Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Boccieri's Volley

Received the following email solicitation from State Sen. John Boccieri last night:

    Dear Friends,

    The republicans [sic] are desperate to distract from their poor record on the issues that matter most to Ohioans. Already the attacks are starting against me, my legislative accomplishments, even my record of military service.

    It was bound to happen sooner or later. Well, it's happening sooner.

    While running for re-election to the State Legislature in 2004 Republicans said I was AWOL from the Statehouse while serving in the war that George Bush started. Unbelievable! Now they're back to their same old tricks of trying to swift-boat another veteran. We can't let them do it again this Presidential Election year.

    Help us build the resources to respond to these attacks! [link omitted]

    All this coming from the party that believes our state legislators should be exempt from the background checks that they require for four dozen of Ohio's professions.

    That's right. A few days ago, the Ohio legislature voted to require background checks on dozens of Ohio's professionals. When I offered an amendment to hold state senators and representatives to the same standards, the Republicans shut down consideration of the Amendment before I even had a chance to finish speaking.

    Ohio has had enough of legislators who believe they are above the law and refuse to be accountable to the people they represent. We need a change to keep government focused on the things that matter most: Bringing jobs to our state and keeping them here, adequately funding education, improving access to health care and supporting our veterans and military families.
First off, I understand why, in a fundraising email, a candidate does not want to reset the attacks made on him. But it's damned frustrating. I've been getting emails like this from the Pres candidates, from DSCC, and so forth for months. "They're attacking me! Trust me, they are! Send me money!" If I haven't heard the attacks it's hard to take that leap of faith.

Oh, and it's really frustrating trying to blog off of emails like that. Not to pick on Sen. Boccieri, who I really like. But this has been chaffing for a while now.

On the other hand, I'm glad to see him use the incident last week involving his proposed background checks amendment. Jon Peterson handed him a gift wrapped early Christmas present and he has used it well.

Finally, it looks more and more like the Swift Boat Vets secured (or were conceded by Kerry) a Pyrrhic victory. Thanks to them, Republicans can no longer question the service record of a Democratic candidate without being labeled a Swiftboater. I'm confident Boccieri's record is solid, regardless of what the GOPpers say. But some day a slacker Dem will run on his service in the Quartermaster Corps and win because his opponent legitimately pointed out his resume puffing. And on that day I shall dance a merry jig. Because at that point it will have come around.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But some day a slacker Dem will run on his service in the Quartermaster Corps and win because his opponent legitimately pointed out his resume puffing. And on that day I shall dance a merry jig. Because at that point it will have come around.

You have yet to learn the difficult lesson that cardboard swiftboats don't float. The S.S. Kerry sank under the weight of his own service embellishments and outright mendacity...not the truthtelling of the Swiftvets and POWs.

To this day, Kerry refuses to make his service records public.

Rational thought should tell you why.

Jill said...

Bush and his National Guard records have been circumspect for a long time and he resisted releasing them and did so only after numerous battles. And some of his fighting to get them released occurred while he has been president.

What does rational thought tell us about that?

TBMD said...

Kerry ran explicitly as a War Hero for the job of Commander in Chief. His failure to answer the Swiftboaters crippled that angle to his campaign.

The fact that he didn't says that either a) the swiftboaters were correct, or b) he was not well suited to being Commander in Chief. Or c) a & b, most likely the correct answer.

I don't think that the "it's a swiftboat attack!!!" is going to carry much weight as a counter charge outside of core democratic activists. It's similar to the Willie Horton / Dumond allegations - powerful becuase it was extremely plausible given the candidate's record and reputation.

That's not to say that it can't or won't be overdone. As Salvor Hardin would say, it's a poor atom blaster that doesn't point both ways.

If some slacker dem gets elected to the state senate based on a false attack on his service record, it's a small price to pay for keeping Kerry out of the White House.

Anonymous said...

Jill said...

What does rational thought tell us about that?

The same thing that it tells us everytime evidence of Kerry's dishonesty is raised...change the subject to Bush.

(By the way, as a self-described "writer" you should become familiar with the definition and the use of the word "circumspect".)

Jill said...

Anon - that's non-responsive. The question still stands.