They did the same smear against Dean in June of this year..Media Matters.

[madfloridian]

We need to be on guard for these things. This is the only thing the GOP knows how to do, and they are very good and very clever. They only know how to attack. They have nothing else going for them. Amazingly enough these articles about the fundraising hit the press right after his powerful statement rebuking Bush's speech.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=56619

Apparently now at the end of the 9 month cycle, Dean's fundraising is still about 10 or 11 million ahead of the last normal year in 2003. Not bad for trying for the smaller donor market. Here is the Media Matters write-up from June. Oh, and then it was vicious as well.

For me, I say Go Howard Dean, you do speak for us. I hope the other Democrats will take a stand on this misrepresentation.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506170001

Dean fund-raising lie persists among conservatives

The conservative media continues to falsely assert that Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Howard Dean is an ineffective fund-raiser. In the past week, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes, New York Post columnist John Podhoretz, and Washington Times chief political correspondent Donald Lambro all cast Dean as a fund-raising failure. In fact, when compared with fund-raising in the most recent non-election year, Dean has raised more money in raw dollars, and more in comparison to the Republican National Committee (RNC), than did his predecessor.

As Media Matters for America has documented (here, here, and here), Dean raised $14.8 million between February and April 2005, versus $8.5 million raised by former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe during the same time period in 2003. Dean has also raised more money than McAuliffe relative to RNC fund-raising. The RNC raised $32.4 million between February and April 2005, about 2.2 times the rate of the DNC; over the same period in 2003, the RNC's $25.7 million was more than three times what the Democrats raised. An article in the June 20 edition of Newsweek by chief political correspondent Howard Fineman and national correspondent Tamara Lipper noted how Dean has been effective at soliciting smaller donations:

Officials estimate that $12 million of the $14 million the Dean regime has collected so far this year has come from those who gave less than $250. "For people who really look hard at the numbers, he's wowing people," says Elaine Kamarck, a respected DNC member."

[Fleshdancer]

1. What Democrats ALWAYS forget...

The GOP is a lot of things. They're organized, they have more money, and they currently hold all the power but there is one thing they aren't and that is creative. Maybe they were creative decades ago, I don't know, but now all they can do is recycle old smears.

The Democratic Party should expect it, prepare for it, and try to address the smears before the RNC has a chance to unleash their bs. Example: Swift Boat Veterans for Confusion...I suspect even the RNC was surprised at how well it worked. Guess what? They're going to use this same exact tactic AGAIN.

It might not be for a politician who was a Veteran but if a candidate was a doctor, expect to see a new group called Doctors for the Ethical Practice of Medicine and watch for lies on such things as abortion parties for teenage girls or whatever crap they think will work.

This article points to the same old recycled crap and we're going to see it over and over again until we find a way to successfully stop it.

[rodeodance]

2. email address if you so desire.

William Kristol, Editor
Fred Barnes, Executive Editor
Terry Eastland, Publisher

Letters to the Editor:


The Weekly Standard
1150 17th Street, NW
Suite 505
Washington, DC 20036
E-mail: [email protected]

[madfloridian]

3. More from Media Matters in June.

This was a concerted effort to smear Dean then. I had not realized how widespread it was.

BusinessWeek, Fox News made baseless claim that Dean is poor fund-raiser.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506030009

Media echoed baseless claim that Dean is a fund-raising failure.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506080004

Boston Globe staff writer twice repeated Dean fund-raising canard.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506100005