do with John McCain. They're saying he's a zealot and tends to become unhinged. They're suggesting he's crazed with ambition.

I wrote in a column a couple of weeks ago that one of their lines of attack would be to portray him as sort of General Jack D. Ripper, who was the megalomaniacal general in Dr. Strangelove who was so concerned with his precious bodily fluids. And that's what I think they will try to do. They might go all the way to the edge of suggesting some kind of mental illness. I don't think he's very vulnerable to that sort of smear."

That link: http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/10/int03221.html

Now look at a few of the comments thrown into the current hit piece:

"...So I'd say Howard Dean is a sane man pretending to be crazy. Whereas General Clark gives every indication of a crazy man pretending to be sane."

And this: "But what shifts him from unprincipled and thoughtless to the out-of-his-tree category is stuff like this:

''If I'd been president, I would have had Osama bin Laden by this time.'' "

And then the finish:

" Clark was sold to the Democratic Party as a military man of peaceful manner: Generals are from Mars, but this one's from Venus... At best, he's a thin-skinned, vain, insecure man with a need to insert himself at the center of every story; at worst, he's a paranoid megalomaniac narcissist."

Follows the Republican attack script to the exact letter, I would say. The content "content" in that piece can be debunked, but that "content" was just a frame to hang the "Clark is nuts" mantra onto. In the real world you don't get to be head of strategic planning for the Pentagon by being "nuts", but they aren't dealing with the real world, they are fabricating one from convenient fragments.

So what? Knowing what we now know that they threw at John McCain, would anyone who thinks well of that man now advise him never to run for higher office? Of course not. That is surrender to intimidation. No, play it like a Boy Scout, "Be Prepared". I share Gene Lyons assessment of Clark. Here is something else Lyons said about Clark:

"Clark's intellectual brilliance may be more apparent than Clinton's, because Clark doesn't do the "aw-shucks Southern country boy" act the way Clinton can do it. So you're struck immediately with how intelligent he is. At the same time, he listens to people and pays attention to what they're saying, and responds like a human being.

I want to be careful how I say this, but he has an almost feline presence -- and by that I don't mean "catty," as in bitchy. I mean like a big cat. I once encountered a mountain lion in the Point Reyes National Seashore in California, on a rainy day in winter, when I was all by myself. We stood stock still staring at each other for a few seconds. And there was this moment of "Gee, that's a cougar, this is really cool." And then an instant later, came the feeling of "My God, that's a lion!" There's nothing between me and him, no fence. Clark has a little bit of that kind of presence. You sense a tremendous personal authority about him held in and contained by self-discipline. Not somebody to fuck with, is another way of putting it."

[jpgpenn]

35. Clark will be in Great shape. Nice try though.

Well folks looks like Clark will have an easier time then we thought if they think this garbage passes for anything. Thanks for the post!