Their comments, at that moment, reassured me that we would all go back to being Democrats after the primary. I even posted a comment on Lowell's highlight of the JJ event about how nice it was to see them "bury the hatchet."
After spending the next hour or so surfing the Internet for national news I landed on therawstory.com where I found the disturbing headline: Jewish Stereotyping Charged in Sen. Race: VA. Dem calls opponent 'anti-christ of outsourcing'.
As I have followed this race closely, the front-page headline alarmed me. Rather than being debunked as a desperate act to drum up support for a dying campaign, this "Cry Wolf" story is now being spread far beyond Virginia's boundries.
For those who don't know The Raw Story, which bills itself as "an alternative news nexus," this progressive friendly site has broke a number of stories on the Karl Rove/Valerie Plame leak and many on the Iraq War since its inception in 2004. The site boasts an "average 473,000 unique visitors daily" with as many as "630,000 on strong-traffic days."
Posted at 5:26 pm on Friday, June 9, less than an hour before the JJ pre-Dinner cocktail party was to begin, the timing of this story seemed too convenient. Of course, its been covered elsewhere, but a tips hotline link on the site leads one to believe this story was purposely forwarded (Miller campaign? Allen?).
From Raw Story, a number of links send readers to all the pertinent articles that are fanning the flames of this imaginary story, including the June 8 article by Edie Gross of The Free Lance-Star.
Such a story, that purports to tell how a flyer, created by a Webb volunteer for a small event down in Southern Virginia, represents a link between ugly historical stereotypes of Jews and the Webb campaign greatly distorts reality beyond any realm of decency and does an even greater disservice to all those who have died at the hands of true Anti-Semitism.
While certainly open to charges of bad artistic ability or childish over-simplifiation, the idea that this flyer represents an attempt by anyone within the Webb campaign to even subtly use racial hatred for political gain is the real ugly slur in this unfortunate discussion.
Apologize for the length of this post, I understand that these points have been fully argued over, but in light of this story spreading versus dying I thought a recap important.
Three main facts about this story are what we should talk about when it comes up:
1. The charges are absolutely false and show how desperate one campaign has become that they would allow such charges to be officially or unofficially advanced. Failure to withdraw these charges immediately is a tacit admittance by the Miller campaign that they do not have the strength to run on their ideas and will use Rove's Swift Boat tactics despite the moral damage it does their cause and the Democratic party.2. For those who remember the "Anti-Christ of Outsourcing" comment: Jim Webb was actually quoting an article and oft repeated phrase when speaking about Miller's career as a top IT lobbyist. If you watch the debate, you can actually see Jim attempting to read off a piece of paper as he says this. To most Christians, Anti-Christ means the devil or evil one and has nothing to do with being Jewish. In fact, most historical figures called "the Anti-Christ" were pagan, Christian, or deranged: Nero, Napoleon, Hitler.
3. Attempting to use the charge of Anti-Semitism in a political campaign when it is an obvious campaign ploy is actually as low as Anti-Semitism itself. For those who have not studied history closely, the story of Anti-Semitism is nasty, brutal, ugly and fatal; any effort to gain even a slight tactical advantage in any campaign, cause, argument or debate does a disservice to all the Jews who have died under its twisted logic in the past 5,000 years and especially the past century.
Just as we are demanding our Democratic leaders stand up to the purposeful lies, distortians, misinformation and slanders of the Right and this Administrations, it is as equally important that we stand up to our own when they attempt to mimic the tactics of Karl Rove and Lee Atwater which only further divide our country in a time of crisis.
During this campaign, Harris Miller has attacked Jim Webb and his record in such a nasty way that one would think he was a Republican under Rove's tutelage if he didn't keep repeating that he is "A poorer, shorter version of Mark Warner."
As I posted earlier, there could be some blowback for another Virginia candidate who plans to run nationally two years from now by allowing one candidate, with such a vicious streak, to run around the state blithely comparing himself to Mark Warner while he engages in some of the nastiest and most uncalled for political attacks in recent Virginia primary history.
It's time to reign Harris Miller in, for his own good and for that of the Democratic party. This is as dirty as it gets, there is no need for it to sink any lower.
America is starving for leadership...Jim Webb is the answer...let his voice be freely heard.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/10/antisemitism-allegations_n_22687.html
Miller is full of it.
Unfortunately I've been to the Huffington Post and back to Raw Story and see that even 24 hours later this story is still playing out on the Internet. Both still have it on the front page. Even more alarming is the fact that I've been to the comments section on both sites and I see a lot of comments that are alarming on so many levels.
As I said above, Anti-Semitism is repugnant and also fatal, but just as repugnant and fatal is using Anti-Semitism as smokescreen to advance your political or ideological cause.
So far this issue has set off a firestorm in the blogosphere.
At a time when Democrats need to be uniting around our candidates and our ideals, we are now distracted by an issue that was set off by people who are hoping to use Anti-Semitism to advance an inferior candidate - Harris Miller.
Making up a false instance of Anti-Semitism by the Webb campaign is just further evidence of the type of man that Harris Miller is.
Miller is a person that takes any argument, no matter how specious, and uses it to advance himself and his cause. During his entire life Miller has consistently had the opportunity to choose between principle and advancing himself, unfortunately, each time he has chosen to sell out to live in a higher tax bracket.
Now Harris Miller believes he has the chance to advance himself further by reaching for the brass ring of running against George Allen as the Virginia Democratic Senate candidate. Rather than win on the basis of his arguments, he plays "the race card" to impugn the image of a man whose entire life has been built on integrity and sacrifice.
Regretfully, this entire sordid issue is bad for all involved and tarnishes not only Jim Webb, but also Harris Miller and everyone associated with his campaign, Virginia, and Democrats alike.
Please blast back.
The majority of people who actually judge the flyer for themselves will most likely view Miller in bad light and be reminded that he is a lobbyist with a poor record on labor.
The flyer is water under the bridge and really nothing can be done to contain the story. It is what it is. I think that you must work hard to send a message that 1) it is not intended to be offensive in regards to religion and 2) it is an accurate depiction of Harris Miller in terms of his views on outsourcing and lobbyist activities.
Jack Abramoff should be on everyone's mind. Remind everyone that Miller is a horrible lobbyist and he should be cellies with Jack Abramoff for spending gobs of money lobbying Congress.
We don't need another Abramoff or Jefferson.