Beware the Red Herring.

[pinto]

red herring
n.

1. A smoked herring having a reddish color.

2. Something that draws attention away from the central issue.

From its use to distract hunting dogs from the trail.

Just my 2 cents, but Republicans own this ruse.

You knew that.

We need to ignore the bait and stick with the central issues.

[msongs]

1. what baits would those be? nt

[ClassWarrior]

11. "Plame sent Wilson!" "No, Cheney** sent Wilson!!"

When it's REALLY about deceiving the American people into sacrificing their children's lives for Halliburton's profits.

For instance.

NGU.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Care to explain your comments....

...or are we free to interpret them any way that we want?

[pinto]

3. I saw the RW brouhaha about MoveOn selling t-shirts, but they weren't and

then MoveOn had to respond....That's a red herring. The issue is Mr. Delay, not MoveOn.

The redirection of focus is a well played RW maneuver.

In this instance, whether MoveOn is selling t-shirts or lunch boxes or old Chevy's has nothing to do with the legality of the case against Mr. Delay. The red herring is the implication that it does...

[Walt Starr]

5. You are just SO WRONG! It had EVERYTHING to do with the proceedings

TODAY!

Today's hearing was only for the purpose of the two motions filed by DeLay's attorney. One for the change of venue and the other for the judge to recuse.

The argument over the judge recusing was predicated on the fact that the judge had donated money to Moveon and that was reason to recuse because Moveon had begun selling T-shirts with DeLay's mug shot.

This hearing would have had no plea entered by DeLay. This hearing would have no bearing on future proceedings other than venue and the judge presiding.

So saying that this was a red herring is just nothing more than a pile of steaming bullshit. It had everything to do with what was happening today, and what will be happening before another judge who will determine whther this judge must recuse himself.

[pinto]

7. I see your point. I think the argument was a red herring. And I think the

supervisory judge that determines the recusal motion will recognize that.

Judges in Texas are elected, no? And they belong to political parties. Donate to those parties. Donate to political enterprises. And are still expected, as part of their job, to be able to sit on a bench and be impartial, regardless of party affiliation.

I could be wrong, though.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. But it is a red herring.

Obviously so, because Moveon did no such thing.

It was a publicity ploy to say "hey! look at this! this is a partisan political trial! unfair! unfair!"

It taints the whole proceeding, because if Delay is convicted his supporters will believe the lie, rather than the truth of the conviction. He's setting himself up for martyrdom.

[ClassWarrior]

12. It's Public Campaign that's selling the shirts, by the way. Link...

...here: http://www.pcactionfund.org/tshirt

NGU.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. swiftboating of the Wilsons is going on now

big time

tweety is leading, or at least in the vanguard, of that attack

he keeps INSISTING, on his own, not in response to RW hack assertions, that Wilson claimed/claims that cheney personally sent him, a huge, festering, boiling pustule of a lie, that he's repeated at least seven times this week

[emulatorloo]

10. Note though that Tweety revealed and laughed at the latest RNC "poop sheet

faxed to him smearing Wilson --- see DU thread here:

Im gonna go find it --

ON EDIT: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5129803

[Gabi Hayes]

13. saw it, and wondered WHY he had to read the part about 'too many drugs'

he didn't have to read that, did he?

he may have laughed a bit, but the point is he got the meme out there, and let it drop immediately when Gergen called it pathetic

they spent a LOT more time defending pug positions and attacking Wilson

no matter what he does, I don't trust him

[stop the bleeding]

6. Maybe Syria? n/t

[liberal43110]

9. Please stop

What a complete waste of time. Instead of throwing out a cryptic one-liner, why not take a couple minutes to craft a reasonable post? Please don't waste everyone's time with this kind of nonsense.

[pinto]

14. Sorry. Republicans use a bait 'n switch PR campaign. Ask a question

and they roll out a "red herring" to sidetrack the discussion. Don't even have to ask a question to get the line, it's one of their primary PR tools.

ie - Question our involvement in the Iraq war, it's "why don't you support the troops", question our support of civil rights, it's "why don't you support family values", question the Administration's ethics, it's the "why do you engage in the blame game".

These aren't answers, or even an invitation for discussion. These are sidetracks we have to sidestep to keep on focus.

Sorry I wasn't more detailed in my original post.