Markos Moulitsas: Obama's Comm. Dir. a "smear-meister best known for his work trashing other Dems"

[bidenista]

Given some of the tactics we've seen coming from the Obama camp, including the Harry & Louise mailer which revived Republican attacks against universal health care, it might be time for a flashback to a story from early last year. This'll be of particular interest to those who supported the Dean campaign in 2004.

We had warning that these smears on Obama's opponents would be coming:

Bloggers Blast Obama Spokesman

Barack Obama's campaign is being hit again, this time by bloggers who are taking aim at chief spokesman Robert Gibbs over his role in a controversial attack ad that ran early in the 2004 presidential campaign. The barrage leveled against Gibbs was kicked off by Democratic blogger Jerome Armstrong, a founder of MyDD.com, in a scathing indictment titled, "Robert Gibbs, the drag on Obama."

The genesis of Armstrong's rage against Gibbs has to do with Gibbs's involvement during the '04 cycle in the secretive 527 political group "Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values," which created the infamous Osama bin Laden ad attacking Dean for lacking military and foreign affairs experience. In his blog posting, Armstrong called the ad "the single most disgusting ad I've ever seen occur in a Democratic primary." He suggested that Gibbs is two-faced, asking, "Does Gibbs still believe that a Presidential candidate with 'no military or foreign policy experience' is 'unqualified'? Then how, Gibbs, is Barack Obama going compete with John McCain on foreign policy?" Armstrong, you might have guessed, worked for the Dean campaign in 2004 and, more recently, for Mark Warner, the most fleeting of '08 Democratic presidential aspirants.....

...influential liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, who together with Armstrong co-wrote "Crashing the Gates," piled on, calling Gibbs a "smear-meister best known for his work trashing other Democrats.

"Obama clearly dipped into the slimiest corners of DC to pluck out Gibbs," Markos wrote.

More: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/02/obama_spokesman_under_scrutiny.html

Just a little reminder for the next time you hear the candidate of hope, unity and change describing how he's transcending negative DC politics-as-usual.

[AX10]

1. The "Hope and Unity" bs is just a cover...

for an ordinary politician.

[Radical Activist]

2. I really wish these guys would stop using their blogs to carry on personal grudges.

They have a big platform now. They should use it responsibly.

[Straight Shooter]

8. But kos hearts Obama.

Have you been to The Daily Kos lately? This must have been written before Kos got the BAM.

By the way, Gibbs is known for playing dirty, with psychological tactics. Google the MF'er. It's a real eye-opener.

[Radical Activist]

15. He didn't support Obama for a long time because Obama didn't kiss his ass enough.

The guy has a real immature petty streak.

[Straight Shooter]

17. From your description of kos, it sounds like they're perfect for each other. n/t

[Capn Sunshine]

25. OTOH Jerome is a known Hillary supporter

Like there's no dirt meisters on Hillary's squad. What a joke.

[sidwill]

3. Man

You are like a machine.


You are spittin out posts like eminem spits out lyrics.

[bidenista]

5. yes, and i can always rely on you to post a worthless follow-up. nt

[sidwill]

9. Can we see your profile?

Why hide how long you have been on the board?

Are you afraid that you will be taken even less seriously?

[bidenista]

11. no

I just like the fact that you want to see it and can't. :D

[incapsulated]

4. He did the Osama bin Dean ad??

lol, perfect. Just perfect.

[Armstead]

6. And Hillary's "Barak supports Reagan's policies" wasn;t a slime job?

[Straight Shooter]

10. You're grasping at straws.

If Hillary had Gibbs on her staff, people really would believe Barack is a Muslim. Count on it.

[Armstead]

13. In other words he's more successful at it than Hillary's people,, eh?

I'm not happy that this guy is working for Obama.

But I don't see the Clinton campaign being less immune to flinging the old wet dirt around either.

[Straight Shooter]

16. I see. The old and tired "Clinton does it, too" rationalization.

Hillary isn't prancing around like Miss Goody Two-Shoes. Barack is duping people into believing he's some kind of saint, the kind of politician we all dream of, someone whose hands are clean. He isn't really that way at all. He was chosen by the powerful people who back him precisely for his ability to put on the charm and hide the sleaze.

An ostensible Democrat hiring Gibbs is like selling your soul to the devil. Gibbs attacks Democrats, not Republicans. He. smears. Democrats.

[Armstead]

18. What powerful people?

Who are the shadowy forces behind Obama (who are not also behind Hillary)?

[Straight Shooter]

20. Are you trying to make me laugh?

Please study him, study his background, study all the players surrounding him, the connections. Especially look at the Kerry-Obama connection, which goes back longer than simply Kerry's recent endorsement.

Let me give you a right-winger's perspective. The author actually likes Obama, but he isn't fooled one bit. And it's people like the author who are quietly shaping the onslaught Barack will receive as he climbs higher in the polls. It's happening already. Put your ear to the ground and you'll hear the quiet rumbling of the backlash headed in Barack's direction.

http://www.tomroeser.com/blogs/default.asp?categoryID=54

That’s why with slender record and a vague mist of personality, managed all the while by hard lefties Axelrod and Emanuel, Barack Obama may well end up in 2008 with the nomination. They have to move quick. Already their creation has started to melt like a snow-cone in July and must be put in the deep freeze before he turns to mush. Obama is the last politician who should be tainted with any semblance of an ethics violation: that’s why Harry Reid named him the point man for the Democrats on ethics questions in the Senate. But as it must to all frail political humans, Barack Obama has good contacts and likes to use them. The Chicago “Tribune” reported not long ago that Obama has been a longtime friend of Tony Rezko the indicted fund-raiser for Rod Blagojevich. So good a friend that Obama bought a mansion in the Kenwood area of Chicago for $300,000 less than the asking price. On the same day, Rezko’s wife bought the adjoining lot, shelling out the full $625,000 asking price. The question is whether Rezko’s wife subsidized Obama’s purchase of the mansion and also paid for an abutting private preserve that adds to the estate’s aura. Prepped by Axelrod and Emanuel, Obama became the misty-eyed visionary once again, blaming himself and saying he could kick himself for this dumb idea. Dumb, huh?

The once-again return to the Doris Day demeanor can work for the long-run. But the so-called innocent association of Destiny’s Tot with a notorious fixer is starting to cause some people to understand the real Barack Obama. Like Doris Day he is no wide-eyed innocent either in business terms or in political ideology. In ideology he is a hard neo-Fabian socialist with a romantic demeanor who can turn wistful and dream for reconciliation with the world. He wants to buy the world a Coke and have us pay for it. But let Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton issue the thunderous threats. That’s not Obama’s thing. He looks like an earnest young man, speaking from the heart. But I’ve known him just about the whole distance. He’s deceptive like Doris Day. All that’s missing is for him to croon “Que sera, sera!” whatever will be, will be. And watch the guilt-ridden white liberals stand up and applaud.

[Armstead]

22. I read it but other than petty crook Rezko, I don't the dark connections

Rahm Emmual I'm not thrilled about, but hardly a shadowy figure.

Chicago pols? Hardly a global cabal.

Kerry? Reid?

Help me out here. What am I missing?

[Dogmudgeon]

7. But ... but ... MARK PENN! MARK PENN! MARK PENN!

--p!

[ProSense]

19. You're trying to compare Mark "Blackwater" Penn to Gibb?

Now that's desperate.


(click me)

[Dogmudgeon]

23. Another Mr. Rofl fan!

The mark of someone who has lost the argument.

Take a bow!

--p!

[ProSense]

26. I take it you didn't click "Mr. Rofl" n/t

[tishaLA]

12. Perhaps Hillary can loan him some money

So he can hire someone else.

[Cameron27]

14. Post that over at kos now,

and see how well Markos remembers: "Obama clearly dipped into the slimiest corners of DC to pluck out Gibbs"

[dailykoff]

21. Kos is a CIA shill and admits it

and WAPO speaks for itself. Thanks for playing.

[NastyRiffraff]

24. God, I didn't know Gibbs was behind that horrible ad.

I remember the Osama bin Laden ad VERY well; I was supporting Dean at the time. It hit a new low and angered a lot of people, including people who didn't support Dean. Inspirational, indeed.