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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
08.08.2008
How the Progressive Left Also Fights Dirty, Really Dirty

Actually, I don't think the right has played as dirty as this. A Times article by Michael Luo this morning unveils a new netroots enterprise, Accountable America, the unabashed purpose of which is to terrify conservatives from giving campaign money to Republican causes and Republican candidates. It's actually ingenuous.

 

You get a list of past Republican donors and send each of them one, two, many e-mails with the explicit warning that contributing to conservative campaigns may be dangerous to the donor's health. Or, as Luo puts it, "The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure an watchdog groups digging through their lives." The letter will be in the mail next week. 

 

Perhaps the second move will be to the head of a horse in the bed of the recipients or, better yet, put a bullet in their knee-caps. These people call themselves "liberal" and are called "liberal" by others. But they are really fascists, using terror as a means to close people's minds and checkbooks.

 

I'd like to learn what my candidate Barack Obama thinks of his friends.

Posted: Friday, August 08, 2008 5:36 PM with 21 comment(s)

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teplukhin2you said:

Amen. Well said.

Almost makes you nostalgic for the smoke-filled rooms, parties dominated by professionals.

August 8, 2008 6:21 PM

teplukhin2you said:

Actually, in view of the fact that 501(c)4 donors' anonymity is protected by law, this effort seems more comical than sinister.

More Amateur Hour on the left.  Shades of MoveOn. Also Soros's ACT jokers from 2004.

August 8, 2008 6:28 PM

nbarry said:

Once again, the loony left is hellbent on making the right look rational.  I hope Obama has plenty of Advil on hand.

August 8, 2008 6:33 PM

dwleake said:

sheesh, a splinter group that hasn't done anything yet is labeled as dirtier than anything on the Right by trying to prevent the Swift Boating that's certainly on the way, and your headline implies that the whole Progressive Left fights "Really Dirty" (I guess Republican vote caging and other measures to prevent Democrats  from voting aren't really dirty) -- now I remember why I stopped reading this blog a long time ago

August 8, 2008 11:29 PM

rozenson said:

"His friends"? Really, "his friends"? I didn't know Barack Obama had anything to do with them. Or with MoveOn.org. Or with the netroots at all. I thought it was pretty well-established that Obama  has had a pretty distant relationship with the netroots.

I think it's also fair to say (echoing dwleake above) that purging thousands of eligible Democratic voters from the rolls in Florida in 2000 is worse than what Accountable America is doing now. (Not that the latter are doing anything particularly moral, but they are not physically depriving people of the right to vote.)

And what a relief that it was the NY Times who wrote the story! I guess Bill Keller forgot that he can only write stories favorable to liberals, right Marty and Tep?

August 9, 2008 3:17 AM

lymon1 said:

I've always hated the fact that donor info is so publicly available (though it was useful in confirming just how empty Marty's anti-Hillary talk was...I mean is -- he's still at it today I see).  Actually if the GOP was smart, they'd pretend to be far-left kooks and do more of this -- send letters to the neighboring addresses, people with the last surnames ("potential relative of -----").  More likely, soon Dem donors will be receiving the same kinds of threats.  

Obama "has a pretty distant relationship with the netroots" -- yeah, that must be why all those Hillary supporters were boycotting Daily Kos, Randi Rhodes is still on Air America, etc.  --  I hear McCain was a draft dodger too.  

August 9, 2008 9:53 AM

teplukhin2you said:

rozenson - I have great respect for Bill Keller. He was an outstanding foreign correspondent in Russia and So Africa IIRC, and he's done a pretty good job as editor. The NYT's OpEd page is kind of lame, but otherwise it's a great institution (ditto for WSJ). What's your point?

August 9, 2008 11:09 AM

roidubouloi said:

Just one more effort by Peretz to distract from the filth he heaps liberally on pretty much anyone who has an opinion that differs from his own.  Guilt by association in the 6th degree.  

August 9, 2008 11:34 AM

nbarry said:

What Accountable America is doing is worse than a crime, it's a blunder. Conservative bloggers saw through this ploy immediately and exposed their contradicting statements over their partisanship. Now Democrats will be tarred across the board over this fraud.  At least, no one can accuse Marty of denial in this case.

August 9, 2008 12:03 PM

cthulhu2008 said:

Libertarians are also the most fiersome hackers. If they want a war of digging through peoples lives they will get smashed by the anonymous army. If they ever sent me one of those the first thing I would do is hire a private detective to ruin their lives, secondly....

August 9, 2008 12:59 PM

cthulhu2008 said:

Actually, I would form my own group and we would money bomb for private detectives and then publish every single dirty detail of their lives on a foreign website.

If any of you Acountability America people are watching this post, here me now. If you so dare as to send me one of those letters I will make it my personal mission to destroy your life. I will not rest or tire until your reputation is ruined so that you cannot walk down your own street without a stare.

August 9, 2008 1:09 PM

mmathog said:

Yeah Peretz is totally right. The big problem of the last several years has definitely been 'leftist groups,' what with the crushed currency, skyrocketing energy prices, housing collapse, mayhem in Iraq, botched handling of a major natural disaster, congressional corruption not seen since the Garfield days, hollowing out of the middle class, increasing wealth disparity, environmental degradation, etc...

I definitely think his energy is well spent going after 'the leftists' (the extreme ones who most likely exist in his own head).

Yeah, and as for intensity, nothing really matches striking tens of thousands of Florida voters from the rolls, Bravo!

I think the only debate is whether this 'fight fire with fire' approach is the best strategic choice, I see legitimacy with both sides of that argument.

August 9, 2008 3:50 PM

teplukhin2you said:

It's not fight fire w fire, it's "fight fire with a circus clown fire brigade." They won't be _able_ to out anyone. The donors' identities aren't revealed.

August 9, 2008 5:52 PM

kbower said:

Did Mr. Peretz skip this paragraph in the Times article?

"Mr. Matzzie recently served as one of the leaders of Progressive Media U.S.A., a group that was intended to lead a left-wing media effort in the presidential election, but the group folded several months ago after it failed to raise enough money, partly because of signals from the Obama campaign that donors should not give to outside groups."

Obviously Obama does not consider these people his friends.  

August 9, 2008 6:19 PM

rozenson said:

Lymon -- Peter Beinart wrote an article last year I believe chronicling the tepid support for Obama by the netroots and his halfhearted attemps to court their support, if we can even call it that. Search your old copies of TNR.

Tep -- my apologies, I assumed you disdained the Times. I won't happen again.

Kbower is absolutely right. Obama has tried to keep everything within his own campaign, which is why his coordination with MoveOn has been nil.

August 10, 2008 12:20 AM

elliesch said:

MMatog drove so far around Peretz's point  with this statement he got lost:  "Yeah Peretz is totally right. The big problem of the last several years has definitely been 'leftist groups,' "

Assuming for the moment that  the "Progressive Left" actually is responsible for this threat, then it should be recognized exactly for what it is.  That is the only point. One other point may be whether a left ist group really choose to do something this counter-productive.

August 10, 2008 3:02 PM

elliesch said:

Marty would like to learn what his candidate Barack Obama thinks of his "friends".  His candidate is certainly not going to approve, now, is he?  That would hand over the election instantaneously. So there's the answer in a nutshell (no pun intended).

August 10, 2008 3:11 PM

elliesch said:

Marty would like to learn what his candidate Barack Obama thinks of his "friends".  His candidate is certainly not going to approve, now, is he?  That would hand over the election instantaneously. So there's the answer in a nutshell (no pun intended).

August 10, 2008 3:11 PM

mmathog said:

I just think elliesch that calling out an excoriating strains of leftist opposition is s a weird thing for Peretz to spend his time on, considering lately who has actually wielded power, and what that leadership has wrought.

August 10, 2008 3:30 PM

elliesch said:

First, I have NO idea how one of my posts cloned itself. Sorry.

Mmathog, sure, I realize that. "But it just seems to me that what the  far left has done (if it is truly the left doing this) ought to be specifically  commented upon, because of the extreme seriousness involved.  I am now just wondering whether some commenters actually don't see that. So I took your post that way--that it is all so "who cares " for you that you chose to wonder about Peretz and not about the substance of what he was writing about. Hope I'm wrong.

August 10, 2008 6:49 PM

icarusr said:

"It's actually ingenuous."

Ingenuous: n., artless, guileless, innocent, naive, natural, simple, unaffected, unsophisticated, unstudied, unworldly.

Or do you mean "ingenious"?

I mean, if you're casting aspersions, might as well choose the right insult, eh?

August 11, 2008 10:17 AM

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