From time to time, we’ve seen reports about John McCain’s heartfelt intention to run an honorable, above-board campaign, focused on substance. McCain, we’re told, has no appetite for ugly campaigning, nasty attacks, guilt by association, and all of the untoward tactics that have come to dominate every election cycle.
It’s curious, then, that McCain has hired Tim Griffin. Bob Novak reports:
Indicating what lies ahead is the McCain campaign’s plan to bring in Tim Griffin, a protege of Karl Rove, who is a leading practitioner of opposition research — the digging up of derogatory information about political opponents. Although final arrangements have not been pinned down, Griffin would work at the Republican National Committee, as he did during Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.
Griffin’s name may sound familiar. First, Griffin was a key player in the White House’s U.S. Attorney purge scandal. Second, remember “vote caging”? Griffin sure does.
Greg Sargent has more, including a reminder of Griffin digging up old footage that wound up in an ad by the Swift Boat Vets.
Griffin tends to describe his own work in fairly bellicose terms. “We think of ourselves as the creators of ammunition in a war,” Griffin once said. “We make the bullets.”
Just another move from the always-honorable McCain campaign.
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Shields Up
I hope Obama is good with a slingshot.
I thought Tim Griffin had a date with a Grand Jury !
maybe next year.
Yeah, he worked out great with Fred Head campaign. Maybe he’ll make McBonkers hide out in Florida through Nov.
KKKarl Rove is dirty… and everything he touches is SUSPECT.
Now McCain is showing his true colors: that he’ll do ANYTHING to win.
“Creators of ammunition”? More like third world thugs.
StirFry @ 4:
The best Idiots money can buy
Griffen should have been indicted a long time ago. If half the Democratic leadership understood the agenda of these people, maybe something would be done to hold them accountable. I don’t think they understand how criminal this enterprise really is. Check your voter registration status in every state.
Remember what old white men did to young black men in the 1950s?
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Jo @ 9:
Spit it out Jo. What are you saying?
Let’s see how this plays out after Rove’s subpoena :-)
Welcome to the perfect example of Bushworld.
How insane is it that a guy they hand-picked to be an
attorney general is now being tapped to be the
party’s number one hitman, scumbag operator
for the upcoming election? Under what definition of
rational could that ever be okay with anybody?
According to John, if you’re a Republican, you don’t need to be vetted. It’s all part of the Republican ‘trust us, we know what we’re doing’ platform.
Without dirty tricks, lies, and graft, the Republican party has nothing. That is the only way they have ever won an election so they will continue to go back to that playbook. The defense to that offense is to be involved, understand their lies, shake them off and go to the polls in mass. There are always more reasonable Americans than there are 28%ers who are morons.
kasinca @ 14:
right you are. But the trick is(in this election) for people to stop with all the insults and attacks and for them to put their petty differences aside for a little while and VOTE !
so much for that civilized campaign mccain was saying he was going to run. oh, and his wife. you won’t see any of that stuff coming from their side, she said. oh well. he has not been consistent on anything else, why start now.
Ron @ 10:
The first time I felt really ashamed of my country was when I saw something tied to a tree. It was all burnt. It was a human being.I was in the back seat of a car my uncle was driving. Us kids were sick when he told us(he was a southerner), “That’s what happens to (the N word) when they get upity.” My mother was horrified when we told her and we left his house and she never talked to him again.
What I am saying is our country has a lot of hatred of anyone who isn’t white, protestant, and male. These haters will be riled up at the hateful ads coming out about Obama. The smear tactics. The fear tactics. I am afraid, seeing how the MSM is sucking up to McCain, that they will just add fuel to the fire by passing on gossip and lies as fact and news.
I pray I am all wrong about this. I would gladly be wrong, but I got an awful feeling in my gut that things are going to get really nasty.
The problem with us (progressives, Democrats, patriots) is that we think the rational matters to the powers that run world. That somehow this time it will be different with the Reichpublicans. It is astonishing to me that anyone is at all surprised by the madness of their full on assault on anything that isn’t them and their view of life. You all really need to read “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”
by Jeff Sharlet. Then start thinking about what you want to DO about it. Surprised squawking about how wronged we are is only going to get our heads chopped off.
The Crazy John McCain Song.
Listen to The Crazy John McCain Song or download it for FREE at http”//www.johnmccainusa.com/
THE CRAZY JOHN MCCAIN SONG
Lyrics by J.J. Spoons & Willie G. Smith
Music by Doc. “Skippy” McGhee
A Product of the Heartland.
Witten in Beautiful Akron, Ohio USA.
Recorded at Little Shack Studio, Okahumpka, Florida.
Mixed at Tall Tree Productions, Clarion, Pennsylvania.
Remixed at Big River Records, Joplin, Missouri.
McCain can’t take the heat associated with being endorsed by Hagee, so McCain dumps him. As the co-author of McCain-Feingold he can’t be seen to have his campaign staff full of lobbyists, do a bunch of them have to fall on their swords. I think it’ll be a main stream media issue if his campaign is tainted by people connected to either Bush/Cheney/Rove or Tom DeLay. I think this guy Griffin will be an issue, as will Rove, particularly if Karl is giving advice to the McCain campaign while the House Sergeant of Arms is hunting him down.
Turd Blossom’s protege? Does that make him a Dingleberry?
These being the operative words of course.
*
When mccain says he’s running a clean campaign it means he won’t dootie his pants.
Forget the fact that you have lost your job, your home, health insurance and pension plan. What you need to focus on america are the important things, like gay marriage and lapel pins. Good luck with that one this time around repukes!
And if the red state morons are dumb enough to buy it again, I may just have to move to Canada, or some other place where the totally stupid are not responsible for electing the totally corrupt.
“McCain, we’re told, has no appetite for ugly campaigning, nasty attacks, guilt by association, and all of the untoward tactics that have come to dominate every election cycle.”
Basically we can translate that into McCain not liking it when others call him out on his bullshit.
So with this move, McCain wants to sign on some big guns. Well, I got something to say about that. MY GUNS ARE BIGGER!
I would think that Conyers would have a subpeona waiting in the wings for Griffin.
“we make the bullets” this time around you’ll need more than bullets
what was the saying in the untouchables movie??
If he sends one to the hosital you send one to the morgue?
There will be dirty tricks in this election, after all they are rethugs,
Wasn’t Cindy McClain on TV a while back stating that her husband would run a clean campaign? That he didn’t believe in dirty tricks. If that video is out there somewhere it should be shown over and over and over. What liars they all are.
Ruthless People @ 21:
If that’s an annoying piece of shit,
YES
what else could he be?
hey, whatever you want to say about Rove, that bastard tricked a good number of Americans in 3 elections. So it will be interesting…not to mention scary…to see how the public at large responds to his BS this time around.
Look, we are the best at research, so what next? We go after the messenger(Tim Griffin) he’s fair game and all the while we keep the pressure on John McCain, its call a two sprong attack, but it has to be with the truth.
What’s the opposite of research?
Faking your way through
Than either blaming the University trained as being indoctrinated into liberalism
Or claiming education is overrated, and your’e self-taught by reading your way through one end of the library to the other?
Ruthless People @ 21:
I think I just found the name for any comic strip I’ll write/draw.