The "Swiftboating" of Webb Begins. Bring out the Claymore!

By: Lowell
Published On: 4/30/2006 12:14:13 PM

Markos of Daily Kos has a piece up now about the start of a "swiftboating" campaign against Jim Webb.  It's pretty laughable, but here's the strategy:

1) Call former Reagan Navy Secretary Jim Webb a "liberal" - ha ha ha.

2) Call a guy who is certainly NOT a multi-millionaire (like a certain OTHER Democrat running in this race) "self-financed."

and, most significantly...

3) Link Jim Webb to Jane Fonda.  Here's the exact language from George Allen's fundraising letter:

The bottom line: my reelection effort could be the most costly campaign in Virginia's History. My first election to the US Senate cost me nearly $10 million. To beat a wealthy self-financed liberal, i will have to raise twice that amount, perhaps $20 million. 

Your gift will send a loud and clear message to liberal Democrats across the nation ... to Jane Fonda to Howard Dean, and to the Clinton political machine...that you stand behind me. 

Yean, right, George. What. Ever.

Oh, here's my favorite comment so far on Kos' article:

I wouldn't worry about a Scots-Irish guy...He'll hit back. And more than likely in a classy and effective way. Or just brain the motherfucker with his claymore.

Ha, "brain the motherfucker with his claymore,"  that's a good one.  Oh, by the way, a "claymore" is a big sword used by the Scots starting in medieval days.  See the photo above, or go rent the movie Braveheart and watch Mel Gibson kick ass  against the George Allen equivalents of his day!

P.S. I wonder if you can effectively knock someone's soft teeth down their whining throats with a claymore?

Comments



How Do They Keep Getting Away With This (Luna - 4/30/2006 12:21:58 PM)
... election after election?!? It's so frustrating.


Lowell... (phriendlyjaime - 4/30/2006 12:31:14 PM)
I am there, commenting now.  Why aren't you in DC?  I was bummed bc I didn't get to go...I wish there was an event for Webb today somewhere, I have the need for action this afternoon.


I just got back from the Darfur rally... (Lowell - 4/30/2006 4:38:33 PM)
will  try to post pics and write something up, even though I missed the last hour of it (unfortunately).


I am so glad you went! (Kathy Gerber - 4/30/2006 5:56:19 PM)
At least there was a good turnout.  I have some friends who most likely got to stay for the whole thing.  I'll see what they say about it tomorrow.



Awesome! (phriendlyjaime - 4/30/2006 7:55:45 PM)
Nice, Lowell.  Great diary and pics.  Hope you had a great day!


P-Jaime (Kathy Gerber - 4/30/2006 5:57:50 PM)
How fast do you type???

Those people give me a headache.



HA! (phriendlyjaime - 4/30/2006 7:54:43 PM)
Fast.  AND...I am on dial up.

Hey, it's a fight worth fighting, and the Sierra Nevada helps the headache.  :)



This could backfire on them (JC - 4/30/2006 2:00:18 PM)
Webb is a pretty well known hero; trying to link Webb with Jane Fonda might be "a bridge too far" so to speak.

Look at what happened when they tried to Swift Boat Jack Murtha . . .



It's So Desperate It's Funny (AnonymousIsAWoman - 4/30/2006 5:56:59 PM)
And I don't think it will wash this time, even with Allen's wacky base. It is going to be extremely difficult to portray Webb as a typical liberal let alone link him to Jane Fonda. You have only to go to his website and read some of his other writings to see that he once held some rather harsh views about the anti-Vietnam war activists, like Fonda, whom he considered elitists.

He's pretty scathing in his criticisim of those who took out their dissatisfcation with the Vietnam war on the returning troops. I'm not sure that he was completely fair in his criticism. But a lot of those articles were written in the mid to late 1990s, before the Iraq War, which Webb now opposes.

Also if I'm uncomfortable with his strong opinions from back then, it's because I was an anti-Vietnam activist. And I don't think I'm was ever an elitist.

Anyway, the main point is that Webb was a decorated war hero who served in Reagan's administration. And he's not the only former military leader to become disillusioned with the Bush Administration over the war in Iraq. Nor is he the only conservative to turn against the harsh crony capitalism practiced by them. You have only to read the increasingly anti-Bush Kevin Phillips, who was once an architect of the Southern Strategy in the Republican Party to realize that people like Bush and Allen have betrayed their party's principles and the American people.

Webb is an honorable man who has seen how the Republicans under Bush are hurting the middle and working class as their jobs are outsourced, their opportunities continue to shrink and their sons and daughters are sent to die to protect the interests of an ever more prosperous oil industry.

Compared to that, the phony cowboy Allen, with his little noose and his designer cowboy boots, looks increasingly hollow.

And Webb, unlike Kerry, will fight back. And unlike Allen, Webb is the real deal here.



Disillusionment with Republican Party, Neocons. Bush, Offshore Outsourcing (Info_Tech_Guy - 4/30/2006 7:29:43 PM)
Look at the man known as the architect of the Reagan Supply Side Tax legislation -- economist and former undersecretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts. His articles appear regularly at Counterpunch.com. He is bitterly opposed to Iraq, Bush and Offshore Outsourcing/worker replacement programs.

The contributing writers at antiwar.com include conservatives and libertarians of various types and some of the harshest denunciations of the war in Iraq, Bush foreign policy, "War on Terror" and the Patriot Act

Look over at LewRockwell.com for libertarians attacking Bush, the Republicans and go-along Iraq war Democrats...

It's an altogether interesting situation.



Dem Dems (Rebecca - 4/30/2006 10:19:19 PM)
I just got back from the Hunter Mill Democratic Club annual lasagna dinner. I think it would be great if you guys  would go to some of these events and pass out your business cards with the site URL on it. I think a lot of the Dems could benefit from reading this site. Maybe a lot already do, but more should.

At the dinner I put on a Jim Webb sticker and looked around for some friends. A friend I wanted to say hello to happened to be sitting right next to Harris Miller. I was hestitant to go up wearing a Webb sticker so I waited until Miller left. I saw more Miller stickers that Webb stickers on people's shirts.

Most of the people there seemed to be over 50 so I think the Dems really need a transfusion. It would be great to see some of the Raising Kaine people talking to the represenatives who show up at these events. I talked to Caputo, Moran, and Hurst. Judy Feder was there too although I didn't talk to her.