"Where else would you go when you have an ax to grind?"

Friday, January 09, 2004

there is nothing like reasonable, informed, logical political debate. Unfortunately in there doesn't seem to be much of that coming from the right in the USA at the moment. Take a look at the latest anti-Dean spot from the "Club for Growth"

Here's the script:

Male, physically imposing but clean-cut looking husband with wife walking from barber shop.
Announcer off-screen: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HOWARD DEAN’S PLANS TO RAISE TAXES ON FAMILIES BY NINETEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS A YEAR?

Husband turns to answer with mildly annoyed expression.
Husband: WHAT DO I THINK?
WELL, I THINK HOWARD DEAN SHOULD TAKE HIS TAX HIKING, GOVERNMENT-EXPANDING, LATTE-DRINKING, SUSHI-EATING, VOLVO-DRIVING, NEW YORK TIMES-READING . . .
Wife takes over in mid-sentence.
Wife: . . . BODY PIERCING, HOLLYWOOD-LOVING, LEFT-WING FREAK SHOW BACK TO VERMONT, WHERE IT BELONGS.

Husband cocks his head.
Husband: GOT IT?

Flash effect to transition out of shot of couple, replaced by words on a screen.

“Say NO to Howard Dean’s GIANT TAX Increase.”

“PAID FOR BY THE CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC
NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE.
www.clubforgrowth.org”
Announcer: CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF THIS ADVERTISING




Salon.com's Joe Conason had this to say about the absurd attack ad, which shed a bit more light on just who pulls which strings in US politics
(start quote)
"According to club president Stephen Moore, this stream of invective describes "cultural elites across America who are the ones behind Dean," who are so unlike the "middle-class families with Middle America values, as in Iowa, [who] are going to be very turned off by Dean's economic program."

Moore and his club of corporate Republicans have a long history of stirring up Midwestern rubes with demagogic advertising, but this ad's script achieves new heights of hypocrisy. "Hollywood-loving?" Not long ago, Moore declared himself "honored" to accept an advisory position in the new administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor not known for his adherence to "Middle America values."
That's only the first layer of phoniness in Moore's attack. There is in fact nothing "middle-class" or "Middle American" about the Club for Growth, an outfit financed and operated by such wealthy ideologues as Thomas "Dusty" Rhodes, Richard Gilder and Lawrence Kudlow.

Rhodes spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs. Gilder has been a stockbroker since 1954 and operates his own firm. Kudlow, of course, is the genial CNBC host and Wall Street economist (whose style of Savile Row tailoring is rarely seen in the barbershops of middle-class Middle America). All three gentlemen reside in New York City, a place even more akin to Sodom than Burlington, Vt.

And let's not forget Club for Growth co-founder Ed Crane, the president of the Cato Institute, where Moore himself is a senior fellow. What would Iowa's middle-class Middle Americans think of Cato's ongoing advocacy of full drug legalization? How would that couple leaving the barbershop feel about Cato's staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, and almost every other exercise of American military power abroad?

Most Middle Americans might regard such hippie-dippie libertarianism just as grimly as body piercing, Volvo driving, latte drinking, and New York Times-reading. They also might not appreciate Cato's gay rights activism, embodied by executive vice president David Boaz. (Indeed, most of Middle America would probably be shocked by Boaz's views of marriage -- which he believes shouldn't be regulated by government at all.)
(end quote)

You can see the tv spot here:there is nothing like reasonable, informed, logical political debate. Unfortunately in there doesn't seem to be much of that coming from the right in the USA at the moment. Take a look at the latest anti-Dean spot from the "Club for Growth"

Here's the script:

Male, physically imposing but clean-cut looking husband with wife walking from barber shop.
Announcer off-screen: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HOWARD DEAN’S PLANS TO RAISE TAXES ON FAMILIES BY NINETEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS A YEAR?

Husband turns to answer with mildly annoyed expression.
Husband: WHAT DO I THINK?
WELL, I THINK HOWARD DEAN SHOULD TAKE HIS TAX HIKING, GOVERNMENT-EXPANDING, LATTE-DRINKING, SUSHI-EATING, VOLVO-DRIVING, NEW YORK TIMES-READING . . .
Wife takes over in mid-sentence.
Wife: . . . BODY PIERCING, HOLLYWOOD-LOVING, LEFT-WING FREAK SHOW BACK TO VERMONT, WHERE IT BELONGS.

Husband cocks his head.
Husband: GOT IT?

Flash effect to transition out of shot of couple, replaced by words on a screen.

“Say NO to Howard Dean’s GIANT TAX Increase.”

“PAID FOR BY THE CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC
NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE.
www.clubforgrowth.org”
Announcer: CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF THIS ADVERTISING




Salon.com's Joe Conason had this to say about the absurd attack ad, which shed a bit more light on just who pulls which strings in US politics
(start quote)
"According to club president Stephen Moore, this stream of invective describes "cultural elites across America who are the ones behind Dean," who are so unlike the "middle-class families with Middle America values, as in Iowa, [who] are going to be very turned off by Dean's economic program."

Moore and his club of corporate Republicans have a long history of stirring up Midwestern rubes with demagogic advertising, but this ad's script achieves new heights of hypocrisy. "Hollywood-loving?" Not long ago, Moore declared himself "honored" to accept an advisory position in the new administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor not known for his adherence to "Middle America values."
That's only the first layer of phoniness in Moore's attack. There is in fact nothing "middle-class" or "Middle American" about the Club for Growth, an outfit financed and operated by such wealthy ideologues as Thomas "Dusty" Rhodes, Richard Gilder and Lawrence Kudlow.

Rhodes spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs. Gilder has been a stockbroker since 1954 and operates his own firm. Kudlow, of course, is the genial CNBC host and Wall Street economist (whose style of Savile Row tailoring is rarely seen in the barbershops of middle-class Middle America). All three gentlemen reside in New York City, a place even more akin to Sodom than Burlington, Vt.

And let's not forget Club for Growth co-founder Ed Crane, the president of the Cato Institute, where Moore himself is a senior fellow. What would Iowa's middle-class Middle Americans think of Cato's ongoing advocacy of full drug legalization? How would that couple leaving the barbershop feel about Cato's staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, and almost every other exercise of American military power abroad?

Most Middle Americans might regard such hippie-dippie libertarianism just as grimly as body piercing, Volvo driving, latte drinking, and New York Times-reading. They also might not appreciate Cato's gay rights activism, embodied by executive vice president David Boaz. (Indeed, most of Middle America would probably be shocked by Boaz's views of marriage -- which he believes shouldn't be regulated by government at all.)
(end quote)

You can see the tv spot here:http://www.clubforgrowth.org/