OK, who does NOT believe Rove Photoshopped the "Retarded" flyer?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

"Bush 'Retarded' Ad Causes Firestorm"

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135569,00.html

What some might consider an offensive political flier has caused quite a stir.

The ad shows a photo of a Special Olympics athlete running a race. Superimposed over his face is President Bush's. On the flier is the text: "Voting for Bush is Like Running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded."



Copies of the flier were said to have been found in the office trash of Tennessee state Democratic Rep. Craig Fitzhugh. Fitzhugh denies the allegation.

"First of all, it wasn't in my headquarters, it was in the local Democratic headquarters that has other candidates there as well, and we don't know who left the flier there," Fitzhugh told FOX News on Friday. "We do know that the volunteers in the campaign headquarters took it out on the street in a city-owned trash container and threw it away," he added, "and shortly thereafter a gentleman came by and retrieved it and took it to headquarters, and that's when it was distributed worldwide over the Internet without checking with anybody, and that's when I was accused of having something to do with it.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Any dem strategist with half a brain...

...wouldn't create and distribute such a weak and stupid flyer.

i.e. Rove did it... :thumbsup:

[trumad]

2. From Josh Marshall

Karl trying it out in the minors before taking it to the bigs? I think we may have our first find for Karl Rove Dirty Tricks Watch (KRDTW).

In Josh Green's article in the current Atlantic Monthly, there's this passage ...

A typical instance occurred in the hard-fought 1996 race for a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court between Rove's client, Harold See, then a University of Alabama law professor, and the Democratic incumbent, Kenneth Ingram. According to someone who worked for him, Rove, dissatisfied with the campaign's progress, had flyers printed up—absent any trace of who was behind them—viciously attacking See and his family. "We were trying to craft a message to reach some of the blue-collar, lower-middle-class people," the staffer says. "You'd roll it up, put a rubber band around it, and paperboy it at houses late at night. I was told, 'Do not hand it to anybody, do not tell anybody who you're with, and if you can, borrow a car that doesn't have your tags.' So I borrowed a buddy's car down the middle of the street … I had Hefty bags stuffed full of these rolled-up pamphlets, and I'd cruise the designated neighborhoods, throwing these things out with both hands and literally driving with my knees." The ploy left Rove's opponent at a loss. Ingram's staff realized that it would be fruitless to try to persuade the public that the See campaign was attacking its own candidate in order "to create a backlash against the Democrat," as Joe Perkins, who worked for Ingram, put it to me. Presumably the public would believe that Democrats were spreading terrible rumors about See and his family. "They just beat you down to your knees," Ingram said of being on the receiving end of Rove's attacks. See won the race.

Now, look what's turned up in Tennessee. Steve Clemons has the details.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_10.php#003688

[Shopaholic]

3. Lee Atwater will never die as long as Rove is alive

fucker learned everything he knows from Atwater--may he rot in hell where he no doubt is.

[gratuitous]

4. Rove did a very similar thing in Alabama

I think Kos has the story. Tight race, down to the wire and election day approaching. Rove produced a really nasty bit of personal, below-the-belt scurrility against his own candidate and distributed the flyer all over swing neighborhoods. His operatives were strictly ordered not to be seen passing out the flyers, not to hand them personally to anyone. The flyer was so mean-spirited, it won a certain sympathy vote for Rove's candidate, and he won.

This looks like the same modus operandi.

ON EDIT: Nope, it's Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. Thanks to Matcom.

[vivalarev]

5. I dont care who made it....

its funny as hell!!!! and 100% truth.

[Lefty Pragmatist]

6. Oh please.

I'm amazed nobody has mentioned that this image has circulated the net now for at least 10 years. I've seen it hundreds of times with dozens of different tag lines. The classic is "fighting on a discussion board is like competing in the Special Olympics..."

Is anybody dumb enough to believe this originates with either the Kerry or Bush campaigns?

[bacchant]

7. Saw it a few weeks ago with a slightly different message and no Bush head.

It probably didn't come from a campaign, but it could easily have been made by a dem. I've seen, and loved, much nastier stuff made right here in DU. No big deal.

[Mabus]

8. If it were a Dem...

the shirt would have a 41 one it, unless 197 is the combined IQ of the Bush family sans Neil (which would have resulted in a lower number).

[bacchant]

9. Heh, good point; the 43 would have been a good touch. n/t

[Longhorn]

10. What they don't understand is that Democrats wouldn't do something

like that. We care about people, ALL people. That's what our party is all about. But because republicans use people to their own advantage, it doesn't occur to them that only other republicans would believe such a trick.

It's like trying to trick others into believing a vegetarian stole and ate the ham!

[cali]

14. I don't know how to say this

without being rude, but that's just bullshit. There are idiot and thoughtless dems out there too. To misquote Voltaire: This is not the best of all possible worlds. Being a democrat doesn't indicate a halo above one's head. If it was done by a dem, it looks like it was quickly caught and vetoed, and that's good. Personally, unlike others who've posted on this thread, I don't find it in the least bit amusing. It';s hurtful and crass.

[Longhorn]

16. I would not consider anyone who would do such a thing a Democrat.

There are people who believe in the ideals and those who just claim the name. I was referring to the former in my previous post.

[dqueue]

11. rove...

rove probably created it, and he firmly believes it! But, princess georgie is rove's little retard...

<sick of it all>

[LoZoccolo]

12. I don't.

People pass stuff like this around all the time. You see stuff like that here! The real issue is their making it seem like some sort of official party thing when it really was just some joke people passed around.

[gatorboy]

13. Of course it's a bullshit story!

Can they find a single person that actually recieved one of the flyers from a Democrat?
I don't buy it. They planted them. If they were being handed out and someone turned theme in, it would be a different story but that's apparently not the case...

[demwing]

15. Actually, I've seen that before

but I can't recall where. It was not more than a year ago, though, and it was somewhere online.

I don't believe Rove created it, but it was probably planted.

[MADem]

17. Oh fachrissake!!!

Did they dig up gay, dead old Sir Alec Guiness to "alert the media?"

PLANT, PLANT, PLANT!!! This is a MANUFACTURED STORY, full of FAUX outrage. Please, if that's all they got, they got problems....