Liberty Valance: "You lookin' for trouble, Doniphon?"
Tom Doniphon: "You aimin' to help me find some?"
I'm elated to see so many rise in defense of Patrick Murphy, all the way up to a national level - this was quick action- Wes Clark doing a conference call with Philly area bloggers http://youngphillypolitics.com/node/1562 within a day or so, and I'm sure that we'll see much more by national Democratic party leaders in days to come.
In many ways this cycle might actually BE the sounds so hyperbolic "most important election of our lifetime" and - as with all these races, a handful will decide the outcome- among them quite possibly just a handful of scrappy Fighting Dems like Patrick Murphy, Chris Carney, Joe Sestak & Eric Massa. And they are ALL under similar attack, make no mistake. (as are others)
I don't care for the term "swiftboat" but it does as a word communicate the nature of the attack- a small group of operatives organized by outside forces using the old "I paint my face black, I travel at night" Ralph Reed tactic of undermining opponents & playing political cut throat.
I liked it when at the Murtha Rally Wes reportedly joked about not letting Jack get "swiftboated, shrimpboated... or any other kind of boated!!" (to the great delight of the crowd) because at heart, that's what these guys are, wimps. Shrimps. Not men, but "little men", little in spirit, small of stature, slight junior high school mentality, etc.
Honestly I also hope this cycle to see some fiesty Dems walk over to their opponents in debate situations & ask their lying, smearing opponent if they'd like to take the gloves off & step outside. Yeah, I'm serious. I promise one million dollars at least worth of free publicity to whoever literaelly
It's time to activate that archetypal, white hat wearing young cowboy image- pick whatever image you want: the good kid who's tired of having his milk money stolen by grade school bullies, the beach goer tired of having a spoiled frat boy kick sand in his face... of course, the metaphors get a lot more serious a lot more quickly when we stop to consider what is really at stake: the lives of our troops & the well-being of their families, control of certain industrial sectors, regulatory considerations, public lands, the health of our public institutions and reform of our health care- billions upon billions of dollars.
It's great to see Dems not "misunderestimating" these sleazy characters:
"I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." -Ralph Reed (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, November 9, 1991)
"It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. You've got two choices: You can wear cammies and shimmy along on your belly, or you can put on a red coat and stand up for everyone to see. It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective." - Ralph Reed (Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1992)
Shrimpboaters: you flag lapel wearing hyenas... consider yourselves "on notice." Your chickenhawk house of cards, your rigged game, your can't win in a fair fight approach will not be tolerated.
Because that is what this really is: You can't win in a fair fight. You're on the wrong side. Because you don't know what "fair" is. And that's why you get it so wrong, so often, so badly.