posted on February 17, 2006 10:00:37 AM new
Demo's now turning on their own?
Backroom Battles
News: Economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats: How the Democrats took Paul Hackett out.
By David Goodman
February 16, 2006
Democratic Senate candidate and Marine Corps Major Paul Hackett is accustomed to waging quixotic battles and taking his hits. He just didn’t expect the lowest—and fatal—blows to come from his own party.
In an announcement that stunned many in Washington and even some in his campaign staff, Hackett declared on February 13, 2006, that he was dropping his bid for U.S. Senate in Ohio, ending his 11 month political career. “I made this decision reluctantly, only after repeated requests by party leaders, as well as behind-the-scenes machinations, that were intended to hurt my campaign,” he said, only hinting at what had gone down. The day after his withdrawal from the race, he told me about the backroom battles that forced him out.
Hackett was running against seven-term Akron Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown in a May primary, with the winner going on to face two-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in November (assuming DeWine wins his own primary against a longshot Republican challenger). DeWine is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbent Republicans, and the national Democratic Party is pulling out the stops to defeat him.
But first, the Democrats had to get Hackett out of the way. The weapons used in the rubout included economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats.
Hackett, an Iraq War combat veteran, was hailed last summer as just the kind of “fighting Democrat” the party needed to reinvigorate its base and end its years in the congressional wilderness. After narrowly losing a race for Congress in a lopsidedly Republican district outside Cincinnati last August, the telegenic veteran—famous for dissing President Bush as a “chickenhawk” and “sonuvabitch” while on the stump—was courted heavily by Democratic leaders, including Sens. Charles Schumer and Harry Reid, to take on DeWine. But no sooner did Hackett enter the Senate race last October than Brown announced his candidacy for Senate, reversing an earlier decision he had made to stay out of the race.
With Brown, a party insider, on board, the Democratic establishment quickly began pulling away from the fiery Hackett. Schumer, after having wooed him in August, called again in October. “Schumer didn’t tell me anything definitive,” Hackett told me at the time. “But I’m not a dumb ass, and I know what he wanted me to do.” Hackett, a maverick who relishes the fight, decided to buck the Beltway insiders, and stay in the race.
Hackett’s scorching rhetoric earned him notoriety and cash on the campaign trail. He declared that people who opposed gay marriage were “un-American.” He said the Republican party had been hijacked by religious extremists who he said “aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden.” Bloggers loved him, donors ponied up, while Democratic Party insiders grumbled that he wasn’t "senatorial."
Swift boats soon appeared on the horizon. A whisper campaign started: Hackett committed war crimes in Iraq—and there were photos. “The first rumor that I heard was probably a month and a half ago,” Dave Lane, chair of the Clermont County Democratic Party, told me the day after Hackett pulled out of the race. “I heard it more than once that someone was distributing photos of Paul in Iraq with Iraqi war casualties with captions or suggestions that Paul had committed some sort of atrocities. Who did it? I have no idea. It sounds like a Republican M.O. to me, but I have no proof of that. But if it was someone on my side of the fence, I have a real problem with that. I have a hard time believing that a Democrat would do that to another Democrat.”
In late November, Hackett got a call from Sen. Harry Reid. “I hear there’s a photo of you mistreating bodies in Iraq. Is it true?” demanded the Senate minority leader. “No sir,” replied Hackett. To drive home his point, Hackett traveled to Washington to show Reid’s staff the photo in question. Hackett declined to send me the photo, but he insists that it shows another Marine—not Hackett—unloading a sealed body bag from a truck. “There was nothing disrespectful or unprofessional,” he insists. “That was a photo of a Marine doing his job. If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t send Marines into war.”
A staffer in Reid’s office confirmed that Hackett had showed them several photos. “The ones I saw were part of a diary he kept while serving in Iraq and were in no way compromising. The one picture in question depicted Marines doing their work on what looked like a scorching day in Iraq,” said the aide.
But the whispering continued, and Hackett was troubled. “It creates doubt and suspicion,” Hackett told me, saying his close supporters were asking him privately about the rumors. “It tarnishes my very strength as a candidate, my military service. It’s like you take a handful of seeds, throw them up in the wind, and they blow all around and start growing. It really bothered me.”
Hackett backers suspected the smear was being floated by Sherrod Brown’s campaign. A senior Brown staffer angrily dismissed the charge this week as “ridiculous.”
posted on February 17, 2006 11:45:47 AM new
Bear - you know - it's just ads annoying when you use deceptive titles to try to respin an article as it is when Peepa or Mingo does it.
;Sounds like politics as usual to me. veiled threats and no funding forces a candidate out. Happenes in every reace for every office across the country.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on February 17, 2006 01:42:03 PM new
Fenix, directly from the article:
Economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats: How the Democrats took Paul Hackett out.
As word spread about the intra-party intrigue that helped bring down Hackett, supporters have reacted angrily. “If the Democratic Party continues with these suicidal decisions, we will continue to defeat ourselves,” declared Yolanda Parker, who recently attended a California fundraiser for Hackett. “The only strategy the Republicans need to stay in power is patience. They just need to wait while our party self-implodes through idiotic decisions such as the one to pressure an articulate Iraqi war veteran to pull out of the race.”
"“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
posted on February 17, 2006 01:57:12 PM new
And yet - no mention of these things being perpetrated by Reid.
Come one Bear - lets not be hypocritical. I seem to remember a very prominent and respected former Vietnam POW that your favorite republicans machine tried to dirty and rip to hell about 6 years ago. Or have you forgotten the bush vs McCain race for the nomination? Dirty politics exists in every office race in every party. It's disgusting, it's discouraging and it's why when the elections are over we are stuck with what often times seems to be the bottom of the barrel in terms of character and ethics but that's the game right now - probably the only truly bi-partisan game left.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on February 17, 2006 02:20:15 PM new
Fenix what I see in this article is that the demos were worried about all the funds and attention Hackett was diverting from their favored candidate. If Hackett was atttracting so much attention and money, he should havve been led to the head of the line of candidates. Thus presenting the most popular choice.
When Reid contacted Hackett and accused hism of mistreating bodies in Iraq suggests to me Reid was looking for any leverage to oust Hackett
All in all I will agree that policts is a dirty business. "“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
posted on February 17, 2006 05:47:33 PM new
::When Reid contacted Hackett and accused hism of mistreating bodies in Iraq suggests to me Reid was looking for any leverage to oust Hackett.::
Actually - I that's calle dcommon sense. I you are a party leader and hear that there may be damaging info out there about a candidate, wouldn't you ask the guy if it were true? from the article he did not accuse him of abusing prisoners, he said he heard there were photos of him doing so and asked if it were true. That's not torpedoing a candidate, thats using common sense.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on February 17, 2006 06:22:44 PM newyou are a party leader and hear that there may be damaging info out there about a candidate, wouldn't you ask the guy if it were true?
So why didn't the democrats apply that same logic with Kerry?
"“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
posted on February 17, 2006 06:57:23 PM new
Come on Bear - even you know that's a lame response. What is it with you guys? You complain about people whose arguements are the equivalent of verbal vomit yet when someone tries to have a straight forward conversation you play the same game.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
