Patriot Project writer exposes right wing smears of Jim Webb

[beachmom]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/a-smear-attack-on-james-w_b_30598.html

In the last few days there have been accusations from several sources that Virginia Senator George Allen has a serious race problem. Of course this hit the news when a videotape surfaced showing Allen calling a brown-skinned man “Macaca” and saying to him “Welcome to America” (the man, unlike Allen, was born and raised in Virginia). But more recently there have been accusations of regular use of the “N-word” racial slur as well as a charge by two people that Allen placed a severed deer head in the mailbox of “the nearest black person.”

If you have been reading Patriot Project you know how these kinds of things are handled: Accuse the accuser. A strong attack “provides cover,” deflecting attention from your own problems. And today, the day after new racial charges surfaced against Sen. Allen, we see exactly that. From WUSA TV 9 News Now in Washington, DC, comes: More Racial Accusations in Va. Senate Race,

"A Vietnam vet who interviewed U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb for a newspaper article in 1983 says the Democrat told him of college pranks he took part in 20 years earlier in which racial epithets were used and guns pointed at African Americans on the streets of Watts.

Dan Cragg, who later worked with Webb at the Pentagon during the Reagan Administration, says Webb's account is missing both from the tape recording and transcript of his interview with the rising star among Vietnam veterans. Cragg says he doesn't remember if he erased that part of the tape or failed to record that part of the interview."



He goes through who this Cragg guy is and the way the charges were in the WP (outrageous!) and how the virus spreads through conservative outlets. He even links to that Chesapeake idiot (that's the town next door to me). For some reason that freaks me out, that these people are everywhere, and on a normal basis don't seem like bad people, but then they pull these smear tactics. Anyway, read the whole thing. The Patriot Project is doing a great job. I'm not sure if Allen is going to go after Webb's Vietnam record. So far nothing.

[blm]

1. Give GD a heads up and remind them how Patriot Project IS working.

.

[beachmom]

3. Done. Plus I put it on a local Virginia blog, too.

Maybe some of them will consider supporting somebody other than Warner in '08.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2268827

[whometense]

2. Wonderful!!

Did you see Countdown last night? David Schuster did a stellar report on the latest Allen "n-word" news, and refused to talk about the charges against Webb. He said he would not give them any credence whatsoever until they were substantiated. He said he'd contacted the guy who made the accusation (about Watts in the 70's) and the guy didn't call him back.

It sure smells. And I'd hope other self-identifiesd" take note. Schuster is a real journalist who doesn't give air time to empty smears.

[ProSense]

4. Excellent!

The article gives a perfect example of a bogus claim being pushed to create doubt.

[sandnsea]

5. "Dykeworth"

Did you guys see the post in GD that they're calling Tammy Duckworth "Dykworth". We need to be a broken record on the kinds of slurs these people use.

I do not think ANSWERING this crap, charge by charge, will ever work. We have to go ater the tactic and how they just slur people, time and time again. We have to get people to the point they ASSUME Republicans are lying and only then will we have time to answer these charges with either the facts or an apology. As long as people are inclined to believe Republicans are honorable and tell the truth, we'll always be vulnerable to smears.

[beachmom]

6. Lowell at Raising Kaine just promoted my diary to the main page!

I'm thrilled to pieces. Now all the Virginians will know that JK has got Jim Webb's back!!

http://www.raisingkaine.com