Below the Radar: George Allen's Voter Suppression Strategy

By: Greg
Published On: 10/3/2006 10:48:24 PM

George Allen's 'hail mary' play since his campaign began to implode has clearly been to suppress Democratic turnout -- throw out enough disinformation to sour Dems on Jim Webb and hopefully get enough of them to stay home on election day to tip the balance in Allen's favor.

This evening, I ran across something which illustrates this quite well, a letter to the editor in the Fairfax County Times:

Webb a Democrat in name only

 The people of Northern Virginia have had more than enough of Republican officials who have endorsed George Allen (R) for the U.S. Senate. Virginia Democrats must go to the polls in November to spare the commonwealth from a U.S. senator who refuses to set a pull-out date for U.S. troops in Iraq, wants to restrict affirmative action, does not support full equality for women, takes policy positions that promote sexual harassment, backs a Republican plan on tough CIA interrogation methods and has been praised by Ronald Reagan.

Oops. That's actually a description of James Webb, the Democratic candidate for senator, who, according to news reports, endorsed George Allen for the Senate in 2000, served under President Reagan as Secretary of the Navy and has taken all of the policy stances noted above.

This just goes to show that the national Democrats and activists who persuaded Webb to challenge Allen are not really interested in Virginia and will do anything to achieve the Democratic National Committee's goals, including running a stealth-Republican candidate!

I'm not going to do a point-by-point rebuttal -- most of you who read this blog are sophisticated and well-read enough to know why these points are misleading. But who wrote this letter, a Dem for whom Jim Webb just doesn't cut it? Nope. A Bush administration appointee, Tyler S. Posey, who at least until recently was General Counsel of the Peace Corps. As you can see in the 2004 edition of the Plum Book (the list of top federal government jobs), this position is an "excepted service" appointment, which is hired outside the civil service system. Campaign contibutions? Well, that's the obvious next question:


POSEY, TYLER
MCLEAN, VA 22102

   HORN, STEVE
    VIA STEVE HORN FOR CONGRESS
    11/04/2000     250.00     20036651587

POSEY, TYLER
MCLEAN, VA 22102
RETIRED/RETIRED

   ALLEN, GEORGE
    VIA FRIENDS OF GEORGE ALLEN
    05/24/2006     500.00     26020342862

POSEY, TYLER S. MR.
MCLEAN, VA 22102
RETIRED

   BUSH, GEORGE W
    VIA BUSH-CHENEY 2000 COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE INC.
    10/23/2000     1000.00     20990263699

Total Contributions:    1750.00

So, what is this guy doing writing letters to the editor complaining about Jim Webb not being a real Democrat???

C'mon, y'all can do better than that! At least get your LTEs from people who aren't appointees listed in the Bush administration Plum Book, who have donated to both Bush and Allen. Sheesh. How dumb do they think people are?

Comments



RE: Great Catch! (JPTERP - 10/3/2006 11:05:16 PM)
Hopefully, someone calls Posey out on this.  How embarrassing for him. 


The Funny Thing (Greg - 10/3/2006 11:07:46 PM)
... is the assumption the people in a politically-savvy and internet-savvy place like Fairfax wouldn't find this in the Plum Book and the FEC data...

It only took this (Arlingtonian) five minutes, plus another ten to post a diary.



Will the Fairfax County Times run a follow-up? (Arlington Tom - 10/3/2006 11:15:56 PM)
Seems like they should run a follow up on how they got hood winked by the Allen team -

-Their letter to the editor turned in a mere propoganda tool- can't be a good feeling-



Don't Hold Your Breath though..... (Used2Bneutral - 10/4/2006 3:56:34 AM)
The Times Newspapers of Northern Virginia are all affiliated with the Washington Times..... The political reporter is a good example, she graduated from the ultra conservative right wing religious college run by Rove's friends..... you remember the one that has students sign an agreement that they won't even hold hands even if married unless they are at least walking (we figured you have to be jogging or running to steal a kiss)....... During last years election campaign when ALL the other news media were taking Chris Craddock apart for his stupid actions and abhorant statements to those high school classes they were careful to print all the drival that came from his campaign first and other Dem LTEs only when there were no others to print(if then)..... ask anyone who worked the campaigns in western Fairfax and Loudoun.....


Do a "Comment" on Their Web Site: Send Letters to the Editor (bb10 - 10/4/2006 9:41:05 AM)
They SHOULD do reporting (news stories) on this, but we shouldn't count on that. Two specific actions we can take now to put the truth about this into public view:

1) Do an electronic "comment" giving your thoughts on this letter to the editor (LTE) by Republican Tyler S. Posey. Hit the "Post a Comment" button to the right of and just below the title of the LTE.

2) Send LTEs to all of the Times Community newspapers. A list of the papers is here. I looked at the contacts for several of the papers, and I couldn't find an email address for LTEs. You might just label your email as "LETTER TO EDITOR" and send your email to a couple of the editors at the top of the list for each of the newspapers.



Won't ask for (libra - 10/3/2006 11:39:33 PM)
a point-by-point rebuttal, but...

Can you clarify this claim:

[...] backs a Republican plan on tough CIA interrogation methods [...]

What *is* Webb's stance on the Torture Bill? It came up too recently to have been included in the "issues" section and too recently for me to have asked in person when Webb was here

I would assume that the bill would be abhorrent to any decent person, never mind a vet but "assume" translates to "makes and ass of you and me" and I don't remember seeing any strongly expressed outrage about it...

PS It was quite obvious the letter was talking about Webb; the the tip-off was in:
"has been praised by Ronald Reagan."

Which, of course, Allen had not been :)



RE: Torture Bill (JPTERP - 10/3/2006 11:52:57 PM)
On Meet The Press two weeks ago, Webb said he backed the plan advanced by Senators Graham, McCain, and Warner. 

Graham, McCain, and Warner eventually capitulated to the White House plan gaining only a handful of concessions.  I find it difficult to belief that Webb would sign on to the existing torture bill.



You can also check the RVL (LAS - 10/4/2006 12:19:14 AM)
and see if this guy ever voted in a Democratic primary; a voter who feels that passionately against the DNC definitely would not miss a primary.

My guess is no.



COMMENT HIDDEN (Neen56 - 10/4/2006 4:07:34 AM)