Is there a coordinated propaganda campaign on DU re. Hackett/Brown

[brentspeak]

Check out the Ohio boards, and you'll see nothing but anti-Paul Hackett and anti-Sherrod Brown posts. In truth, though, it's about 90% anti-Paul Hackett posts.

The purpose seems to be a) to convince DUers that "Paul Hackett is a Republican"; and b) to cause division within the Democratic ranks. Are these simply overzealous Sherrod Brown partisans behind this -- or Rove operatives?

(This is admittingly a "hit-and-run" thread; I can't stay to reply to any replies. But I'm interested in the responses.)

[blm]

1. More likely those fostering disunity are Repub operatives than Hackett or

Brown could ever be.

Hackett's mistakes were all newbie mistakes, not calculated ones. Brown's mistakes all came from not having a strongly-structured Dem party organization in Ohio, which any candidate needs.

[AtomicKitten]

2. I think people should stick a fork in it.

I also think Rove is exploiting the discord within Democratic ranks. We should be smarter than to allow him to do so.

[liberal N proud]

3. Hackett is old news - Brown is the candidate

anyone having trouble facing that has to deal with it or it is just that much easier for KKKarl to help Deswine win in November.
But it keeps coming back up again and again. I swear that sometimes the Democrats beat themselves.

[madfloridian]

4. The issue of party leaders choosing candidates MUST be discussed.

If we don't discuss it there is no chance for new people to get into the party leadership.

I very much appreciated Laura Flanders last night having Christine Cegelis and Jim Dean on to discuss the issue of DC Democrats involving themselves in a district where a good candidate already exists.

It is not so much about Hackett, Brown, Cegelis or Duckworth....it is about changing the way business is done in this party.

[MercutioATC]

6. EXACTLY!

And, for me, it's about the character of our party "leadership". Brown repeatedly said that he wasn't going to run for Senate. Schumer and Reid approached Hackett and convinced him to run for the seat. Three days after Hackett announced, Brown "changed his mind". Schumer and Reid then pulled their endorsement of Hackett and got behind Brown.

What does this say about their personal integrity (Schumer, Reid and Brown)? What message does it send to our next generation of candidates?

When Tim Ryan, who had supported Hackett early on with Reid's encouragement, refused to dump Hackett and back Brown, Brown's reaction was:

""I'm not going to speculate on Tim's motivation or try to be a psychologist and get inside his head about why he made this decision,'' Brown said. But, he added quickly, "It's good early in a campaign to know who your friends are.''

Brown noted that he has the support of almost every Democratic Party county chairman and almost every major Democratic officeholder in the state. "I'm not greatly concerned about a second-term congressman,'' he said."

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051112/EDIT/511120301/1003


I was a Hackett supporter, but I also liked Brown and would have had no problem if Brown had won the primary. With this apparent lack of integrity, however, Brown is just another "hold your nose and vote for the Dem" vote for me.

[OzarkDem]

9. Hackett is attacking all Dem candidates now

not just Brown. Would you prefer we send him to Florida to bash your Dem candidates down there? We don't need him in Ohio right now, we're busy trying to win some statewide races and hang onto our Congressional seats.

[madfloridian]

10. Then perhaps there should be a big sitdown talk by all of them.

You do not need to get upset with me about this. I was neither for or against either of them. Hackett may be handling it differently, but then after all....he is a marine and does not like the war crimes implication.

Whoever did it...the party itself should flush them out and HEAL.

All they have done is imply Hackett is not handling things right. They should have stopped it before he exploded with anger. Sitting down and talking together is healing.

Brown had a meeting with some concerned people. First his aide comes in and tells everyone not to cause problems. That in itself was insulting. No one could tape it or take notes.

He did not know that the people were angry because the party was doing this all over the country, he was unaware.

It is up to the Dems there to handle it.

[OzarkDem]

18. Rove did it

and its working very well for him.

[Capn Sunshine]

14. could you provide som evidence of that?

Just curious; his people I could see ( some of them were sleazy ), but Hackett?

[OzarkDem]

16. Tune in

He'll be on all week; he started with it on today's show

http://www.700wlw.com/pages/billcunningham.html

The latest messges from Hackett supporters in blogs, etc. also are now taking shots at Ted Strickland, the Dem front runner in the Ohio Gov race as well as the entire dem slate.

http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/

Face it, Rove has already said he has operatives in Ohio and that the GOP plans to spend a lot of time and money here. What else do you expect?

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_02.html#115514

Rove is visiting Ohio this week, and you know turdblossom doesn't travel that much.

This campaign is getting ugly really fast and its starting to spread to other Dems.

[brentspeak]

24. I just happened to check out your second link

And there was NOTHING on it suggesting that "The latest messges from Hackett supporters in blogs, etc. also are now taking shots at Ted Strickland, the Dem front runner in the Ohio Gov race as well as the entire dem slate." On the contrary, that blog was supportive of every mentioned Dem except for Brown. (And no, anonymous replies on the blog from alleged "Hackett supporters" doesn't count as "Hackett supporters.")

I think you should explain yourself.

[zbdent]

5. Shit, there have been freepturds invading the discussion boards

since the invention of the internet.

Of course, when it was in its infancy (and text-based), you had a higher-level quality of retarded monkeys pecking away at an infinite number of keyboards and producing classical freepturd drivel . . . you actually had to know stuff to get somewhere to start a flame war . . .

freepturds invaded the usenet newsgroups about basket-weaving . . .

[derby378]

7. I think William Pitt and I have an understanding...

Brown's in, Hackett's out, and I may still have some serious misgivings as to what caused Hackett to quit, but the bottom line is we've still got to get more blue butts in the seats on the Hill.

[OzarkDem]

8. Hackett has changed

He's spending lots of time on tv and radio bashing all Dems, not just Sherrod Brown and he's using GOP/Rove talking points to do it.

Today in an interview on a Clear Channel radio station, he actually said that Sherrod Brown (a 7 term Congressman who voted against invading Iraq and against the Patriot Act) of being "against the troops". He then used the same broad brush to say the same about most Democrats.

He's become incredibly nasty in attacking Dems in a very public way and has become a perfect tool for the GOP news media. He's also attacking other Dems running in Ohio.

I realize some of you went nuts for the guy, but those of us here in Ohio desperately want a Dem governor, SOS, State Auditor and Atty General in this state, as well as a majority in the Ohio General Assembly. This is the best shot we've had to win the governors race in decades. Our candidates are running well, raising money and polling ahead of Republican opponents.

We're winning, folks and doing well here in Ohio. The last thing we need is for Paul Hackett to get on the radio or televison every day and bash our Dem candidates and say they're liberals who don't support the troops.

That may be acceptable in your state, but we don't need it here.

Thanks for understanding.

[greenohio]

32. Your still bashing Hackett I see.

Boy, sounds like somebody can dish it out but sure can't take it.

[IsItJustMe]

11. Hackett is bitter, can't blame him, but I think Dem leadership did the

right thing.

[goodhue]

12. I thought Hackett had left the building

Why stir up an old hornets nest?

I'm pro-Brown, for what it is worth.

[Algorem]

13. How can anyone question Paul Hackett's judgement?

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

The chase resumes.....


On the day the world found out that Paul Hackett was dropping his Democratic Senate campaign, his law office in downtown Cincinnati was busy with another priority -- soliciting an accident victim via form letter.

The ''lady friend'' of a high-ranking Republican official in Hamilton County got a Feb. 14 letter from Hackett asking her to to drop by at no cost to find out how much money her injury might be worth...

The GOP official said such letters from Hackett probably would have become Republican ammo against the Iraq War vet's Senate dreams. He said they could have been used to portray Hackett as a greedy trial lawyer angling to drum up business with hopes of big paydays from insurance settlements.

The letter makes it clear Hackett found out about the accident after his law office combed through public records: ''We learned of your recent automobile accident from the police report which was filed as a result of your accident,'' Hackett wrote.

--Bill Sloat

[rexcat]

15. I think your "overzealous Sherrod Brown partisans behind this "

sums it up. Of course that is just my opinion. Some of the Brown supporters are acting more like they came from another major political party in the US, considering their tactics, again just my opinion! The Ohio bloggers have not helped the situation much either. If they are pro-Brown, Hackett is a right-wing nut case and if they are pro-Hackett they are just as bad on the other side.

Of interest in Ohio are the swing voters. They will make the difference in the general election. They did vote for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Are they fed up with the political bullshit the repukes have been handing out over the past 12 years the repukes have had control of the state or are they going to look at Brown and say, gee another left-winger who is out of touch with the average Ohioan? Time will tell. If you can believe the polls it appears that Brown is leading but I think polling at this point is useless since the campaigns are not in full swing yet. Rove has yet to start up the political machine in Ohio. Ohio is going to be a major battle ground both at the state and federal levels.

[OzarkDem]

17. Overzealous Strickland supporters, too

and overzealous Fisher supporters, and Dann supporters and Brunner supporters, in fact, we support the entire ticket and don't take kindly to disgruntled former candidate who try to hurt all of them.

[rexcat]

20. That's nice. eom

[mtnester]

19. Brentspeak - since you have been over to the Ohio boards and are

interested in the posts to this thread, have you figured it out yet?

[brentspeak]

22. Not really but I'd say it's mostly overzealous Sherrod Brown partisans

But I have no idea what to think when I read posts claiming that "Hackett supporters are blasting other Ohio Democrats." That sounds like a lot of B.S., and people just trying to stir up trouble.

[Algorem]

26. Have you ever actually read the posts on the Ohio forum?

"Check out the Ohio boards, and you'll see nothing but anti-Paul Hackett and anti-Sherrod Brown posts. In truth, though, it's about 90% anti-Paul Hackett posts."

[mtnester]

28. You win a prize!

:)

[Algorem]

31. good at accusations,not good at answering questions.

Speaking of false allegations,Paul Hackett's spewing his garbage again today,as he did yesterday afternoon on WLW radio,filling in for their usual nazi host,also a Cincinnati lawyer,( http://www.700wlw.com/main.html )( Oap!And again today, what a surprise, 12:20-3PM,Eastern time, stream- http://www.700wlw.com/pages/streaming.html ). Until Paul Hackett shuts his Democratic Party-slurring piehole and goes back to chasing ambulances full time,he's going to be posted about.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/13977644.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 28, 2006

Culture of careerism scuttled a political bid

By Paul Hackett

When I got back from Iraq last year on March 18 after a seven-month combat tour with the First Marine Division in exotic cities like Ramadi and Fallujah, my wife arranged for a small group of friends and family to meet me at the Cincinnati airport. There, a good friend told me that U.S. Rep. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) was about to resign and that I should run for the seat in southwest Ohio where I live and grew up. At first I thought he was kidding.

But as I stood there in my desert utilities, tears running down my cheeks, my wife next to me, one kid on each leg and one in my arms for the first time in almost eight months, I thought of my service in Iraq, and the idea made sense. Service in Congress, as I saw it, would be a natural extension of service to my country in Iraq.

It has taken me 11 months to finally make it home from that scene at the airport. What I learned in the process is that, even though I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan, I was not born to run. Serve yes, run for office no.

Somewhere along the way I became something I'm not: a political rock star. But I only wanted to help my country...

[Algorem]

21. Is there someone posting absurd accusations on GD:P?

[PassingFair]

23. Yeah, like this:

"those fostering disunity are Repub operatives"

:puke:

Sit down. Shut up. Vote for who we tell you to.
Time to MoveOn, alright!

[1932]

25. I think it's a false flag operation. With Hackett out, why would a true

supporter of Brown waste time attacking him? And why try to defend some of things Hackett has done?

Keeping this fight alive is, I bet, just a trick to suck Democrats into destructive in-fighting.

[Algorem]

27. What is Hackett out of? Not attacks on Brown.

[seabeyond]

29. i gave money to hackett from texas. i think hackett

isnt necessarily a dem and we have history and present to come to that conclusion. and i am not impressed how hackett handled things in interviews afterwards. this is not a campaigned orginization to diss hackett. this is reading the info given. hackett left the race, brown is in the race. brown is progressive from what i hear. i want ohio to go dem. i am supporting brown and not beating him up

to conclude that any of that is because of some effort is wrong. it is individual opinion. i want dems to win. if hackett was running i would be supporting him. brown is runnig so i am supporting him

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

30. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

[OhioBlue]

33. for the most part overzealous Brown supporters

But hey, we could be overzealous Hackett supporters too. This isn't the first time a primary got ugly and it won't be the last. The Brown v Hackett debate is getting a lot more play time in the blogs than in regular media or conversation circles in Ohio. Ohio Dems are okay - we have a little disagreement on that issue, but heck.. we're Dems in Ohio and used to being frustrated and feeling like our candidates were treated unfairly. You're just seeing some of that frustration spill over into our debate - we'll come together when it matters.

The bigger primary dirt is the Petro v Blackwell campagin. That primary has a lot more potential to cause a rift in the Repub party than our Hackett v Brown debate does in the Dem party.