Last week, I concluded with a few words about the dirty undercurrents of the Republican push against John Kerry (call it Kerryslandering).
Whats catching the notice of the establishment press is something milder: Bushs attacks on Kerry as a flip-flopper. In their universe, apparently it is preferable to dig your feet into setting cement and never change your mind when circumstances change.
Even worse, Kerry is not a patsy for the military and intelligence establishments. And now that he is the sure Democratic nominee for the Presidency, the Republicans are aiming to stamp him with an early seal of disapproval. Thats spelled: Liberal, liberal, liberal. Middle name: Massachusetts.
But the Bush speeches and ads that have drawn considerable attention so far constitute the overt campaign. For hard-bitten Republican cadres, theres slimier stuff. More of the subterranean sleaze is coming to light all the time, and I can hardly keep up. The time is drawing nigh when it may no longer qualify as subterranean. The Republicans must have a trove ready for time-release, like a slow-acting poison.
The idea is, of course, twofold: to keep Kerry on the defensive; and to excite the Republican faithful in their base states of the South and the Rocky Mountains (make sure theyre kept in a fever of agitation during the long months before 2 November).
The far right has toyed with the xenophobia theme before. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, from Sugar Land, Texas, sounded this note last July: Good afternoon, or, as John Kerry might say: Bonjour! (Did he win extra points by switching his morning and afternoon?)
This sort of thing goes over well with the know-nothing cadres, people who are far from bothered that their commander-in-chief barely traveled before 2001: theyre reassured.
Then, last week, as soon as Kerry had swept the Super Tuesday primaries, DeLay went after him again, to wit: Hes not even trying to be fiscally responsible. He is either insincere about his new spending, dishonest about his new taxes, uninterested in the new deficit, or they just didn't teach him arithmetic at the European boarding school that he went to.
Zap! Pow! Or as Kerry might say, Merde!
Too bad DeLay didnt check out this release from the school in question. First of all, it bears the almost impeccably American name, Institut Montana. Secondly, according to the school director, Kerry at age 11 adored Coca-Cola. Thirdly, the director affirms that the school embraces traditional values, including being open to the world, respecting others, and learning how to take responsibility for ones self. Of course, that does sound rather UN-ish.
Expect the Republicans also to spread it about that Mrs Teresa Heinz Kerry, born in the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique, is unfit to be First Lady. Shes older than her husband. She wears scarves, which might as well make her French (quelle horreur!). She speaks too many languages. She owns too many properties. (Bush, meanwhile, gets a pass for his Texas ranch so called despite the apparent absence of any known animals or crops there.)
Then, this week, the Republican National Committee put up the third in their series, John Kerry: International Man Of Mystery. This one comes with the helpful subhead: Communist North Korea Is Only Government On Record Supporting John Kerry.
North Koreans Warm To Kerry Rhetoric, it goes on, quoting a Financial Times report: In the past few weeks, speeches by the Massachusetts senator have been broadcast on Radio Pyongyang and reported in glowing terms by the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), the official mouthpiece of Mr. Kims communist regime . Pyongyangs friendly attitude towards Mr. Kerry contrasts with its strong anti-Bush rhetoric.
Theres more. Its true, as Republican websites drool, that Kerry is a first cousin of François Mitterrands onetime environment minister, Brice Lalonde. Its also true, for what its worth and as the websites do not note that Lalonde is widely despised by the French left for his flirtations with the French right. The words French and environment are enough.
And then, say the Republicans, not only does the British band Coldplay endorse Kerry, but the left-wing French daily Liberation announced that Kerry was the kind of American we like. But according to Libérations Washington correspondent, Pascal Riché, this item is based on a Newsweek mistranslation.
While Democrats are trying to organize themselves to make get-out-the-vote campaigns more efficient more on that later this spring the Republicans have been beating their own drums for turnout. They dont take their hard core for granted. While Ralph Nader and other fantasists on the left think that the nonvoters (roughly half of the eligible population) are the shadow cavalry poised in the canyons for last-minute deliverance, the Republicans have their own version, and theyve launched their own voter registration crusade. Theyll emphasize the iffy states in the Midwest and Southwest, where their margin of victory or defeat in 2000 was 5 points or less. No accident, these happen to be states where a dose of Martian testosterone can be calculated to trump the frilly Venusian elements. Among them are Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, once pretty reliably Republican in national elections, now filled with Hispanic voters (and in the former case, a Democratic female governor).
These territories fancy themselves as rugged six-shooter country, where traditional know-nothing types are legion and proud of it. Theyre no pushovers for State Department patsies or pansies. They feel beholden to oil one of Bushs prime corporate backers and other extractive industries, as Michael Lind emphasizes in his valuable book, Made in Texas.
The Sunbelt voters who came to power with Reagan and consolidated with George W. Bush descend ideologically from Arizonas Senator Barry Goldwater, who suggested in 1961: Sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea.
Where it could bump into that Swiss school, right?
