http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2010/01/ratfuckers-strike-again.htmlJanuary 26, 2010
Ratfuckers strike again...(updates)UPDATES AT BOTTOM
There is a pattern in far right politics that I have yet to see on the left, despite various levels of extremism on both sides. The right appears to have a pattern of Cold War type tactics when it comes to domestic politics, illegal surveillance of political opponents being one of the key features. Here is the latest:
"Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.
Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested in a car blocks from the senator's offices with a listening device. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents."
- snip -
Familiar, really. Let's look at Watergate in a brief nutshell:
"The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States in the 1970s, resulting from the break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C."
Just one example of the many break-ins across the nation during the 2004 election:
"Thieves shattered a side window overnight at Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo, stealing computers with sensitive campaign information and triggering concern of the local party's ability to deliver crucial votes on Nov. 2.
Among the data on the stolen computer of the party's office manager were: e-mails discussing campaign strategy, candidates' schedules, financial information, and phone numbers of party members, candidates, donors, and volunteers."
We can of course point to some break-ins and wiretapping of Republican campaign offices, but most of those cases have never been proved to have been carried out by Democratic operatives. Some of those break-ins and such turned out to have been carried out by Republican operatives in order to frame Democrats (See below).
That is not to say that Democrats don't use dirty tricks. All political campaigns resort to some less than savory tactics. What I am speaking of is more than just random dirty tricks. I am speaking of an organized, indoctrinated, even trained army of operatives that sees the political opponent as a domestic enemy and a campaign as all-out war.
Here is an excellent summation of the phenomenon:
"It’s been widely reported, for example, that Rove’s mentors in the College Republicans during the Nixon years included dirty-tricks maestros Lee Atwater and Donald Segretti. Newspapers have also reported that in 1970 Rove sneaked into the campaign headquarters of a Democratic candidate for state office in Illinois, filched campaign letterhead, and sent out fake fliers aiming to discredit the Democrat. In my own research on Nixon, I discovered that during Watergate itself, Rove used a phony grassroots organization to try to rally Americans to the president’s defense against what he called “the lynch-mob atmosphere created” by “the Nixon-hating media.” And according to Nixon’s former counsel John Dean, the Watergate prosecutor’s office took an interest in Rove’s underhanded activities before deciding “they had bigger fish to fry.”
Rove, moreover, is hardly the only link in the chain. Indeed, his youth outreach effort of 1972 had some success. A whole generation of conservative activists came of age in the 1970s either working for Nixon or, more commonly, voluntarily defending him on campuses and in political circles. His shame was their outrage.
These young conservative activists essentially endorsed the line that Nixon put out during Watergate— that “everybody does it.” They agreed that the president had to resign only because a double standard prevailed in the media and in Washington. Nixon’s dirty tricks, his efforts to politicize the civil service and discredit the media, and his willingness to use executive power for personal and political gain were really no cause for indignation. They were politics as usual."
The pattern that we see is a direct result of political training, Cold War style:
The aggressive tactics won the 22-year-old Rove a walk-on role in the Watergate saga that was consuming the nation. A report was published in the Washington Post on August 10, 1973, titled " Probes Official as Teacher of Tricks", gave an account, based on tape recordings, of how Rove and a colleague had been touring the country giving young Republicans political combat training, in which they recalled their feats of derring-do, such as Rove's Chicago heist at the Dixon headquarters. - snip -
The 1986 governor's race was a prime example. The contest between Rove's Republican client, Bill Clements, and the Democratic incumbent, Mark White, was neck and neck, when Rove announced he had found an electronic listening device in his office, and cried foul. The furore swung the election to Clements and to this day Texan Democrats are convinced Rove concocted the whole episode.
I am friends with Jim Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain and The Architect (in fact, I am in the acknowledgments of this one), and he, like many journalists I have spoken to over the years, believes that Rove bugged his own office as a frame-up.
Now imagine a Watergate corruption alumni like young Karl Rove, training a crop of young Republicans in illegal domestic political warfare. Then imagine this man acting as a consultant to elect certain candidates where this pattern of abuses seems to always occur. Now imagine this individual heading the RNC at the national level, training combatants, and then as a key adviser to the POTUS, issuing directives to those foot soldiers. This break-in is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger, more insidious political scandal: the recruitment and brainwashing of young Americans into political dirty tricks and illegal activity as part of a political Cold Civil War.
These operatives even have a name for such activity, one less polite than Cold Civil War: ratfucking. Here is an excellent overview of some recent examples.
Here is a brief definition of the term:
"Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All The President's Men.
Former Committee to Re-elect the President staffer Donald Segretti told the authors, during their investigation of activities leading to the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, of a program of orchestrated political sabotage by supporters of Richard Nixon against Nixon's political opponents. These included, but were not limited to, cancelling meeting-hall reservations just prior to rallies, releasing false press releases or 'leaked documents' in the name of political opponents, spying on rival campaigns, stuffing ballot boxes, ordering vast quantities of food for delivery in the name of rival campaigns, conducting deceptive or offensive get out the vote phone canvasses, push polls, and similar activities."
The crime which occurred today is not just a joke gone too far. These are educated young men. These are members of the College Republicans. These are intelligent and well brought up individuals who know what is legal and what is not legal. They knew what they were doing, because as political operatives, they were indoctrinated in this art of war.
UPDATE I noticed something odd. Earlier today I checked the Facebook pages of Stan Dai
and he had friends. I checked it about two hours ago, and all of his friends were scrubbed. So, did this guy delete all of his friends from jail or did he do this shortly after he got home. The question is why would someone just arrested on federal charges think that deleting his Facebook friends is a priority?
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