FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/- This Week: "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story" (90 minutes),
November 11th at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)
This week, as Barack Obama attempts to usher in a new era in American politics -- "post-partisan" and "transformational" -- FRONTLINE takes a look back at a master of the "old" politics: a brass-knuckled, blues-guitar-playing, political hit man who helped destroy several Democratic presidential hopefuls, inspire a generation of political operatives, and redefine the nature of the modern political campaign.
In "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story," airing this Tuesday night (check local listings), producer Stefan Forbes charts the meteoric rise and sudden demise of a man who was as admired as he was reviled for the campaigns he ran, and for the divisive, often racially-charged tactics he unleashed on the American public.
"Lee Atwater was part myth, part showman, and part political mastermind," says Karl Rove, whose ties to Atwater stretched back to the early 1970's when Atwater helped Rove steal the chairmanship of the College Republicans. "That was a pretty early lesson for Karl Rove from Lee," writer Joe Conason tells Forbes. "That you could play the hardest of hardball and get away with it."
"Here's this young kid from South Carolina without a real resume," recalls veteran Republican strategist Ed Rollins of his first meeting with Atwater during President Reagan's '84 election campaign. "He was fidgety, his legs -- everything -- moving. But there was something about his eyes. He had these piercing eyes. I've always thought, those are the eyes of a killer. This was someone who was going to get what he wanted."
In the last months of his life -- he died suddenly from a brain tumor at the age of 41-- Atwater reportedly had a religious awakening and was terrified of going to hell for tactics like the "Willie Horton" ad, which famously linked an African American convicted murderer to '88 presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis. But, as with many stories floated by Atwater over the years, producer Forbes finds that this one, too, wasn't entirely what it seemed to be.
So we hope you'll watch Tuesday night. And if you missed our recent broadcasts of "HEAT," "The Choice 2008" and "The War Briefing," you can view all three reports online at
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/view/Ken Dornstein
Senior Editor
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More about how the Lee Atwater Tactics actually hate and division where there often really was none before.
"You’ve got to be carefully taught...To hate and fear" The Republicans are doing that right now.The words are from the musical "South Pacific". I thought about them tonight during the discussion about the yelling out of "kill him" and "terrorist" at the McCain/Palin rallies.
It is not accidental at all. It is a tactic they have used for years. It is the legacy of Lee Atwater, featured in the new film, Boogie Man. It is the legacy of Atwater's protege, Karl Rove, and all the little Atwaters and Roves coming down the pike. They preach a message of fear and hate, and they are very open about it.
From South Pacific
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
That should make for some interesting viewing.
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