What Do You Think of Campaign Spies?

[slinkerwink]

it's here at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/politics/campaigns/23TACT.html?pagewanted=1

Spies Follow Hopefuls in Search-and-Destroy Mode
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: November 23, 2003

ANOVER, N.H. — A largely student crowd had gathered here at Dartmouth College to see Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential contender. And Robin Liss, young and casual, blended right in. But when most people in the audience applauded Dr. Dean, Ms. Liss did not. And when they leapt to their feet to cheer him on, Ms. Liss remained seated.

Ms. Liss works for Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is struggling to stop Dr. Dean's apparent surge in New Hampshire. On this day in mid-November, Ms. Liss, who is Mr. Kerry's deputy press secretary, was tracking Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, monitoring his every word for potentially controversial statements or inconsistencies.

After Dr. Dean's speech, she joined a scrum of reporters around the candidate, tape recorder in hand. She then ferried the tape back to Kerry headquarters where it was transcribed and examined for useful snippets.

Turnabout, of course, is more than fair play in politics. It is necessary. Shortly after the Dean event in Hanover, Senator Kerry was campaigning in Concord, at Veano's Italian Restaurant. Who was by his side? Sidd Pattanayak, an intern from the Dean campaign.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

to be continued at this link:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/politics/campaigns/23TACT.html?pagewanted=1

I think campaign spies are necessary in the campaign. Do you know if Clark's possibly employing any spies?

[dsc]

1. They are public events

as long as they listen, and don't disrupt events, I see no problem. How else can campaigns know what other candidates are actually saying?

[Scott Lee]

14. The candidates should know who the moles are, even point them out

It would have been hilarious, for instance, for Dr. Dean to have acknowledged Ms Liss from the Kerry camp to his speech - maybe made some funny crack about her presence.

Very definitely, one job of a candidates "spies" should be to point out those of other camps.

[SahaleArm]

18. That could lead to some ugly publicity spin.

Spy says: "I was just trying to see if Candidate X was the right person for me, why did he attack me? Candidate X is a mean person".

[slinkerwink]

23. I think not because her name was mentioned in the NYT article...

so it can't be spun that way.

[mark0rama]

16. There is spying, and there is competitive intelligence

Attending a public event isn't spying. Infiltrating they opponent's camp by going undercover as a volunteer is spying.

I find only the latter unacceptable.

[Cha]

2. I don't know if I would call them "spies" as much as

"operatives"...to me "spies" denotes that no one knows who they are. And these people are visible.

I do think they are necessary because otherwise how would you know what the other campaign is doing? But they better not try any dirty tricks.

[JohnKleeb]

4. operatives and spies same category IMO

:shrug:
and by dirty tricks what do you mean :evilgrin:, sorry if this was lounge material the joke would be better. I dunno about spying honestly, sounds a little bit :shrug: I dont know.

[Cha]

9. Merriam-Webster's definition for

"spies" " to watch secretly usually for hostile purposes

"operative" "producing an appropriate effect"

These were the first definitions for both words.

[JohnKleeb]

11. well I catgorize the same way

A spy IMO is a type of operative. Now we could use our efforts to spy on the Bush campaign although I think I would give my self away lol, I was "training" a friend to act like a winger it was hillarious, the reasoning for against abortion and for a military spending increase were great.

[blm]

3. Wasn't there a recent dustup with a Dean spy disrupting a Gephardt

event? He later said he was the one harassed.

Interesting that Kit Seelye wanted to make Dean out to be the victim here. Just like she made Bradley and then Bush out to be Gore's victims.

[slinkerwink]

5. are you saying that Kit Seelye is a Dean sympathizer?

:snort:

[dsc]

6. Your computer must have editted this from the original post

Turnabout, of course, is more than fair play in politics. It is necessary. Shortly after the Dean event in Hanover, Senator Kerry was campaigning in Concord, at Veano's Italian Restaurant. Who was by his side? Sidd Pattanayak, an intern from the Dean campaign.

You really should replace your computer as it seems to never show you the entirety of what is posted or written on sites.

It should also be noted that we still have no definative answer to what happened at that event.

[blm]

15. Nope. I read it. But, the overall tone

of the article portrayed Dean more as victim than perp.

[CWebster]

7. What ever gave you that idea?

;-)

[tom_paine]

8. As usual, that clowing clown Kit Seelye delivers a lopsided view

Kit Seelye is a Bushevik Media Whore (no disrepect to actual prostitutes), bought and paid for.

So of course her story would include not a whiff of Bushevik infiltration activities, which are legendary and go all the way back to Luci "the Bat" Goldberg infiltrating the McGovern campaign.

But Clowning Clown Kit wouldn't piss off her Bushevik Masters by naming Bushevik operatives or even taking a look at Uncle Karl's Dirty Tricks Operations.

We all owe a great debt to The Daily Howler for exposing Bushevik Whore Seelye and the rest of the Clowning Clowns.

Here's some samples...

http://www.google.com/custom?q=Seelye&cof=AH%3Acenter%3BAWFID%3Ac32a032061318778%3B&domains=dailyhowler.com&sitesearch=dailyhowler.com

And whatever efforts are being made by Democratic campaign spies, peel a couple layers of ethics, morality, conscience and shame to find out what the Busheviks are up to (not that such information would ever make it into Clowning Clown Kit's articles).

Remember Nixon and his band of Dirty Tricksters, one of which was a young Karl (Goebbels) Rove? Whatever they were doing then, you can bet your ass they are doing now AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

[Cocoa]

13. my thought exactly

thanks for the link to the Howler.

She puts the GOP stuff as an afterthought, even though they should be the main story.

I saw Edwards call out a GOP infiltrator on C-span. It was awesome, he tore him a new one. It was funny too, because just by looking at him you could tell he was a republican.

[phaseolus]

10. Game theory...

...would tell us that any candidate *not* using spies would be at a disadvantage. Regrettably, part of the fabric of modern campaigns, I suppose.

Using moles is IMO beyond the bounds of good sportsmanship, if I may wish for such a thing in a campaign. (I can only imagine the different reactions to two hypothetical situations -- a Democratic mole caught within the Bush campaign, a Republican mole caught within the Democratic nominee's campaign... I can also imagine a quintessentially Rovian trick: Repug mole at fairly high level in a Democratic campaign recruits some patsy, sending him or her into the Bush campaign, where he or she is discovered, resulting in a probable repug propaganda victory.)

[oasis]

12. Lucianne Goldberg could write a book about it.

She was a spy in the 70's and her protogee, Linda Tripp, was a pip in the 90's.

Note: These two are Scaife-types whose activities are exceptionally repulsive.

[TSIAS]

17. Hi

Per DU copyright rules, please post excerpts of 4 paragraphs or less from published articles.

Thanks,
Taylor :)
GD Moderator

[slinkerwink]

19. okay, I'll edit it if the time rules doesn't go out

[mikehiggins]

20. Yo, Slinky

I think your guy has a lot more to worry about than Wes Clark. If Dean doesn't go into the convention with all the delegates he needs to take it on the first ballot, it will be quite interesting to see how it all turns out.

[arewethereyet]

21. its part of the game, watcha gonna do ?

n/t

[demsRus]

22. It's Catch-22, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Like CFR

Campaign Finance Reform. The pukes badger us all the time about fundraising and they do so with great success. It is rarely if ever reported that their primary fundraising is 3 times more successful than Democratic Party fundraising but to hear them on all the newscasts the Dems are just sopping up the money. Funding and intercamp intelligence are absolulely necessary in any successful campaign.

[BiggJawn]

24. And this is worse than Donna Brazille chatting with her "Old Friend"...

Karl Rove during the Gore campaign?
I couldn't believe it but there it was. her talking about how karl and her went WAY back, and she called him almost daily to "See how things were going"

Between her and Terry Mac, we don't need anymore "spies" in the DNC....

[Feanorcurufinwe]

25. I'd do it if they'd give me a shoe phone.

Operator: "What number are you calling?"
Smart: "I'm calling Control, Operator…"
Operator: "You have dialed incorrectly. Give me your name and address and your dime will be refunded."
Smart: "Operator, I'm calling from my shoe!"
Operator: "What is the number of your shoe?"
Smart: "It's an unlisted shoe, Operator!"