Make that very negative, very early.
The attack site--which Collins certainly approved personally--contains a number of falsehoods and distortions. For example, the video and accompanying text both claim, incorrectly, that Rep. Allen has received far more money from Moveon.org fundraising than has Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). The numbers shown are either invented or out of date.
But let's look past that for a moment.
My question is, What exactly is George Soros doing in Collins' video?
Not exactly a household name to begin with, the ad doesn't bother to identify Soros. Yet--and in a way that feels gratuitous--the video seems to go out of its way to include a snapshot of him.
Why?
Surely, this isn't dog whistle politics directed toward the paranoid wing of the Republican party. Right?
Surely, this isn't a coded appeal to conspiracy theorists on the GOP fringe who see a world full of scheming Jews conspiring to keep them down. Is it?
This Jew, for one, isn't amused. (Anyone in the press care to ask Collins endorser Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for his take?)
Yes, I get it: The site is meant to be inflammatory--it's a hit job designed both to leverage radical right rage for fundraising and to distract voters, staving off a frank discussion of the junior senator's disastrous term in office.
But the Soros reference--and the inclusion of the obscene "we support our troops" poster--cross a line. And it's a line, incidentally, I wouldn't have expected Collins to cross even in October.
Let's be clear: This kind of ugly, Coulter-style smear has no place in our political discourse, let alone from a pol who poses as a champion of bipartisanship.
I hope Sen. Collins thinks carefully about the wisdom of embracing this kind of hard-right, slash-and-burn approach.
2 comments:
Good Lord! This is swiftboating/Rovian smear at its vile worst. Here's an ad. I'd like to see:
[stills of Tom speaking forcefully]
"While Representative Tom Allen was standing up to President Bush and voting against war in October 2002, Senator Collins ignored her constituents"
[cut to small clip of Collins repeating weapons of mass destruction myths]
[cut to interview clip w/a very sane, rational expert from the local peace movement]
"We asked her to look at the information contrary to what the Administration was saying, but she wasn't interested"
[cut to a slightly less-than flattering picture of Collins mixed with some brief, rapidly changing awful war scenes]
Narration: "Senator Susan Collins did not stand up to President Bush when it really counted. Now she wants to blame people who opposed the war for the disaster she helped create"
[cut to black screen with Collins's phone number in center in white]
"Call Senator Collins and tell her you want the Iraq war ended now."
Well, we'll probably never see this, but I sure do hope Tom will respond to this smear head on and forcefully!!
here you make a good point:
--My question is, What exactly is George Soros doing in Collins' video?--and furthermore, an even better question: how do Jews feel about Soros mercilessly pilloried in the media? As a non-Jew I don't like it one bit .....!!!!!
Post a Comment