DEM PRIMARIES BECOME OPPOSITION RESEARCH WAR (NYTimes via DRUDGE)

[RUexperienced]

Thu Jan 15 2003 21:07:11 ET

The "political black arts" -- those nasty tidbits that campaigns euphemistically call "opposition research" -- is at the center of an intense debate among Democrats this year, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in Page Ones on Friday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

How much of the research should be used?

And are inter-party candidates inflicting too much damage on each other, leaving the eventual nominee wounded and weakened for a showdown with President Bush?

At the center of the maelstrom, Democrats say, is a 36-year-old aide to Gen. Wesley Clark, "a frenetic, colorful and, some contend, devious" communications strategist named Chris Lehane, the TIMES will report.

Lehane, a veteran of Al Gore's 2000 campaign and the Clinton White House, has emerged as Clark's secret weapon.

Now, Lehane has become a target in a fight among Democrats about whether opposition research is going too far. With Clark rising in the polls in New Hampshire and Howard Dean facing a spate of negative news reports.

"He's doing what he does, and what he learned quite well in war rooms and hard-fought campaigns," said one Democrat who works for a rival campaign. "It's just that right now, he's doing it inside the family, as opposed to across the fence. And so it's received differently. He's spilling blood in our house."

Developing...


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Take it for what it is worth. But tomorrow's NY Times will have the whole story.

[NNN0LHI]

1. After seeing examples of Drudges work posted here recently...

...I think I could have lived the rest of my life just fine if we had waited a few hours for the actual NYT article before posting this story.

Don

[TrueAmerican]

2. Just like the Dean campaign to shake a finger

on another campaign for using tactics they used first. And now they are running to the NY Times.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[billbuckhead]

5. Dean started the civil war when he used the IWR as a wedge issue

Now that Dean's lost the momentum, his team is appealing to the referees on every play.

[Guaranteed]

11. I'm not appealing to any referees.

And I AM still using the IWR as a wedge issue. I STILL want a leader- someone who'll actually stand up for and represent us.

That's just me, though.

[KittyWampus]

6. Are You Implying That Dean's Campaign Isn't Doing Same?

Are you unaware of Trippi's history?

[mouse7]

16. I know all about Alan Cranston's attempt to buy a straw poll.

Cranston tried to illigitimately pack a straw poll with an overabundance of Cranston people by buying all the tickets, and Trippi just fought fire with fire.

[QC]

14. If you think that the Clark crowd has a monopoly on this, then please

visit a Clark endorsement thread and look at the reactions from some supporters of other candidates.

I have seen, in the past month or so, Andrew Young called an "Uncle Tom," Charles Rangel dismissed as an "old hack," Michael Moore labeled a nut, and Carville and Begala attacked as disloyal to the party, all for simply failing to line up behind a particular candidate.

It's sickening stuff, and quite routine here, though maybe the new rules will change that.

[mouse7]

17. Big difference between top staffer and supporters

Clark is paying Lehane a lot of money to do dirty tricks.

Candidate supporters can't be controlled. Tipper Gore told us that 15% of humanity suffers from serious mental illnesses. That means 15% of candidate's supporters have serious mental illnesses. Just how is a candidate supposed to control that? Especially in an America where between 1/3 and 1/2 of people have no prescription drug coverage.

That means...between 5 and 7 1/2% of candidates supporters are people with serious mental illness that are not taking prescription medication they should be. Now... how is a campaign supposed to control that (other than by fighting for better health insurance for all Americans)?

[progressivebydesign]

4. My dupe! oops!

posted twice.. sorry!!

[jpgray]

7. Hey check it out, it's encouraging negativity here even as it decries it

I'm sure that was an unintended consequence. :eyes:

[SadEagle]

8. Here is the times story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/16/politics/campaigns/16LEHA.html

Didn't read it yet, so no comment from me.

[demobandit]

9. Lehane is very famous for this..

When he is on our side he really comes through. Remember the Bush DUI charge 3 days before the election. That was supposed to be him all the way. There will be more dirt right before the Iowa caucuses and a couple days before New Hampshire

[mouse7]

10. Chris Lehane is the biggest jerk in American politics - now Clark pays.

He's already been dumped by the Kerry campaign. Clark picked him up as a free agent three months before Iowa because he's already burned all his bridges in one whole presidential campaign.

Now we find out Lehane was the source of the Lisa Myers "Dean tapes" from that Canadian public affairs show. I'm sure it was at Lehane's direction that it was edited out of Myers' story that Dean was talking about the causus process as a whole. That wasn't an attack. That was a fabrication. Myers took the uninteresting truth of Dean's dislike of caucuses compared to primaries, and made it an attack on the state of Iowa.

Well, if Clark allowed Lehane to unleash that complete fabrication into the news cycle, then Clark is not the principled person I thought he was. I can't support someone who would allow that kind of attack to enter the discussion, ESPECIALLY when CLARK IS NOT PARTICIPATING IN IOWA.

I said last week that Clark should never have hired Lehane. Now, Clark is gonna pay for it.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

12. No Proof at All, and Trippi Demolishes Any Right for Dean to Complain

What Trippi did to Alan Cranston is WAY worse than anything Lehane has been alleged to do, especially since Trippi admitted his crime and there's no proof Lehane has done anything bad in this campaign.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=85218

DTH

[RogueTrooper]

18. But that was twenty years ago

this is about the here and now.

[mouse7]

19. Psychic mouse7 bets there is a Cranston rant from the lowly ignored

Did I bend the spoon? Did I win a dollar?

Anyway... Alan Cranston tried to steal a straw poll. He tried to buy all the tickets and stuff the room with bussed in supporters. Trippi just swiped the tickets right back for the Mondale supporters.

[RogueTrooper]

20. I know about that

it raised smile, to be honest. Trippi is good at skullduggery, but unlike Lehane he has not made it his life's work.

[QC]

13. Got any evidence for that accusation?

I'm sure it was at Lehane's direction that it was edited out of Myers' story that Dean was talking about the causus process as a whole.

Lehane is now directing the network's news coverage? He tells Lisa Myers how to edit her stuff now?

That's a pretty serious accusation, so I'm sure you've got some evidence for it, right?

And honestly, if you think that pointing out an opponent's own words is a dirty trick, then just wait until this fall and see how ugly things get. This isn't Karl Rove's first time at the rodeo, you know.

[mouse7]

15. Yes I do... the way the story appeared as reported by Myers

If you look at the tapes alone, you only see Dean's preference of primaries over caucuses. It takes that special Lehane touch, and creative editing to get from what Dean said to an attack on Iowa.

As far as directing network coverage, it's clear that's what he was doing with the Kerry stories earlier in the article, anyway.