As you all know, progressive champion Raul Grijalva is in a tight race with Tea Party ignoramus Ruth McClung in Arizona's 7th congressional district. As co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Raul has a big target on his back and outside corporate cash is flooding into the district.
As a result of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, the fat cats can now launder their contributions through groups like 60 Plus and Grover Norquist's Citizens for Tax Reform, both of which have been running attack ads in CD-07. The mailer I found in my mailbox this afternoon leads me to believe that Ruth is also getting advice from Karl Rove. It has all the hallmarks of a Rove slimejob.
Attack your Opponent on his Strengths, this is Karl's first rule of negative campaigning. One of Raul Grivalva's strengths is his firm stance in defense of Social Security. Here is what he told HuffPo:
"Leaving millions insecure, and millions more below the poverty line, is not good policy and it's certainly not something Democrats should be tinkering with on the mistaken assumption that it's fiscally responsible. Cuts now would be the height of fiscal irresponsibility. That's why we sent this letter, and that's why we want the president and the whole country to hear us loud and clear. We're here to protect Social Security for future generations, pure and simple. If anyone wants to explain why cutting it makes sense for the American people, let's hear the argument. We still haven't heard one."
Following Rove's First Law, McClung's mailer tries to paint Raul as a poor guardian of the Social Security trust fund, saying:
Guess how much money Raul Grijalva and congress have "borrowed" from our Social Security to pay for their out of control spending ? ALL OF IT
Jeebus Ruth, are you stupid or do you think we are ? In the first place, in our government, it is the executive branch that writes the budget, not the Congress. I'm sure Ruth managed to memorize Newton's three Laws of Motion, but she appears to be ignorant regarding our three branches of government.
Secondly, it was Republican icon Ronald Reagan who first began the practice of raiding the Social Security trust fund to mask the size of the federal deficit. This was a conservative innovation, and the Gipper started the practice so his tax cuts for millionaires wouldn't look quite so irresponsible. This is like the debate where Ruth tried to blame Grijalva for the failed economic policies of the last 10 years without realizing that those disastrous policies were put in place by a Republican government.
She claims:
U.S.Debt owed to China- over $900 billion. That is over $11,500 in debt for the average American family.
It's not Raul Grijalva who is borrowing from China, it was George W. Bush who started borrowing from China to pay for his illegal wars and two massive tax cuts for those who needed them least.
Then there's Rove's Second Law: Call Out your Opponent for the Exact Thing that You are About to Do. This is a sort of pre-emptive obfuscation. The object is to confuse the public with regard to the underhanded tactic you intend to employ. This one is in Ruth's mailer too:
For the first time in our nation's history, we have to borrow money from China to cover Social Security.
It's broken. And Raul Grijalva wants to blame Ruth McClung for his failure ?
See how this works ? Raul Grijalva does not "want" to blame Ruthie for anything. How could he ? She's never held public office. Instead, it's Ruth McClung who wants to blame Grijalva for the National Debt, for Republican malfeasance, for the fact that George Bush never once wrote a balanced budget and turned the surplus he inherited into a monster deficit.
Will this P.O.S. mailer be effective ? Are the voters in AZ-07 so stupid that Ruth McClung's Through the Looking-Glass version of reality will be accepted as truth ? I hesitate to ask. Karl Rove's dishonest tactics have been effective in so many races over the years that the corporate media think he's some kind of a genius rather than the under-handed slimeball that he really is. Restore my faith in humanity Southern Arizona. Reject dishonest campaigning. Show me that CD-07 can't be bought.
Re-elect Raul Grijalva.