January 06, 2004
A New List of Sins
Just finished watching Sam Shane of MSNBC interview Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth regarding a new ad that slams Dean. According to the MSNBC transcript, the ad reads:
Howard Dean should take his tax hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times reading, Hollywood loving, left wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs."
From the mouth of Moore, "We mean that that message that Howard Dean is promoting, with higher taxes and bigger government, isn't going to sell to mainstream, middle American voters. ...This is a cultural, liberal elite candidate who I think is going to get blown out by George W. Bush. ...Not too many conservatives who are moderate centrist voters read the New York Times. The New York Times is really read by [crosstalk] ... We get very little corporate money... I don't read the New York Times, I don't eat sushi, and I don't drive Volvos. ..."
As a member (I guess I must be, since I support Howard Dean) of the cultural, liberal elite, I have this to say to Mr. Moore: Hand over my Volvo at once. If I'm going to be lambasted for owning one, I have no objection to allowing the very wealthy Stephen Moore to make himself 0.00000001% more accurate by making me the proud owner of my very first uber-safe German luxury car.
Club President, National Review editor, and Cato Institute senior fellow Stephen Moore has contributed a total of $79,938 to political committees since 1997. The main beneficiaries have been campaign committees like those for George Bush, Spencer Abraham, Saxby Chambliss, Jeb Hensarling, Marsha Blackburn, DLC Chair Evan Bayh, and Ralph Nader (not making this up, go check it yourself). Also benefitting were organizitions like the PriceWaterhouseCoopers PAC, the General Electric PAC, the KPMG PAC, and the National Automobile Dealer's Association's election committee.
You can see the Dean campaign response here. They also have a link to the Club for Growth press release, which further says that "Howard Dean's liberalism may play well with latte-drinking, body-piercing, public radio listening crowd, but it won't play with hard-working Americans. ..." Apparently, the Club for Growth believes that all NPR listeners are unemployed.
Who are the rest of these people? When pressed on MSNBC, Moore tossed out the name of Richard Gilder of New York. An FEC query run on Mr. Gilder indicates that he has given $250,000 in soft money to the RNC. He's given $98,500 to political committees, including those of George Bush, Rick Santorum, Lamar Alexander, Newt Gingrich, and many, many others. The Republican congressional and senatorial committees received $12,500 each. He also mentioned Daniel Searle, who's given a total of $26,450 to Republican and conservative political committees.
Other people associated with the Club: Fellow Director Thomas Rhodes has given $74,500 to various political committees since 1997, with a tiny pittance to a couple Democratic groups, and large maximum donations to candidates like George Bush and Rick Lazio. There's also the curious case of board member Charles Hilton, who donated small amounts to numerous Democrats between 1997-2000, seemingly undergoing a political conversion around 2000 when Republicans became the main beneficiaries of large maximum contributions. Hilton appears to have contributed the maximum possible to both of Joe 'the lady killer' Scarborough's campaigns. Virginia Manheimer has contributed $48,500 to various Republican's political campaigns and committees, including $10,000 to the Club for Growth, since 2000.
Nice to have that kind of cash to spend. Must really help them relate to what the mainstream voter wants.
Pennsylvania Congressman Pat Toomey's Senate bid also seems to be a popular destination of board member funds and the Club's direct funds. Toomey will be challenging 'liberal RINO' Arlen Specter. John Swallow and Rico Oller have both been recipients of generous in-kind donations in 2003, and are running specifically as 'conservative Republicans.' Cash contributions in 2003 have gone to Bev Kilmer who has "voted with the FL Christian Coalition 100 %" of the time, and "Commonsense Conservative" Jim DeMint who would like tax increases of any kind to have to pass a 2/3 majority in congress. Democratic names that popped up in more than one individual contribution list were Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and DLC Chairman Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN).
When can we send this government-strangling, bourbon-swilling, Falwell loving, WSJ reading, country club belonging, golf course hobnobbing, cigar smoking, peasant hating, corporate welfare expanding, fraud-winking, economic elite freakshow back to Texas where they belong?
Update: Links added.
Posted by natasha at January 6, 2004 02:25 PM | TrackBackThey'll have to pry my Volvo out of my cold, dead fingers! What's really odd is I bought my Volvo used with almost 200K miles on it for the princely sum of $2500. Wow, I'm so out of touch with ordinary people...
(nit-pick: It's an ultra-safe *Swedish* car. Which still didn't want to start when temperatures got to -20F here in Spokane yesterday.)
Posted by: Ab_Normal on January 6, 2004 05:07 PMSwedish, German... they all look alike to me ;P Does that disqualify me as a cultural elitist, or cement my status? I can never tell.
Posted by: natasha on January 6, 2004 09:25 PMDon't panic, Ab_normal! Volvo is owned by Ford! No harm, no foul - as long as an American company profits somehow.
Posted by: pessimist on January 6, 2004 10:14 PMThat ad is truly something:
"Howard Dean should take his tax hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times reading, Hollywood loving, left wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs."
I must be seeing a much different Howard Dean than the yutzes that wrote that piece of idiocy.
Personally, I'm just one of those budget-balancing, "small is beautiful", regular coffee (just black, none of that cream and sugar crap) drinking, burger & fried chicken-eating, used cheap car driving, obscuroid country boy professor who rarely reads the Times, lived near Hollywood once upon a time and think that whole scene is way over-rated, who lives out in the Oklahoma panhandle, which is nowhere near Vermont; and I'm actually pleased that Dean's in this campaign. Heck, I'm actually enthusiastic about a Democrat for the first time in ages. He and Kucinich both deserve some serious props for running campaigns with backbone.
Since that probably puts me in the so-called "liberal elite", someone forget to inform my employers that they are seriously underpaying their elites. ;-)
But serially, people in the GOP are clearly scared, and bereft of any ideas that would actually be constructive for this country are left only with soundbites that look lifted from one of Archie Bunker's lines from an old sitcom script. These cats wouldn't know a leftist if one came up and screamed "boo" at them. My hope is that Dean keeps on doing what he's doing; and that those of us who have taken it upon ourselves to overthrow the Dubya regime and its reign of error keep on being honest and forceful.
It's going to be a long year.
Peace.
Posted by: James on January 7, 2004 01:02 AMpessimist: la-la, I can't hear you, I'm ignoring that. ;)
As to the OP: I'm not sure if I'm a liberal or leftist or whatever, but I'm 100% certain that I (an atheist and little "h" humanist) am not a modern-day Republican.
Posted by: Ab_Normal on January 7, 2004 04:02 PM