Dirty tactics in the presidential race

[hot_pastrami]

It seems that with each election, the members of political parties are willing to stoop to lower and lower levels to sabotage their opponents. Take a recent incident in Las Vegas, for example:

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at Democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

Or this one, where Sinclair Broadcast Group is trying to use their widespread exposure to push their political views:

The Democratic Party and 18 senators are seeking a pair of federal investigations into Sinclair Broadcast Group's plans to preempt network primetime programing on its 62 TV stations nationwide later this month to air a documentary critical of Sen. John Kerry's antiwar activities.

The Democratic National Committee plans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that alleges that the documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" is an illegal in-kind contribution to President Bush's campaign. Many of the stations the Baltimore-based company owns are in critical "battleground states."

Both major parties are guilty of this to one degreee or another. What other such dirty tactics have you read about, by members of either party?

[glatt]

Depends on your definition of "dirty."

The Republican election officials in Florida tried to cut thousands of Demoratic voters from the voting lists because they had been convicted of felonies, but they refused to let the media see the list to make sure it was accurate. Then when they were sued by the media to make the list public, they fought in court to keep the list of purged voters secret. Is that dirty enough for you?

Turns out they lost the suit, the list became public, and the media found that it was full of tons of errors, so it was thrown out. All this took place this past summer.

On the Colorado state level, the sole democratic elected representative from El Paso County, Michael Merrifield, has been the target of one of the most nasty, slanderous, character assasination attacks that I ever have ever seen. The state Republican party has sent out mailings depicting Merrifield as standing behind prison bars when in fact he has never broken any laws or even been charged with any instance of wrong doing - certainly he has never been sentenced to jail. The whole thing is based on the fact that some realtor donated Merrifield the use of a small cottage (about 500sq feet) which is situated on an alley, back from the main street, for use as a neighborhood outreach center for Merrifield's constituents. Merrifield neglected to note this down among his list of official campaign contributers (value roughly a whopping $145.00/mo). This oversight was corrected by Merrifield within a month of his having made the minor book-keeping error. This hasn't stopped the Republican party from sending out the mass mailings depicting Merrifield standing behind prison bars. "We didn't know he would correct the book-keeping error," whined one Republican in the party's main headquarters in Denver. "The mailings had already gone out and you can't stop the US Postal Service."

Yeah, neither rain nor snow nor dark of night will stop the Republican Party from stooping as low as a snake's belly and further disgracing itself in the eyes of the world.

[alphageek31337]

Max Cleland (D, GA), got compared to Saddam Hussein for not voting for a Homeland Security bill that had a rider that would take away benefits from an insane number of government workers. Also, during the Republican primaries in 2000, Bush people started a calling campaign in South Carolina to remind everyone in South Carolina that John McCain has a black baby. Not that it matters, but the truth is that he adopted a baby from Bangladesh.

[Cyber Wolf]

They're both absolutely filthy. I really don't see why people let themselves get whipped into a creamy froth over whatever 'big news scandal' is coming out. No one is perfect, no matter what political party colors he's got painted on his face, no matter his public profession of faith, no matter his intentions or his ability to plan and lead. If the DNC and RNC can get PAST that, I think we'd all be better off.

[Happy Monkey]

Of course both parties have their dirty tricksters - but this time 'round, the Republicans have been by far the most egregious offenders.

[hot_pastrami]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

No one is perfect, no matter what political party colors he's got painted on his face, no matter his public profession of faith, no matter his intentions or his ability to plan and lead.

No reasonable person expects perfection in government leaders, in fact one of the contributing virtues to perfection is "not a polititian." But reasonable people DO expect at least an average level of intelligence, morality, honesty, and integrity. What's unfortunate is that have to keep lowering the bar because none of the people running can reach it. The result is a government full of immoral, self-serving bullshit peddlers. And the guys with integrity and honesty don't want to be anywhere near them.

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Of course both parties have their dirty tricksters - but this time 'round, the Republicans have been by far the most egregious offenders.

Agreed... the Republicans are being particularly nefarious on this go-around.

[Kitsune]

The Democratic National Committee plans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that alleges that the documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" is an illegal in-kind contribution to President Bush's campaign.

I haven't read up on this too much, but how is this any different than Fahrenheit 9/11?

[hot_pastrami]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

I haven't read up on this too much, but how is this any different than Fahrenheit 9/11?

It's different because Sinclair Broadcast group is forcing all of their affiliates to air "Stolen Honor" a few days before the election, pre-empting all other programming, even in swing states. The affiliates have no choice in the matter. And Sinclair is considering categorizing it as "news," to avoid laws which require them to give balanced treatment to the presidential candidates. Nice, eh?

Fahrenheit 911 may become available on Pay-Per-View before te election, but that's a different thing.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

I haven't read up on this too much, but how is this any different than Fahrenheit 9/11?

a) Viewers pay to see F911, the Swift Boat Ad is being shown on network TV.
b) It is being shown within the restricted ad window - even ads for the F911 DVD no longer feature images of a presidental candidate.

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by hot_pastrami

What's unfortunate is that have to keep lowering the bar because none of the people running can reach it.

I think that you have it backwards. The bar isn't getting lowered. There are, somewhere, politicians who aren't willing to sell their soul to achieve their ends, it's just that if you aren't willing to sell your soul you can't get anywhere in politics.

It's not a question of standards as much as a question of what is a successful political animal and what is not.

Ethics and morals vs political and personal agendas.

No successful politician is trustworthy except when you are counting on that person to do what is in their best interests.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by hot_pastrami

No reasonable person expects perfection in government leaders...

True, but reasonable people are all too often in short supply.

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

No successful politician is trustworthy except when you are counting on that person to do what is in their best interests.

"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."...like run for public office.
-Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

[smoothmoniker]

I've said it many times before: Hold your principles tightly, your issues loosely, and your candidates (or party) in contempt.

I suppose the reason I am so enraged over the slanders the Republicans are sending Merrifield's way is because I know him personally, and he's a decent human being who makes every effort to be there for his constituents. When speaking of last's year's Colorado State Legislature session he told me, "The whole exercise made me so sick at heart that I had to go off alone into the mountains for a month to heal my soul." God help us all if that's what serving in one of our governing bodies does to a good man.

[wolf]

There is an upcoming showing of Stolen Honor in a theater here in the Philadelphia Suburbs (The Baederwood in Jenkintown).