The power of a social movement can beat the GOP double Chickenhawks

[Algorem]

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/17/2006/2214

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
November 2, 2006

It's never been more true that the one thing we Americans can say with pride about George W. Bush is that we have never elected him president of the United States.

The regime is even more despised than ever, in part because the derogatory term "chickenhawk" now applies in all its worst double meanings.

And while Bush and Karl Rove crow that they're about to "win" again, we think they are about to run into their worst nightmare: a full-blown grassroots social movement.

The GOP strategy for stealing 2006 is much the same as in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, and in key Senatorial elections in 2002: mass disenfranchisement of mostly urban Democratic voters, combined with mass inflation of mostly rural Republican votes...





CONFESSIONS OF A MUDSLINGER

http://www.theotherpaper.com/TOP11-2/11-2_coverstory.html

The Ohio House GOP’s campaign brain is very good at a game he doesn’t like
By Dan Williamson / Novemeber 2, 2006

Scott Borgemenke is feeling underappreciated this week. Most of the time, Borgemenke is one of the best liked and most respected folks around Capitol Square. But this is campaign season, and Borgemenke is, in his words, “a piñata.”

Borgemenke is the smart and irreverently funny chief of staff to Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted. He’s currently getting knocked around by the media and the Democrats for running some of the nastiest TV advertisements you’ll ever see on behalf of his embattled Republican legislative candidates.

He’s even fielding complaints from some of those same GOP House hopefuls, who don’t like getting criticized for the negativity of their campaigns.

“The opponents beat up on you, and then your own people beat up on you because they just want to go positive,” Borgemenke said. “They think it’s a popularity contest.”...



JEERS . . .

http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1162547217124470.xml&coll=2

To Ohio House candidate Bill Hayes, a Republican from Pataskala, who apparently believes playing the "race card" is his ticket to the legislature. Hayes shamefully and silently allowed some sleazy Republican operatives from Columbus to blanket the 91st House District in Appalachia with racist literature - a blown-up picture of a black Ohio death-row inmate. The literature suggested that Dan Dodd, Hayes' Democratic opponent, would be lenient on murderers and rapists. Here's hoping Hayes gets clobbered on Tuesday.

CHEERS . . .

To the Logan Daily News, a paper that took the rare step of "unendorsing" Hayes after editors saw the "racist" and "scurrilous" (their words) literature. On Monday, the paper did an about-face and endorsed Dodd, saying, "The last thing we need in the Ohio General Assembly is another good ol' boy who'll just go along to get along." The paper was equally disturbed by the GOP's racist support campaign as well as Hayes' refusal to repudiate it.