One of my many radicalizing moments during the Bush years came when a number of the usual suspects began attacking John Kerry because he was, wait for it,
too rich. Even with all the cynicism I’d developed over the previous four years, the idea that Republican operatives would invoke class envy for political advantage — and that voters would fall for it — caught me off guard.
Since then, I’ve known better. No line of attack is too bizarre, too much in contradiction both with the facts and with everything else the right says, to be out of bounds.
And so I’m not as surprised as Greg Sargent seems to be that Karl Rove’s
latest line of attack against Elizabeth Warren is that she’s
too close to Wall Street. Hey, she oversaw the use of TARP funds!
Greg takes this as a sign that Democrats are winning the argument, and it is. But they also have to win the election. And this wouldn’t be the first time that nonsensical arguments that rely on voter ignorance about who stands for what have worked.