Outrageous New Nutroots Smear On Allen

And I suspect and certainly hope many bloggers can expose it.

Frank Schaeffer: I should be supporting Allen. Instead, I'm leaving the party.

I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.

On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.

The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office."Democrat James Webb is a war hero and former Marine, wounded in Vietnam and winner of the Navy Cross.

And amazing, what blog appears to be the first and only blog linking to the story before the Internet ink is dry?

For those unaware, Raising Kaine is affiliated with the web campaign and there is already some evidence linking them to manipulating wiki in the campaign - and let's not forget our other Internet activist Mike Stark, who is affiliated with DailyKos and Raising Kaine.

I and I am sure many other bloggers regularly get emails from various campaigns, including Allens. And while I can't speak for everyone, I have NEVER seen anything like this. Whether an email was sent or not is another issue, but Frank Schaeffer's biography reads like Jim Webb's biography, he's an author, a fan and a strong advocate against the war. And all that long before there was an Allen / Webb campaign.

CSPAN ran an interview with Frank Schaeffer discussing his new book AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service. It is well worth watching. (CSPAN has it here)

Schaeffer pulls no punches, but he is also non-partisan. He is critical of the New York Times and Harvard, but he also faults GWB for his failure to be a true war president after 9-11.

Here's a link to Schaeffer in the Washington Post on June 3 running with the Chicken Hawk theme. Does that sound like anyone running for Senate in Virginia this year? It does to me.

Whether Schaeffer was hoaxed or is part of one, I have no idea. But what's increasingly clear is that the Nutroot bloggers have taken political dirty tricks to a new low this election. And if the MSM runs with this story before checking out all of the facts and confirming precisely who sent the alleged email, it would be equally outrageous.

Comments

[Shalimar]

"The /Dallas Morning News/ has endorsed only Republicans in this election."

That actually isn't true. I looked through their statewide endorsements before making my claim, the DMN did endorse several Democrats but the ratio was roughly 9 Republicans per Democrat and their reasoning for all of their Democratic endorsements was that the candidates were centrists rather than liberals. I stand by my statement.

Claiming most big city papers are leftist shows an ignorance of the business. The split among daily papers in the U.S. (based on general endorsing practices) is roughly 55/45 conservative. I don't know how the "big city" breakdown is, but daily papers tend to be in the biggest cities in an area so I doubt it is much different than that. On the other hand, feel free to ignore this if the facts get in the way of your persecution complex.

[jaime]

"What exactly do they need to do to not be considered liberal by a wingnut as wingnutty as you?"

Wasn't there some wingnut study that said Drudge was a left leaning website?

[Disputo]

LMAO @ kate.

The /Dallas Morning News/ has endorsed only Republicans in this election. Yep, them Texas Republicans are such lefties. LMAO.

What exactly do they need to do to not be considered liberal by a wingnut as wingnutty as you?

[kate]

Shalimar, I have to take exception to your comment about The Dallas Morning News being a conservative newspaper. It's a liberal newspaper just like most of the big city rags are.

[jaime]

It's obvious Schaeffer is no true Christian, hates America and wants Al Qaeda to win like the true liberal he is.

[Disgusted]

You've got to be kidding. Schaefer has pretty deep Evangelical bona fides. His dad was a tremendously influential Christian who was in the conservative movement, and he carried his father's torch. Of course, keep it coming. I think it would be a good thing for honest and faithful Christians to see Republican operatives attacking a believer simply because he disagrees with their party.

Sometimes it makes me wonder which religion some people place first - Christianity, or Republicanism.

[bronco214]

Using surrogates to attack? Now there's something that republicans would never do! Ya know, like push-polling McCain and saying that he fathered a black love child. Or accusing Kerry of lying about his war injuries. Or threatening people into not talking aboutt Bush's girlfriend's abortion or his drug/alcohol use.
No, republicans are to civilized to do anything like that.
Again, this is FRANCIS SCHAEFFER's son who is now so morally outraged that he is leaving the party. That is the bottom line- not who said what to whom. Not if it was a phoney email. A staunch republican's guts are so twisted up by this Congress and administration that he's talking a walk.

[Shalimar]

"You don't suppose they might be trying to spread trash, do you?"

No, I don't suppose there is much chance of that. We're not talking about the New York Times or Los Angeles Times here. This was in the Dallas Morning News, a conservative newspaper in a predominantly conservative state. The idea that their editorial staff would cooperate with a Democratic challenger to smear an incumbent Republican Senator is borderline loony. As I said before, this is most likely exactly what it seems, a personal editorial by Schaeffer that has nothing to do with any larger conspiracy against Allen.

[Phoenix]

Good point, Shalimar. Why in the world would a Dallas newspaper even bother to publish anything political about Virginia? Hmmmmm.... You don't suppose they might be trying to spread trash, do you? Hey.... wouldn't that make them a surrogate of sorts?

Lots to think about....

[Shalimar]

"I am talking about Webb's consistent use of surrogates to launch all of his attacks."

You have no evidence whatsoever that this guy is a surrogate, which makes your conclusion libelous. Be careful what you type lest you end up in court someday over crap like this. An editorial in the Dallas newspaper has no influence on a statewide race in Virginia, so this is most likely just what it seems, Schaeffer's explanation for why he isn't a Republican anymore. As for the claim that Allen doesn't use surrogates to spread his trash, what do you think you are?

[Phoenix]

Can we get any more slimey? The email should be quashed by Allen with an apology for it if it is real.

Read all the links and am impressed by Schaeffer. I especially like that he is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood,a survivor of an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia,a survivor of a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director,a survivor of a feature film director and producer of four ("pretty terrible") low budget Hollywood features, and a survivor of a best selling author of both fiction and nonfiction." (Link to "What's Lost in the Hue and Cry Over Haditha")

Anyone who can survive all that and live to tell is one hell of a man. Anyone who survives an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood...... they can say anything they want as far as I'm concerned. And he didn't turn Democrat. Good for him.

[Dan Riehl]

For the intellectually challenged Liberals, terms I consider inclusive, right or wrong what Allen did he did from his campaign. I am talking about Webb's consistent use of surrogates to launch all of his attacks. Of course, I don't anticipate Liberals being able to understand the difference, that would take some thought.

[yyy]

Dan doesn't have any values or morals other than his slavish adherence to the right wing nutjob talking points.

He's quick to run any kind of rumor that smears the liberal Democrat 'moonbats' but he waxes poetic in his faux outrage when claiming the same thing is done to the poor innocent Republican lambs.

All I can say is if the Republicans maintain control of Congress then America deserves the unfettered police state we will most certainly get.

We're already refusing entry into the country for expressing 'IRRESPONSIBLE OPINIONS'..how long until that same yardstick is applied to American citizens??

Not long if the conservative whack jobs stay in power.

[Jay]

Get their emails all the time and never saw this one.

[Shalimar]

What Ed said. Come on Dan, you really expect us to believe that Schaeffer somehow got hoaxed even though you yourself were pushing the line that he claims was his breaking point? Don't you get dizzy spinning in so many different directions at the same time? Face it, Schaeffer heard what smear merchants like you were selling, and was disgusted by it. If you had any values or morals, you would be disgusted and ashamed by your behavior too.

[Ed]

"Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me!"

This was exactly the theme you were trying to promote on this very website. You're partially responsible for the backlash by pushing the Allen camp attack instead of attacking it.

So live with it, these are your guys!

[LB]

Oops - link:

http://www.frankschaeffer.net/oped.html

[LB]

He certainly has the anti-war bonafides. If you check his website, there's a variety of interesting articles. The chickenhawk meme seems to be a favorite - scroll down to the one titled "I'll Vote For Roosevelt" for a rant about Bush and Kerry kids not serving.

Much of the writing on his site is about his son's service. This could be less idealogical and more about himself. Political views often get set aside when parents are worried or grieving. Perhaps he sees "cut and run" as a way to protect his kid with no consideration of the wider picture.

If the email he references were real, I wonder why we haven't heard about it from the lefty blogs? You'd think they'd sieze on such a mailing...