Note: Based on comments, I have changed the title of this diary. Because SW Ohio really is threatened by a wave of muck and slime, most evident from the current swiftboating tactics, I had tried to be metaphorical. Padon me for metaphorical writing on DailyKOS.
A swiftboating attack on Democratic congressional candidate David Krikorian is now in full swing. This is the third in a series of diaries this week on the last-ditch efforts by Jean Schmidt and her allies in the Democratic Party establishment to forestall a Krikorian victory in the May 4 primary next Tuesday. Previous installments can be found by clicking on my blogroll.
The swiftboating effort employs fraudulent, fictional, and vague charges that Krikorian made racially "denigrating" remarks about third-place candidate Surya Yalamanchili, who is of Tamil-Telugu ethnicity. No evidence of actual denigrating remarks from Krikorian has been produced. Yet three officials of the Ohio Democratic Party, including two county party chairs and the state chairman, have endorsed the baseless accusations first leveled by incumbent Republican Jean Schmidt, effectively aiding Schmidt in an attempt to block her only threatening opponent.
Yalamanchili, 28 years old and never before a registered Democrat, claims some connection to OH-02 by virtue of a short stint as marketing director for Oil of Olay, one of Procter & Gamble's leading brands, the packaging for which fails to state what the product actually does. Yalamanchili now deceptively packages himself as a candidate for the OH-02 congressional seat Democratic nomination.
Last night, Friday night, the god-king of commercial "progressive" tabloid journalism, Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC's Countdown, appeared to endorse Mr. Yalamanchili, while mispronouncing his name. But Keith failed to disclose that the lead sponsor of the broadcast and webcast was none other than Procter & Gamble's Oil of Olay brand!
OOPS!!!!
As I watched the Olbermann show on MSNBC's website, it started to look mighty bad for Krikorian. In the carnival-like style of the show best parodied by Ben Affleck on Saturday Night Live, Olbermann was naming Krikorian "The Worst Person in the World."
But something was mighty fishy about this production. Olbermann usually (always?) provides SOME evidence to support an allegation -- a video clip or an issued statement from the accused, usually both in the case of repeat-winner Rush Limbaugh. In this case, Olbermann merely repeated an unsubstantiated and false allegation from the Republican incumbent in the seat -- Jean Schmidt -- whom Olberman did describe last night as "reprehensible."
Keith, is a "reprehensible" pathological liar bad-mouthing her lead Democratic opponent considered a reliable source in your brand of, um, journalism?
The allegation? That Krikorian had "made fun" of Yalamanchili's name at an April 2 VFW event at which neither Schmidt nor Yalamanchili was present and no actual witness has been named. Contrary to Schmidt's unsupported allegation, obviously aimed at removing her most potent opponent, three veterans present at the meeting have released statements declaring that no such disparagement occurred. At least one of those vets is a registered Republican. The letters are posted at: http://ilikedave.org/...
Olbermann headlined his piece: "Foreign Names are Un-American?" absurdly attributing Schmidt's own pleistocene mentality to her chief\ opponent, David Krikorian. Not to let the facts get in the way of a juicy headline, Olbermann didn't stop to think that "Krikorian" is also a "foreign name." Before Yalamanchili switched from Independent to Democrat, in the middle of this year's race, Krikorian was routinely attacked for the ethnic sound of his name and alleged but unsupported "foreign allegiances" to Armmenia. Yalamanchili's e-mail newsletters have repeatedly made this point -- about Krikorian. And Schmidt made those same allegations in her case against Krikorian before the Ohio Elections Commission.
Keith, did you hear yourself alleging that a guy named Krikorian was somehow derisive of foreign-sounding names? Do you know that both of David's parents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide? David is about the last person on earth who would attack someone for a "foreign name."
Meanwhile, Olbermann ignored the third Democratic candidate in the race, Jim Parker, who actually has made the Waspier-than-thou argument across the district -- attempting to beat both Krikorian and Yalamanchili.
Krikorian has been swiftboated. MSNBC and Keith Olberman, sponsored by Cincinnati-based Procter and Gamble, are now agents of that swiftboating.
Negating any ignorance defence, Olbermann did identify Yalamanchili as "from Procter & Gamble" -- but no disclosure statement about P&G's sponsorship of Countdown followed.
So as I started watching the Olbermann webcast, a pop-up ad appeared. For what? For OIL OF OLAY!! Here's the pop-up screen that appeared: http://www.olay.com/...
Keith, I realize you are not like a real journalist and all, but didn't anyone explain to you along the line that when you endorse a political candidate and identify him as "from P&G," and P&G is your PRINCIPAL SPONSOR, you are required to make a disclose statement? Something like:
"In the interest of full disclosure, the tallow-peddling Porkopolis Republican manufacturer P&G is the principal sponsor of this pseudo-journalistic soapbox show."
Such disclosures allow viewers to fairly assess the veracity of content. Apparently, this is news to you.
(I've been writing about P&G's pernicious impact on SW politics in DKOS diaries for more than two years, beginning with my expose of P&G's ties to Rob Portman, now running for US Senate, during the 2008 presidential campaign. So this is no new phenomenon.)
Now to be fair, Keith Olbermann did cite one back-up source for the Schmidty allegations against Krikorian. That is Clermont County Democratic Party chairman David Lane, who has said in recent days that he was led to endorse Yalamanchili when he read a letter from Jean Schmidt (that would be the "reprehensible" Jean Schmidt) and suddenly remembered that he himself had heard Krikorian say the very same thing (that would be the very same thing that Schmidt did not hear, because she did not attend the VFW meeting).
I'm afraid that I bear some personal responsibility for Dave Lane's sudden recollection. You see, on Thursday morning, I published a diary lambasting Lane and two other Ohio Democratic party bosses for swiftboating Krikorian without citing sources. (My diary, "A Guy With a Name Like That Can't Win", which gives additional background, is at: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Specifically, the schmill rag Cincinnati Enquirer had written:
[Hamilton County DP chair] Burke told the Enquirer he has heard from "several" 2nd District Democrats saying they have heard Krikorian disparage Yalamanchili's name at other venues.
Lane had also referred vaguely to "other sources." I called them on that, since they were endorsing a candidate hand-picked by the Republican opposition, on the basis of sources they would not identify. I wrote:
second-hand hearsay with no actual sources that the paper has talked to?
Apparently, Lane got the message (my diaries this week have been widely circulated around OH-02). Since there were no actual "other sources" who had heard Krikorian disparage any "foreign name," Lane had to say that he himself was the "other" source, to justify his schmill endorsement.
But there are some major problems with that explanation. Why did Burke and Lane tell the Cincinnati Enquirer that they heard the allegations from others if the "others" were themselves? And why has the so-called newspaper, and now MSNBC, colluded in this deception about the actual sources for serious allegations about racism? Is there a there there? And if so, where?
Finally, Krikorian has not met with David Lane in months. If Lane really did hear racially disparaging remarks from Krikorian months ago, why didn't he tell anybody? Why wasn't it raised when the Clermont County Democratic Party met to consider endorsements in the race? (No endorsements were issued, and the Krikorian campaign requested no endorsement on principle.) Why did David Lane wait until five days before the primary to suddenly "recall" that he had personal evidence that the lead candidate is a racist?
Some additional light on the actual facts is shed by the fact, according to reliable sources, that Tim Burke and David Lane requested that the Ohio Democratic Party issue an endorsement of Yalamanchili just a week before the primary election. This was done in a last-ditch effort to stop Krikorian, in complete violation of ODP endorsement procedure, which requires action by the full executive committee after candidate notifications, long in advance.
The same issues arose this year when Senate candidate Lee Fisher asked the ODP for an endorsement late in the game, and then was forced by protests to withdraw the request.
Chris Redfern, chairman of the ODP, refused the request by Burke and Lane, but did issue a personal letter endorsing Yalamanchili.
Note: NO Democratic Party organization at any level has endorsed Yalamanchili, and the two highest-ranking Democrats who have endorsed in the race are congressmen Brad Sherman and Adam Schiff, who both have endorsed Krikorian. The "personal endorsements" by apparatchiks Burke, Lane and Redfern, issued as an ad hoc troika, violate the spirit if not the letter of ODP procedures, which require party endorsements to go through a formal review process by elected county and state party committees.
That the "personal endorsements" came at the command of Jean Schmidt, and perhaps by order of Procter & Gamble, adds poison to the cake.
In short: Lane, Burke, and Redfern are marked men. The County Democratic Committee in Clermont, which was never consulted about Lane's endorsement and never told about his "recollection" is up in arms. Dave Lane will not be Clermont County party chair by the time of the November election.
Hamilton County may be more of a civil war, but the opening shot in that war has been fired. After the Brunner-Fisher scandals and now this, Redfern is history. The DC publication The Hill has already lambasted Ohio's Democratic Party leadership for openly sabotaging the only one candidate who can beat Jean Schmidt in November. That's David Krikorian.
Yalamanchili is remaining mostly quiet, giving off the sense of a deer caught in headlights (any ethnic/racial implications unintended). He's simply letting Jean Schmidt and the managers at P&G who are his principal financial backers do his dirty work. Yalamanchili is now the official Jean Schmidt candidate in the OH-02 race.
It suits him, given the brand that he managed at P&G. Wikipedia says this about Oil of Olay:
Nowhere on the packaging did it say what the product actually did. Print adverts used copy such as "Share the secret of a younger looking you" and talked about the ‘beauty secret’ of oil of Olay. Other adverts were written as personal messages to the reader from a fictitious advice columnist named Margaret Merril.
I'm half surprised that the Republicans, along with Lane and Burke, didn't run Margaret Merril in the OH-02 race.
Keith Olbermann, you owe David Krikorian a profound apology, or perhaps we should just call you "The Worst Fox Impersonator in the World."
David Lane, Tim Burke, and Chris Redfern, you owe Ohio Democrats letters of resignation. Don't worry, I'm sure the Portman campaign has job openings.
OH-02 Democrats, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CHILI!
The Ohio primary election is next Tuesday, May 4. To donate to or volunteer for the Krikorian campaign, go to http://ilikedave.org
I will be posting more links later in updates. The Olbermann video is at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
P.S. A recent dirty tricks tactic employed by the Schmill camp is to mimic my screen name and post false messages under fraudulent attribution. A DKOS user has adopted the name Ohiobama1, only to snipe at my diaries. A user called Ohiobama has posted anti-Krikorian messages on the Cincinnati Enquirer comments board. Please be aware that these individuals aren't me; I only use Ohiobama on DailyKOS. I am, however, flattered by the mimicry.
UPDATE: Numerous commenters, including obvious trolls, continue the swiftboating tactics by stating or assuming that Krikorian actually did make some disparaging comment about Yalamanchili's race. Let me be clear: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT ANY SUCH COMMENT EVER WAS MADE. The ONLY witnesses present at the VFW meeting ALL DENY that any such comment was made. Jean Schmidt has referred to a source she will not name. And Burke and Lane first cited other unnamed sources, then changed their story to claim some personal knowledge contradicted by the facts.
The burden is on those claiming that Krikorian committed some offense to produce one shred of real evidence to support their charges.
Otherwise, apologies and resignations are due.