Last night I was listening to Air America's off hour show, Clout, and Greg Palast was guest host again. They have been bringing on the various candidates to talk about why they want be President. They are given a time slot and they bring on whomever they wish will represent them well. This week was the Edwards team.
But that was not Friday night. Last night Greg Palast was hosting and brought on David Sirota. David Sirota who is a political journalist and reports in different magazines and blogs, will also work on political campaigns. He previously spent years in DC also working as a Press Secretary for a House Representative. When he works on campaigns, he becomes an attack dog and a Hack. He has taken up with the Edwards campaign on this cycle. In what capacity, I don't know. I know he had an official title from the Lamont campaign. But he was hired late in the game there. I became more familiar with Sirota's attack tactics on the Hackett for Senate Campaign, where the Marine Major that just returned from a tour in Iraq ran a Special Election for Congress and lost by a few percent (the closest a Democrat came in decades) took the challenge asked by Democratic Leadership to now run against Mike DeWine for the Senate. With returning from Iraq, running a special US House race and jumping to a Senate run when called upon, I find a most admirable quality. All the other Ohio state elected officials turned it down. Sherrod Brown, holding the seat now, included, which is who David Sirota worked for. He displayed his tactics and worked them to the max, because after Rep Brown turned down the Senate run in August of 05, Paul Hackett accepted the challenge and they conducted the first poll with this relatively unknown candidate, showing how close the race was to the incumbent Republican DeWine. Rep Sherrod Brown decided to change his mind a couple months later.
"If they didn't hate each other so much, David Sirota and Dan Gerstein might be friends. They certainly have a lot in common. Both are in their thirties. Both are Jewish. And both are Democratic operatives. But their greatest similarity is their shared love of vicious political combat. Sirota, a lanky 30-year-old who has worked on campaigns for Philadelphia mayor and Montana governor, once branded a political opponent a "No Talent Ass Clown.""
http://www.tnr.com/...
Well, together Sirota and Palast showed that regardless of whom it is, they will go after them if they aren't paying their salaries. I think I'm most surprised at Greg Palast. Showing a side I hadn't seen before. Buying his books, driving 2 hours to go hear him, and a friend of Democracy for America, this type of attacking was new to me. For Sirota, that is his norm. With the Edwards campaign bringing on Trippi as well, makes you really guess the attack mode will be the tactic they use. But worse, fellow (supposed) Progressive (and Palast sure sold enough books on the Florida case) taking to their lying attacks on the day that Al Gore won his Nobel Peace Prize, shows they will stoop as low as possible.
You would think they are educated enough to know that NAFTA was the policy of the President, which was Bill Clinton. A Vice President doesn't make policy, but does serve at the pleasure of the President. And as his duty, he went to get the votes Clinton asked for. OK, yes, we know the attackers (Sirota and Palast) know this, they just totally misrepresented it to try to tear down Al Gore. What's that saying? - With friends like these, who needs enemies? But then, Palast went further. In a sophomoric manner, Palast whined "Oh Al, if you're out there, call me". And then the assault continued to totally misrepresent Al Gore. Palast going so far to try to tear down Al's Global warming work, by saying NAFTA and Mexico (again in that sophomoric whine) "added to Global Warming". This behavior is totally unacceptable. Palast saying hey, I don't know, where is Al Gore on this? Then proceeding to further misrepresent Al Gore, with Sirota chiming in and agreeing. It was disgusting.
And from the very mouth of that President that made that his policy, last year on record saying the following.
In a nutshell, he expressed regret over precisely what I didn’t like about those laws. He regrets the "social" impacts of NAFTA. The agreement, he told me, was a fait accompli, but he said he was certain Al Gore would beat George W. Bush and that Gore would fix it. He regrets the media-merger mania that resulted from the Telecom Act and seemed to blame it, at least partly, on the dot-com bust. It was a case of unintended consequences. "I didn’t see that coming," he said.
...from that Blogger luncheon in June 06, when warming up for his wife’s run
http://roxanne.typepad.com/...
Of course, if they really wanted to hear the facts from Al Gore, they would have scheduled someone to speak to these questions and false accusations. But like the opposition, no, they just wanted the platform to spread lies.
Al Gore even campaigned in 2000 that the Trade Agreements needed to be FAIR TRADE.
"Link trade to environment and labor. (Sep 2000)
Fair trade: standards for child labor & environment. (Aug 2000)
Somewhat ironic isn't it? When the candidate they are pushing for, Edwards, basically wants to just walk away from his record of votes in his one term of the Senate, and take on a populist theme, when none of that can be backed up by his record.
This, friends, is EXACTLY why the Democrats better hope that Al Gore will seek the Presidency. Because, this example of saying anything, at all cost to get elected, but not having a record to back up their rhetoric, is why they will not get my vote unless it is the Honorable Al Gore.