Anatomy of a right-wing smear

The conservatives are threatened by the Rove revelations. You can tell by the noise they make. Suddenly they are all circling the wagons, pulling out the list of faxed talking points, and telling a series of coordinated and unlikely lies all over the place. Kevin Drum has the story. Read it and check his links.

Then go back and look at my description of the nationally coordinated Republican party in Why do Republicans win elections.. This is part of the "Right-wing media for news and public opinion" sometimes described as the echo-chamber.

It really doesn't matter how unlikely the lies they spread are. RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has circulated a smear sheet that they can all use. It is a pack of lies and half-truths taken out of context (Josh Marshal gives an example) but the effect is to leave the public and most of the media thinking "This is too complicated to understand. I'm just going to walk away and let them play their little political games."

This is the only way remaining that Rove might win this brouhaha. If he isn't indicted, it might work. It will not be easy, though, which is why the entire right wing smear machine is placing so much energy into the task.

They are doing it because it works. Defending Karl Rove has become as much a core Republican requirement as was invading Iraq, defeating John Kerry, trashingthe courts and Michale Schiavo over Terri Schiavo, and most recently, destroying Social Security. This is exactly the same type of PR lies, smears and half-truths they have used on all the other issues.

They have frequently won the political battle this way for the conservative Republicans. The key elements are coordinated message, no matter how short of Truth, high energy, lots of money, and a great deal of use of the rightwing media in its echo chamber mode.

What they have also done has been extremely destructive to the U.S. military, the U.S. economy, the environment, and anything outside the very narrow range of support to large corporations and wealthy people. As long as they "win" the immediate battle, they don't give a shit about the good of America as a whole.

That is the central core of the Rove-Plame controversy. Rove was willing to destroy the career of a top-flight CIA officer for the short term gain of getting at her husband because he forced the media to recognize the truth instead of Bush's lie in the State of the Union.

This is what the Republican Party of McCain, Christie Todd Whittman, and Bob Dole has sunk to. Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, Dick Cheney, G. W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Jeb Bush, Tom Noe, Ohio Governor Bob Taft and a cast of thousands more liars and smear artists.

Bush's Presidency is the worst Presidential administration America has ever suffered, and its' not over yet. As poll ratings continue to drop, things are going to continue to get more nasty. They simply know no other way of dealing with the problems.

It is time the adults replaced them.