As the curtain continues to be pulled back on the disaster for America created by right-wing conservatism, those with the will and strength to oppose it can expect to be mercilessly attacked. In six years running this nation, President George W. Bush and Virginia Senator George Allen, have consistently proven their priorities in this order: Conservatives, Republicans, Americans. In George Allen's priority list, Virginians follow somewhere after Americans and Iowans.
Jim Webb is the kind of candidate that comes along once in a generation. A man of pure integrity who puts America before all other concerns. Jim Webb is an American first, Virginian second, Democrat third. A man with his priorities in such absolute correct order will inevitably be assaulted from every direction, and there's no question why the most extreme right-wing reactionary conservatives have picked up Harris Miller's cause.
Today's vile smear was first heard from the likes of Alice Miller...erm Marshall, the unhinged coward who has blindly supported Harris Miller's candidacy even as Miller has been exposed over and again as Labor's worst enemy in the Democratic party. Alice Marshall has consistently supported the interests of Labor in the past, but her slavish devotion to Miller's candidacy has blinded her to the fact that he is the "Antichrist if you are an unemployed IT worker", and that the AFL CIO has labeled him a "Anti-Labor attack dog".
I opposed Alice Marshall when she came out with the attack of anti-Semitism against Jim Webb earlier this week. Marshall instantly pulled the story, but not before Virginia blogsphere's most reactionary conservatives picked up the anti-semitism ball and ran with it.
Here's Shaun Kenney, one of GeorgeBushAllen's most shrill proponents, who morphed Alice Marhsall's "anti-Semitism" into a charge of "jewbaiting" against Ben Tribbett [He's pissed!]:
So don't try to sell me on the idea that certain Democrats aren't trying to jewbait Harris Miller, or that certain people still don't hold those prejudices close to their heart (on both sides of the aisle). The insinuations and reminders to Democratic primary voters that Miller isn't one-of-us is symptomatic of the entire Democratic Party's approach to minorities -- and probably why minority voters have endorsed Miller in the first place.Jewbaiting Harris Miller -- the last desperate tactic of a desperate campaign. Democrats deserve better than a candidate who spits upon minorities in order to gain power.
"Democrats deserve better than a candidate who spits upon minorities in order to gain power." Imagine this coming from a supporter of George Allen. The same George Allen who decided to drive a Mustang with the Confederate flag painted on the bumpers in the 60's in southern California and who wore a Confederate flag pin in his high-school graduation photo. The same George Allen who voted against the Martin Luther King holiday, but voted for a resolution to memorialize the founder of the Massive Resistance movement in Virginia. The same George Allen who kept a Confederate flag and a noose in his law office. Hypocrisy, thy name is Shaun Kenney.
Knee-jerk reactionary follower Kilo, tries to take his few shots [here], claiming some kind of moral high ground. Kilo's a good guy, if badly misguided.
Both Kilo and Shaun Kenney have supported Harris Miller since the day Jim Webb announced his candidacy; levelling unsubstantiated attacks on Webb and making the deluded argument that Miller has a chance against Allen. Why? Because they LOVE GeorgeBushAllen and right-wing conservatism. Jim Webb can defeat George Allen in November and his web-based lap dogs will do anything to head off a direct confrontation between Webb and Allen.
This is classic smear politics that originated with Harris Miller's blog-pet, Alice Marshall. That Allen supporters are picking up this Rovian tactic and running with it only proves how deeply afraid the right wing is of a Webb Senate candidacy.
If Harris Miller ever held Democratic principles close to his heart, they were obviously stripped away in his years working as a lobbyist to smash labor. Make no mistake, any vote for Harris Miller is a vote for George Allen, George Bush and the right-wing conservatism that will destroy America if it is allowed to continue unabated. Why else would the most strident of Allen's supporters be taking their messaging so directly from the Miller's own?
[UPDATE: Jim Riley is playing the same game. It seems the entire Wingnut Blog Pyramid is suckling at the Karl Rove teet of campaign smear tactics.
Next thing we know Kilo and Kenney will be telling us Webb is Gay (but only after the primary).
I find this to be the ultimate insult, to manipulate fair play and a sense of equal opportunity to do precisely the opposite.
I also wouldn't be surprised that the Republican party pushes for Miller. No matter how the general election went in that case the corporations will still get their representative.
What kind of candidacy is that?
That's just disgusting to me that a Democrat will stop at nothing to win a primary when it's clear the only reason they are going to vote for him is to ensure a Republican win.
http://tomjoadsplace.blogspot.com/2006/05/update-parrots-for-dummies.html
The question becomes "Why do they care?". Shaun has told me on his blog that he doesn't intend to vote in the primary. He even thinks Miller is the strongest candidate. Why would he want the strongest candidate to win? Wouldn't it be better in his mind to have Webb win? Then why attack Webb? The logic is just dumbfounding at best.
It will only make us work harder....
*racism (e.g., the infamous "black hands" ad)
*anti-Semitism
*Bringing up Hitler and the Nazis (see Jerry Kilgore)
*Questioning peoples' patriotism
Disgusting.
By the way, I sincerely hope that the DSCC is calling Harris Miller and telling him that if he doesn't call off his attack dogs, his future in the Democratic Party as a smarmy lobbyist or anything else is TOAST.
Hi there. I hope this email finds it to the right person, and hopefully with your help, this horrible situation can be rectified.
As you probably know, VA is facing a HUGE Senatorial election. The main goal here is to beat George Allen, but lately, Harris Miller and his unprofessional staff have decided that winning the democratic party nomination on June 13, 2006 is important enough to attack and smear his fellow Democratic nominee in hopes for winning a primary and then winning the Senate seat. Recently, one of Harris Miller's staff members spun a story about a debate that took place between both James Webb and Harris Miller. The entire debate is available here: http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_051906_miller-webb_debate.3c0c1.html
Now, a few days later, the right wing blogosphere has turned their attack machine on James Webb (www.webbforsenate.com) bc in the interview, James Webb told Harris Miller (who at the time was attacking James Webb for past Republican alliances) that "he had quotes" from InfoWeek about an author who called him the "anti-christ" of outsourcing. This was a DIRECT QUOTE, but the Miller attack machine is now calling James Webb an Anti-Semite, and they plan on using this attack for the rest of the season until the primary.
Jim Webb has been endorsed by numerous national Democratic leaders, and I hope that he can win. However, he may not. But Harris Miller and his staff deserve to be reprimanded by higher-ups inthe party; if Dems ever expect to win, we must realize that this type of behavior is unnacceptable and will not be tolerated.
I hope you all can help us. Thanks for listening.
Jaime Petrasek
Research Analyst Assistant
VCU-Office of Sponsored Programs
(804)828-****
800 East Leigh Street, Suite 113
Richmond, VA 23219
I left out who Alice writes for and her name, and I also left out the author's name from the Infoweek article. Those points need to be addressed. Can anyone else find time to copy my email (or write your own) and send it with corrections and additions to info@dscc.org? Thanks guys. I'm telling you, if this makes it to MSM, we better be ready with talking points back.
That's not what troll ratings are for.
His slimey pro-offshore outsourcing and worker replacement activities just mark him as a sell-out to the transnational corporations. He doesn't have enough integrity to even be counted "conservative"; he's just a shill -- a hired gun with a puffed up self-importance belied by a career built on duplicity.
Anti-semitism as the last refuge of scoundrels? If Jewish people keep crying anti-semitism to escape taking responsibility for their actions then eventually people will stop paying any attention. That wouldn't be a good situation.
But now I'm beginning to think that the Miller camp, and perhaps Miller himself, did have something to do with it. After such an outrageous accusation, and the storm it's created in the blogosphere, Miller should want to publically distance himself from it. That is, unless he had something to do with it. The silence is damning.
Of course no one thinks there isn't real discrimination. But I myself have seen women misuse the claim in the workplace. It is the people who bring up the issue of discrimnation, anti-semitism, etc. when it is not warranted who discredit themselves.
I think it is up to Miller to denounced the person making these claims if he wants to people to believe he doesn't condon what they are doing.
Granted it would have been far less controversial (or more difficult for vile opportunists to misconstrue) had Jim Webb not used this particular term but he was accurately reporting what many union and non-union opponents of Miller really think of him. Miller is considered evil (sorry Scott Nolan) because he has done vile, despicable things... People have no intention of allowing his terrible past to remain unexamined in the wake of his recent "career makeover".
This is so similar to the Repo pretense of being "shocked and amazed" when John Kerry referred to Cheney's daughter in a debate ... puh-leeze.
Mary Cheney was out, out, out as Coors rep to the gay community. Then she was silent going into her pop's campaign to the point that satires were written using "Where's Mary Cheney?" on milk carton pictures.
And Miller is out, out, out as the hardest working guy in America when it comes to outsourcing jobs. Not to mention union busting. People have DIED because of both. So where were these trolls and their faux outrage over Kevin Flanagan?
As far as I'm concerned, their previous silence proves they are nearly as deceptive as either of their bosses. Someone genuinely concerned with the Antichrist term would have 1) raised objections months ago, and 2) cared enough to explain their viewpoint before pointing fingers and going into high-school-drama-class flunky mode.
Problem is that the entire jewbaiting/anti-semitism case is built around the use of the word "anti-Christ". Which, in and of itself and in the context it was used, is not a slander on Jews. I've asked a few people (completely outside the blogoshpere) who all saw no association between anti-Christ and anti-semitism.
This point has been made repeatedly on many posts, comments, and sites. Yet bloggers like Shaun and the rightwing crew continue to ignore it, instead choosing to exploit only twisted elements in order to support their true purpose - defeating Jim Webb.
If they were really offended by religious and minority attacks, they'd be going after Alice Marshall for trying to create sympathy and votes based on fabricated and dellusional religious bias.