In response to the recent thread about how Warner does not want us to have another Karl Rove, I thought that we should address ROVIAN hijinks. There is something that Rove and his henchmen like to do to people, and that is to smear and swiftboat. I am writing this thread to prepare Kossacks for smears against Warner early, so that if he does run for President, we will be able to debunk the bullshit that Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter will start using next year (remember 2007, is the beginning of the election cycle.) In trying to look for these talking points, I searched Google News and came up with this newspaper article:
http://fredericksburg.com/...
Here are some talking points that they might use against Warner in the near future:
The Virginia's answer to the budget surplus that Warner helped create, and that there essentially was no deficit that Jim Gilmore created:
"All of which was a complete fairy tale. The state ended the 2004 fiscal year with a surplus of over $400 million--before the tax increase took effect. That surplus eventually grew to $2 billion.
"The surplus proved the talk of a budget deficit was all completely false."
Here's another one:
"The state, in fact, had enough projected revenues in 2004 to increase the next two-year state budget by 11 percent over the previous budget. But that wasn't enough for Warner and the muddle headed Senate Republicans. They wanted the tax increase so they could increase state spending by 19 percent in the new budget."
They also have a colorful narrative too:
"If Warner or any other Democrat is elected president in 2008, they will bring this big government road show to Washington, which is, indeed, effectively what they are already telling us. They will increase federal taxes right after the election, just as Bill Clinton did in 1993.
"As for Mark Warner, what this experience shows is that his ability to tell brazen lies with a straight face makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout."