http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/11/whos-behind-the-pelosi-smear/ Who’s Behind the Pelosi Smear?
By: Jane Hamsher
Oh the irony. From Jim Lobe:
(W)orried that her quest might actually gain momentum, administration hawks — in this case, led by Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams and Vice President Dick Cheney — accuse the speaker of undermining the president and, working through obliging editorial writers at the Washington Post, among other sympathetic media, including, of course, the Wall Street Journal, attack her for "substitut(ing) her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president."
That would be the same Elliot Abrams who was indicted for (and pled guilty to) lying to Congress (no wonder members of the Bush junta have no fear of doing so) and who, in the 80s, led a very similar campaing to discredit then-House Speaker Jim Wright and his regional peace-making efforts as the Reagan administration sought to overthrow the Sandanista government in Nicaragua:
It was then-House Speaker Jim Wright who, with the quiet encouragement of Republican realists, notably Reagan's White House chief of staff, Howard Baker, Secretary of State George Shultz and his special Central America envoy, Philip Habib, sought to promote Arias' plan.
snip//
But Abrams isn't doing it alone. He's got help from the Republican Jewish Coalition, which is funding the ads attacking Pelosi (YouTube above). Think Progress reports that until January, the RJC was headed by Sam Fox, former Swift Boat bankroller, Lieberman BFF and recent imperial appointment to Belgium. The board is quite the rogues gallery and includes Ari Fleischer, David Frum, Sheldon Adelson, Lewis M. Eisenberg and Ken Mehlman. They also financed ads for Lieberman during his senate race, and has some lovely overlap with the Scooter Libby Defense Fund. Of course all of this would be largely moot if intellectual mediocrities like Susanne Malveaux didn't mindlessly repeat this stuff like it was anything other than sheer nonsense, but unfortunately you don't go to war with the bobbleheads you want, you go to war with the bobblehteads you've got.
I think I need a shower.