The digitial ink was not yet dry on my diary
Count me for Kerry
when Kos posted:
Who is Robo-calling against Dean?
With 493 comments at last count....forgive me for responding in diary form.....
first vis-a-vis my support for Kerry and second my response to Kos....
Part one:
I came to my support of John Kerry with open eyes to his strengths and weaknesses as a candidate...and that includes the context of the wave of attacks and innuendo he has been put to here.
If, in the course of the primary campaign, it is proven, with credible and independent evidence, that John Kerry violated my ethical principals....I will reconsider that support.
To be clear, while I do not endorse robo-calling or push-polling....these alone would not rise to the threshold of "ethical violation" for me. There are versions of both these practices that, while noxious, are just not unethical at that level.
If we as a party want to ban these practices...we should put it in our platform in Boston if it isn't there already. I honestly don't know.
If, however, it is made clear that John Kerry knowingly engaged in an anti-Semitic push polling campaign, as Kos implies....that would rise to the threshold for me. Period, end of sentence.
It seems to me, if that is true, we as a Party would have to seek his resignation from the Senate as well.
Part 2:
Now, as for the Kos piece entitled "Who is Robo-calling Against Dean?"
It breaks down into two parts. Forgive me for reviewing it here....
The first is a scoop of sorts...Kos had info about a unprinted GQ article where Joe Trippi is overheard accusing Kerry of "robocalling our ones" and printed an excerpt of it.
The second part is Kos' endorsement of Trippi's accusation against the Kerry campaign: it's all anecdotal, but the evidence suggests dirty tricks from the Kerry campaign.....and his further inclusion of the uncited allegation...some of the calls suggest Dean is not a real Christian because he's married to a Jew.
Kos concludes....God help Kerry if real evidence emerges.
To be straight up, I have enormous problems with this entry.
I think that the story about the GQ piece is a legitimate scoop: it gives a real insight into Trippi and the atmosphere of the Dean campaign.
But the GQ piece says more about the Dean campaign and Joe Trippi than it says about anything else. We have zero hard evidence of anything from the GQ quote provided...other than a picture of Joe Trippi.
If Kos had quoted extensively from an investigative report examining and exposing the "robocalling" issue...if that was his scoop...(and it may yet be)...his piece would have an entirely different legitmacy.
Now, Kos, instead of passing on the GQ scoop simply for what it was...added his own spin to it. It is here that I have greatest argument with him. So, while acknowledging that it his blog...and I am but a guest...
I do not know what to make of Kos' accusations against the Kerry campaign.
But, from a journalistic point of view....big accusations demand big evidence. There's no excuse for printing scuttlebutt.
Perhaps Kos has access or knowledge of a story yet to come down the pike. If it's a story that confirms his allegations, I will sadly accept it and move from there. But if there is no story to come...I think what Kos has done is a violation of journalistic ethics.
Now, dKos is also a forum for opinion...and as it is his blog...there is no opinion more appropriate here than Kos' own.
Given that, I cannot believe that Kos would accuse another Democrat of anti-Semitism without hard evidence.
Kos has a bully-pulpit here....he sets the tone..and has created, in collaboration with other suberb writers...a front page of real value. There is no other dKos.
But with that bully-pulpit comes a responsibility....
I thought Kos took a brave stand last December when he advocated for focussing on Dean and Clark and staying positive...I disagreed with him...but I also incorporated his thinking in my approach to my postings.
I sincerely disagree with him now, and do not feel that common ground.
Now, perhaps, sadly, his allegations will be proven true...but until that time we are in a very upside down world here on dKos.
The front runner for our nomination...a man likely to win the majority of contests on 2/3...
has come under a cloud of unproven suspicion that would certainly affect his claim to the nomination, if not his Senate seat.
I think Kos owes his readership a much more thorough accounting of his reasoning...
and, ultimately, if his allegation cannot be proven...he needs to account to all of us for that too.
