{"id":2089,"date":"2008-04-24T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2089"},"modified":"2008-04-24T04:19:17","modified_gmt":"2008-04-24T09:19:17","slug":"dirty-tricks-institutionalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2008\/04\/24\/dirty-tricks-institutionalized\/","title":{"rendered":"“dirty tricks” institutionalized…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Operation Chaos is Rush Limbaugh’s idea of a joke, I guess. Maybe a power trip. He encourages his many listeners [presumably Republicans] to vote in the Primaries as Democrats voting for Hillary Clinton. I presume that the point is that they think that they can beat Hillary. But it comes across as blatant racism. Whatever his point, in this web-zine, it says, "The purpose is chaos, not choosing their candidate<\/strong>." And the tone of these various articles is glee at driving the Democrats crazy. Articles have titles like, "How Rush runs the Dem Primary<\/strong>" or "Screw the World! Riot in Denver!<\/strong>" or "Directive: Don’t Donate to Hillary<\/strong>" or "Question: When Should Operatives Switch Back to Republican Party? The C-in-C USOC leaves the timing to your discretion<\/strong>" ["C-in-C USOC<\/strong>" = Commander in Chief, United States Operation Chaos].<\/div>\n

In the 1972 Nixon Campaign, it was illegal "dirty tricks." They broke into Daniel Ellsberg’s Psychiatrist’s Office, and McGovern’s Campaign Headquarters in the Watergate Building. Donald Segretti brought Edwin Muskie to tears responding to attacks on his wife. Later, Reagan’s team brokered prolonging the Iran hostage crisis during the end of Carter’s Campaign in 1976. During Bill Clinton’s Administration, they were relentless. Clinton’s philandering gave them a fine target, and they kept at it until they scored with Monica Lowensky. All of Bush II’s versions are still not well known – but the push-polls about McCain’s "black baby" are one clear example. Certainly, they put together all their "operatives" in 2000 for the Florida recount debacle – Karl Rove. Thor Hearn, John Yoo, an impressive team of lawyers. But it has been during the Bush II Administration that things have flowered and "dirty tricks" have become the political tool of choice under the direction of Karl Rove and others, inside and outside the government.<\/p>\n

Now, it’s different than in their early days when it was veterans of the Young Republicans operating behind closed doors. It’s out in the open. Fox News, the Weekly Standard, the Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and who knows who else openly set and fan a constant stream of brush-fires that spread a broad  swirl of "Operation Chaos" across the draught torn country. Are they all directed from one place as many suspect, or is it like the plague – spread with an infectious glee among like-minded "dirty tricksters" like the obnoxious Rush Limbaugh? Whichever the case, it works. Who knows how much of the Democratic Primary race is being driven by these "dirty tricks?" What I know is that when I read things like record numbers of Republicans are changing to vote in the Democratic Primaries, I have no idea whether that represents disgust with the Bush Administration or "How Rush runs the Dem Primary.<\/strong>" Neither does anyone else. It’s a shame. It’s a nice country, or at least it used to be…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operation Chaos is Rush Limbaugh’s idea of a joke, I guess. Maybe a power trip. He encourages his many listeners [presumably Republicans] to vote in the Primaries as Democrats voting for Hillary Clinton. I presume that the point is that they think that they can beat Hillary. But it comes across as blatant racism. Whatever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}