Do you recall the now infamous Hitler ads that Jerry Kilgore ran against Tim Kaine last year? I'm sure most of us do. When we first heard about them there was genuine worry that they would hurt Kaine. Slick production made to look like the swift boat ads, a widow whose husband was killed in the line duty, and a reference to one of history's all time evil men.What happened? It didn't take long for people to realize that Kilgore had gone too far. These ads, associating Kaine with Hitler, were total crap. In the end, this sort of attack only highlighted Kilgore's character (or lack thereof).
And now Miller has been pushing these antisemitism charges against Webb. In the same vein as the Kilgore ads, this charge is complete crap and the vast majority of people will see right through it.
Here is Miller's "evidence":
1. The word Antichrist - utter crap. The percentage of people who think that using the word antichrist is antisemitic is extremely small. I'm surprised anyone would say that - but there is always someone who'll have an alternate version of reality.
2. The caricature of Miller looks "Jewish" with a hook nose and money. It looks like Miller. And Miller has lots of money. Is it antisemitic to make some appear as they are?
3. The cartoon itself looks like Nazi propaganda from the 1930s. Again, no. It looks like a cartoon.
So there's nothing to these charges. Webb supporters have known this from the day Alice Marshall first introduced these ridiculous allegations.
But now the rest of Virginia is seeing that they are crap as well. Just as Virginians quickly saw through the Kilgore ads, they are being to see through this garbage.
Larry Sabato on the matter
"I think that's a real stretch to call that anti-Semitic, and I'm not usually inclined to give candidates the benefit of the doubt"
Marc Fisher in the Washington Post
Obviously, the Webb folks deny any anti-Semitism, with good reason: It's a pretty big stretch to find anything anti-Jewish about the Webb flyer.
Almost anywhere in the blogosphere the charge is brought up, it's shot down. I wanted to provide a link to a post on yesterday's DailyKos, but it's been taken down (out of shame, I suppose). Obviously anyone who picks up on this story quickly figures out that they're wrong.
There are two differences between the Kilgore attack ads and these baseless allegations. First, the timing. Kilgore introduced his ads long before the election and there was time for people to really think about them. Second is that Miller made it personal.
Both of these make it less likely to hurt Miller before the primary. He can get attention quickly by screaming "antisemitism". How quickly the public figures out he's full of it will be key to this issue.
Mark Fisher wrote just yesterday in Low Blows and the Hook(nose) that "the Miller campaign has spent the better part of a week trying to get someone in the news media to bite on what a terrible slur the Webb flyer contains, and, finally, someone did."
The RTD had to be aware of this when they published their photoshopped version of the flier. Furthermore, Fisher took the time to show the flyer to 22 Jews and not a single one saw anything remotely wrong with it.
On the other hand, the RTD and others chose to ignore the blatant lies spread in the Miller campaign literature.
http://raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2834
Miller's campaign and the RTD are working against truth and against democracy. It's that simple. This is the same approach that Bush took by inventing anti-gay amendment news instead of addressing real issues faced by this country and the people who live in it.
I'm sure George Allen is loving this. Miller has been divisive from day one on race, gender, sexual orientation, and now religion and heritage. He is making a laughingstock out of Virginia and the Democrats here.
Lowell, you say that the timing may make it less likely to hurt Miller before the primary. Maybe so. But whatever the timing there is a price to be paid for promulgating division and hate. It's kind of like outsourcing though. That price is paid by the minorities across Virginia, and not by Harris Miller, who perpetrated it.
I don't give a rat's ass about Harris Miller's nose. But I care deeply about thousands of young Americans who are coming home without arms and legs. If they are coming home at all.
While it is demeaning and humiliating to do so, volunteers for Jim Webb at the polls may want to consider taking along a copy of the photo above and the flier so that voters with questions on this latest embarassment can be fully informed.