by John Cole
And now here is Sullivan
making no damned sense again:
Nyhan goes after the Democrats for baseless attacks against the US Chamber of Commerce. It is very depressing to see them descend to this kind of stuff. What they need are not tactics and resentment, which is what we’re seeing. What we need is a narrative of recovery and reform from Obama. He has the record, and he has made a couple of great speeches. But this distracts.
The Chamber of Commerce is spending 100 million dollars this election, who knows how much of it from foreign funding because they refuse to say, all of it to attack Democrats. And in Sully’s world, it is the Democrats to blame for pointing this out. “Ignore those attacks, Obama! Be above it all!”
Richar Cohen, is that you? Way to elevate concern trolling to an art form, Andrew.
Why is it that Democrats aren’t “allowed” to fight back? Why do our media elites like Andrew think this way?
Fox News spews lies non-stop for years, and the press corps gets the vapors when Gibbs points it out. The Chamber of Commerce is spending millions lying and fear-mongering, but if the Democrats point it out, Andrew gets a sad face. It is just baffling how the rules are different for the Democrats, and it is just ingrained for these guys.
*** Update ***
BTW- Rachel Maddow dropped the hammer on Andrew’s conventional wisdom on this issue tonight. Video when it is available.
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MADDOW: The end result of this sustained White House campaign against the Chamber of Commerce, against this anonymous funding stuff came in a letter from the Chamber obtained by the “New York Times” today, quote, “The Chamber will not be silenced. In fact, for the next three weeks leading up to Election Day you will see us ramp up our efforts.”
<...>
This isn‘t a good thing for Democrats to talk about in this election. Keep hearing that today from beltway pundits. And you know, sometimes when people are giving that advice, it‘s not because they think the punch being thrown against them won‘t hurt them. It‘s because they just want to stop being punched.
Last night, in Wisconsin, in a very hard-fought Senate race, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold ignored this rapidly calcifying, stupid “disarm the Democrats” common wisdom and went ahead and hit his Republican opponent Ron Johnson on this issue over and over again.
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FEINGOLD: I want everyone to have free speech but I want to be able to - as you just said, they ought to disclose. You haven‘t even called on these people to disclose. You just said you‘re for disclosure. You won‘t even call on them to disclose.
JOHNSON: I‘d be happy to have them disclose -
FEINGOLD: Why don‘t you ask them to do it?
JOHNSON: Disclose.
FEINGOLD: I want - I want disclosure.
JOHNSON: Let‘s see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: But don‘t forget, word on the street in Washington, Democrats don‘t bother with this issue. Nothing to see here. People don‘t care. Never mind those cheering people in the audience happy about their Republicans caving on this issue and having no way to defend their earlier position. Pay no attention.
moreUpdated to add:
Video