Thursday, January 21, 2010

OOPS: OUR NEW TRUCK-DRIVIN' OVERLORD ENDORSES A BIRTHER

The man who's been declared the new Emperor of the United States, Scott Brown, has issued his first endorsement since his coronation, and it's a doozy:

Brown endorses birther for Congress

Sen.-elect Scott Brown has endorsed a candidate for Congress who has asserted that President Obama was born in Kenya rather than the United States, and who drew complaints from his neighbors during the 2008 presidential campaign for putting up signs on his property depicting Obama as Osama bin Laden.

The Salem News reports that the Brown campaign has issued a statement endorsing Republican lawyer William Hudak of Boxford, who hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. John Tierney, a Salem Democrat, this fall....


Back in November, it was reported that the signs on Hudak's property included

One large, roughly 6-foot-by-4-foot sign ... with words -- such as socialist, Marxist, and lazy -- surrounding [a] picture of Obama dressed as Osama Bin Laden….

(Excuse me -- "lazy"? Hmmm. Wonder if Hudak didn't know how to spell "shiftless.")



Now, if our side had every AM talk-radio slot in America and a 24-hour propaganda TV channel, this would be unavoidable news. Hell, if the Democratic Party had anyone other than Alan Grayson with even the slightest taste for partisan combat, this would be unavoidable news. But I bet it will slip by nearly unnoticed.

Want to know why prominent Democrats (Obama, Bill Clinton, Harry Reid, Tom Daschle) fall so far so fast in the modern era? It's because as soon as anyone rises to the top in the Democratic Party, the GOP message machine declares total war. No waiting around for a big scandal to emerge; instead, Republicans simply seize on anything -- anything and everything -- and hammer away at it until the prominent Democrat is tarnished. And then, if something big hits, or the public begins to sour on incumbents, the prominent Democrat is already the object of ridicule.

That's what needs to happen to the GOP's new "rock star." The election's over and Brown won? That's no excuse to stop running against him. Don't wait until he has to run again in 2012 -- start roughing him up now. And don't let up for a second. (You know that Karl Rove strategy of aiming your attacks at your opponent's strength? Pretty Boy Brown, right now, is the GOP's strength.)

Now, this has to be done right. Use the Republicans as a model on when to go sarcastic and when to go for a phony sense of more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger. Republicans are excellent at calibrating this -- sometimes they send Beck out there to cackle maniacally, other times they get some World War II veteran or Average Joe to lament how the values our Founders embodied have been, sadly, lost. I'd go the latter route on Brown-Birther-gate -- I'd ask Hudak's neighbors (who, it's reported, complained about his signs).

But whatever the approach, don't let up. This is an alley fight. The Queensberry rules don't apply.

(Via tc in comments.)

*****

UPDATE: Hudak is now denying he's a birther.

Brown is now denying the Hudak campaign's claim that Brown endorsed Hudak, while Hudak is denying Brown's denial.

Isn't there a story in this? Anyone?

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