Was Braun an early victim of current Republican smear tactics?

[Pale Blue Dot]

She lost her bid for re-election in Chicago thanks in large part to allegations of fraud and mismanagement of funds. However, she still passionatly denies the charges, and is willing to document her innocence. From a Christian Science Monitor profile yesterday:

To this day, on the campaign trail, she carries an inch-thick dossier, one that she says outlines and discounts each charge of mismanagement and misuse of funds. ''Have at it,'' she says, pushing the folder across the table. Her dogged self-defense leads some to suggest that the real reason she's running is just to clear her name. It's a charge she hotly denies.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-braun26.html

She also has posted documents on her website from an FEC audit to prove that there was no fraud:

http://carolforpresident.com/content.php?page=newsroom_justthefacts&mode=print

All of which leads me to believe that she may have been the victim of a Republican smear campaign of the type that was recently tried (and failed) in Philadelphia.

I would be interested to know the opinions of Illinois DUers on this.

[wndycty]

1. Put it this way. . .

. . .if Carol Mosely Braun were a white male Illinois would have two Democratic senators. Her biggest problem as a senator was that she forgot that she was not like her peers. She made some questionable moves as a senator, but she did nothing wrong. She looked at how her peers conducted themselves and thought she could carry on the same way.

[Beaker]

3. bullshit.

she wasn't a white male when she won her first term.

and if what you contend is true, please explain why Dan Rostenkowski lost his Congressional seat to an unknown republican who lived in his mother's basement?

CMB lost her senate seat because of her own actions during her term.
she has nobody to blame but herself.

[wndycty]

4. The same actions that Jesse Helms got away with.

. . .please tell me how Rosty and CMB are the same. CMB was never charged of any wrong doing. Rosty was.

[Beaker]

6. you said that if she were a white male, Illinois would have 2 Dem Senators

DR was a white male with a lot of power, and yet he lost the election.

But- on second thought, maybe you're right...after all, if CMB were a white male, she(he) probably wouldn't have fawned so much over the dictator of Nigeria, or gone romancing around Africa with Khosi(sp?) Matthews, and might have actually stood a chance of being re-elected.

[wndycty]

7. Basically. . .once in the Senate she was held to a different standard. . .

. . .by the voters. She was criticized for her visit with the Nigerian dictator. . .did Jesse Helms get the same criticism for visiting with Pinochet.

[Beaker]

9. Jesse Helms didn't run for office in Illinois, either.

IIRC.
and The South is a whole 'nuther country.

[Cocoa]

8. explain the fawning and romancing

Give a brief narrative of what happened and why it mattered so much. Never completely made sense to me.

[Beaker]

10. for starters...

http://www.blogstudio.com/archpundit/12_15_02___12_21_02_Archpundit.html

Carol Marin is one of the more respected, if not heavily watched, news people in Chicago and she sets out the case against Carol Mosely-Braun.

Some choice graphs:


One example. Before freshmen senators go to work in Washington, there is an orientation program to help them learn the lay of the land. You skipped it. Rather than roll up your sleeves right away and show you were both symbol and substance, you hopped a flight to Nigeria and paid your respects to the dictator of the most populous country in Africa, Gen. Sani Abacha. Despite Abacha's hideous record on human rights, including the assassination of his enemies, you remained a periodic visitor to the country and you were the lone member of the Senate and the lone member of the Congressional Black Caucus who opposed sanctions against that repressive regime.


Then there was the campaign finance mess. The Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service argued that you and your campaign manager and then-fiance, Kgosie Matthews, spent as much as $270,000 of campaign donations on Armani outfits, jewelry, Jeeps and vacations. Three times IRS investigators tried to impanel a grand jury. But the Justice Department did something experts say it virtually never does in this type of case. Citing "insufficient evidence," it refused to grant the IRS the subpoena power it requested in order to gather the evidence. You dismissed the whole thing as a witch hunt.


That's all in the past, of course. So what about today? Two words: Bill Shaw. Voters only have to look at this most recent election to scratch their heads and ask, "What were you thinking?" OK, as President Bill Clinton's ambassador to New Zealand, you'd been away for awhile. But why would you choose the Nov. 5 election to mark your re-entry to Chicago politics with radio and newspaper ads supporting Bill Shaw, of the politically notorious Shaw brothers, over Rev. James Meeks for a seat in the Illinois Senate? This is progressive politics?


Adding to this fine column, let's not forget when she left her position in Cook County she fired the entire staff on one of the last days and replaced them with political hacks. This was gratuitous even by Chicago Standards...

CMB was an embarrassment and a disgrace to the voters of Illinois, and now she wants to be president?
Has a Democratic Presidential candidate ever won without carrying Illinois? If CMB couldn't win re-election(even riding on Bill Clinton's coattails) to the Senate, how could she ever expect to carry Illinois in a presidential election?

[gottaB]

12. Not Carol Marin again--

We've already danced this dance before. Your source is spreading lies. You have no business repeating them.

1. It's plain as day Braun attended orientation.

2. Braun favored imposing sanctions on Nigeria. She did not favor one set of sanctions which included a unilateral oil embargo. Her position was completely in line with the Clinton administration.

3. Braun was neither the lone member of the Senate nor the CBC to vote against the sanctions favored by the leadership of the CBC.

4. The "abuse" of campaign funds amounted to $311, a far cry from the alleged $270,000. Since that fact has been established, it is dishonest in the extreme to repeat the allegation as if it could be true.

5. The IRS investigation was a witch hunt. Read the documents yourself.

Are you allergic to discussing the facts? For the sake of others who might be reading this, please see Carol's Just the Facts. Beaker's source is telling disgraceful lies. Any reasonable person would be embarrassed to repeat them.

[gottaB]

11. Why can't you stick to the facts?

1. You're comparing Braun to a convicted felon. That's outrageous.

2. Is there some problem with a politician having a romance? You can't even spell the fellow's name, and you insinuate it's some kind of problem the public needs to be concerned about. Please read the documents from the senate's confirmation process, and then explain why you are at odds with every member of that senate except Helms and Fitzgerald.

3. Moseley Braun never fawned over any dictator, including Abacha. Get your facts straight.

Please clarify. Is the substance of your complaint that Moseley Braun is a woman and an African American and therefore: (a) held to a higher standard of conduct than her white male peers; or, (b) inherently of weak moral character and unfit for public office?

[Cocoa]

5. Rosty was convicted of a federal crime

served time in federal prison.

That's my explanation for his loss.

[Cocoa]

2. did she recently imply Rove was behind the smears?

I thought I heard her say something like that, regarding the trips to Nigeria.

I wasn't paying attention at the time she was senator, but through osmosis I got the idea that "everybody knew" Braun was no good.

The reasons seemed strange to me, I never understood what her trips to N igeria were supposed to say about her, and the references to her boyfriend I always thought were more to raise awareness that she was not married. :shrug: