Josh Marshall finds unlabeled Kerry attack flyers at Dean NH HQ

[displacedtexan]

From Josh Marshall, upon visiting Dean's NH HQ:

Taped to the wall at the Operations Center, near stacks of other flyers and hand-out materials, was a red-meat-laden flyer headlined “Could Kerry Beat Bush in November?: Please ask the hard electability questions before it is too late.”

Unlike the labeled Dean for America hand-out flyers I saw lying around, this one had no label identifying who put it together or who sponsored it. It listed, in half a dozen or so categories, a bill of particulars about why Kerry would be a disaster for the Democratic party and why he’d get creamed by George W. Bush.

Kerry's been labeled “haughty, effete, phony, aloof patrician," read the flyer. How could he ever connect with “wage earners and minorities"?

<snip>

At another point, the flyer asked whether Kerry’s “attempt to run on his military background so offend the Peace-nik wing of the party that we end up with Nader II” and later lambasted Kerry for being -- along with both Presidents Bush -- a member of Skull & Bones, “ultra elitist secret society” at Yale University.

more...

www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[Guaranteed]

1. An unlabeled flyer? At Dean's HQ?

I wonder where it came from....what a dirty trick, though.

On edit: I hope there weren't any Kerry supporters around Dean's HQ that were offended by that.

[Jerseycoa]

2. It was hanging on a wall

There were no stacks of flyers for distribution.

[displacedtexan]

7. So Dean staffers just print flyers attacking Kerry for fun?

And just leave them on tables in full view of God and creation for no apparent reason?

Did you read the blog entry?

[maddezmom]

9. do you have a link?

what blog?

[blm]

4. Hm. Overly enthusiastic supporters?

I know some of them keep throwing up S&B and want people to think Kerry is corrupt. But, I'm sure it's just individuals.

[Guaranteed]

10. LOL

nt

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Someone from another campaign got in and taped an anti-Kerry

flyers to the wall in Dean HQ??? :eyes:

[HereSince1628]

8. TPM said one flyer taped to wall...

"they" actually "it" undoubtedly came from someone who wants to go at it bare nuckles.

[bearfartinthewoods]

26. have voters received any copies of the ad?

[Nazgul35]

3. you are misrepresenting the story....

In your title....It was a single flyer.....not flyers.....

And once the campaign found out about it, it was taken down, there is no proof whatsoever that it was ever handed out.....

[formernaderite]

22. What's the fuss considering those Kerry signs...

...with doubting Dean? Vote Kerry.

[lastknowngood]

5. you need to edit that

he found one unmarked on the wall which was taken down as soon as it was identified.

[liberalnurse]

11. God, did he pilfer throught the

medicine cabinet in the bathroom? What did her find? What did they have in their refrigerator?

This out to be really great dirt to talk about.....Tell me more.

[KoKo]

12. It was removed when Josh alerted one of the Campaign Managers.

She said over 500 volunteers had been in the office that day. Sounds like the kind of thing we see on DU all the time. So, it's not surprising that someone tacked it up. It apparantly wasn't part of the official Dean Campaign hand outs.

Not much one can do about stuff like that.

[NashVegas]

13. I Love TPM - Too Bad Josh is So Biased

Marshall's ABD bias has been well noted.

16 paragraphs on one - that's one - anti-Kerry flyer seen posted to a wall, versus one - that's one - paragraph about the negative literature Kerry's people are spreading all over New Hampshire.

And he probably might wouldn't even have mentioned that if Kerry's smears didn't also attack Marshall's favorite candidate, Wes Clark.

[w13rd0]

14. I've got a printer, photoshop and adobe acrobat...

...i can make up some flyers too. Not like I could get Dean to SIGN them, or the campaign to sign off for them, but I've a Dean sign in my window. Maybe someone can come over and "make the connection"...

Hey, have to have some way to deflect those chop job flyers on Clark & Dean that Kerry sent out, and the booklets Edwards camp handed out...

Look, everyone is doing it! Look, we found a "single unmarked cannister of botulin toxin"...oh, I mean, a "single unmarked attack flyer"...

Now I can see how some rationalized their IWR vote...

[KoKo]

15. Your Subject line is not correct. Please Edit. Only one "tacked to wall.

People who don't take time to read Josh's Blog, will misinterpret.

[AP]

16. But, but, but, if it wasn't signed it doesn't matter! (+)

Right?

Bottom line, every candidate has strategy sheets like this.

What matters is whether the candidate incorporates the attack message into their persona, and whether their hypocrites for complaining about other candidates who have them.

[maddezmom]

17. if it shows up in the next few days...it will matter. n/t

[zulchzulu]

18. Those grapes sure must taste sour

As Kerry said in a recent interview, when is Dean's negative campaign going to end since he said it was not going to be negative a few days ago...

[deminflorida]

19. Stop crying in your Tea Cup...

That one comes straight from Florida...

[Nazgul35]

20. Too bad you ignored the other story at TPM about Kerry...

you see...Kerry is actually sending out negative campaign literature and the New Republic has them at this web site....

http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=1242

You had to go right past that story so that you could put this one here....

but what do you expect....

Kerry....all about looking noble while working behind the scenes flinging mud.....typical Washington insider stuff...

How long are we as a party going to put up with this nonsense!?

The current senators running for office have abandoned their spines for three years and we are supposed to believe that they have suddenly found them? IWR, Tax cuts (twice), allowing the repugs to call Dems traitors for speaking out, the omnibus bill...

At what point do you expect these guys to actually fight for us?!!!

[Cassandra]

21. And you forgot this one from TPM

"The shorthand you hear from reporters is that Kerry has "nothing" on the ground in those states. And that can't be quite true. But after Kerry's town hall meeting in Manchester on Friday one of his top aides told us that he would probably not even compete in all seven of the states that vote on February 3rd. When asked which ones they'd contest, he told us they were "nowhere near figuring that out.""

So which one of these guys is not yet ready for prime time (campaigning-wise)?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

23. It's interesting that as the death-knell of Dean's campaign gets closer

the falsehoods become more blatant. For example, the claim that Kerry voted for Bush's tax cuts is a total falsehood.

[Nazgul35]

24. And it is also interesting...

how the reading skills of some have deteriorated in an effort to speed type a defense....

Here is what I actually posted:

The current senators running for office have abandoned their spines for three years and we are supposed to believe that they have suddenly found them? IWR, Tax cuts (twice), allowing the repugs to call Dems traitors for speaking out, the omnibus bill...

This was not specific to Kerry alone but was actually an indictment against the Dems in the Senate as a whole.....

But that's ok....it seems in this electoral campaign spinning, twisting and taking words out of context is par for the course....

[Tinoire]

25. They are being handed out. However

An update on the anti-Kerry flyer I saw last night posted at Dean's Volunteer Operations Center in Manchester. (See earlier post: the Dean campaign says it was posted by an errant volunteer, and not connected with the campaign.) Apparently, they were also leafletted on cars last night at the Democratic party's 100 Club Dinner in Nashua. Someone's handing these things out.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

However

For example, here's a copy of one mail piece Kerry sent out recently. The message speeaks for itself. Clark is a Republican and captive to special interests. Dean is unstable. None of this would have made much of a difference without the Iowa victory, but taken together it has proved to be an effective one-two punch.



http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=1242 ((There are more flyers here also))

===
I don't know why we're all acting so shocked. There's nothing new under the sun. This is politics and politics is knock-down ugly. We're just seeing the tip of the ice-berg.

[JI7]

27. this is funny. i want tv ads of this

dean should make this into tv ads.