Swift boat pukes begin smear attack on Bernie Sanders

[paineinthearse]

by email

EXTREME RIGHT WING ATTACKS BEGIN

The right wing attack machine that struck in 2004 is back. Just this week John O'Neill, the leader of the notorious Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, attacked Bernie in a sign of the coming barrage of negative attacks in the Vermont Senate race from the extreme right wing. In a fundraising e-mail sent out on behalf of Republican Greg Parke, O'Neill wrote he is working on "A mission to stop the most dangerous liberal in America from winning election to the U.S. Senate. It's a threat that rises to the same level of danger as the idea of John Kerry as President. This new threat I'm talking about is far left Congressman Bernie Sanders. Sanders is as radical as they come." He continues, "And with the unique rules of the Senate... ...where all it takes is one maverick Senator to really gum up the works, Sanders is about to turn into a dangerous liberal wrecking crew." To read an article about the attack: http://bernie.org/?p=97

The truth is that the right wing and their corporate backers believe Bernie is dangerous because he has beat them in the past and will fight them in the Senate. During the campaign Bernie wants to talk about the issues that are important to Vermonters that the right wing doesn't want to discuss: tax breaks for the rich and cutbacks to Medicaid; giveaways to big oil at a time of record profits for oil companies that are charging all-time high prices for gas and home heating oil; the disappearance of the middle class and the growing gap between the rich and the poor; and the disintegration of our health care system. To learn more about the issues important to Bernie: http://bernie.org/?page_id=77

Don't let the extreme right wing get away with it. Let's have a Senate race that will focus on the issues that are important to Vermonters instead of engaging in the gutter politics of the right wing. To learn more and support Bernie, please visit Bernie's website: http://bernie.org

Thanks.


Phil Fiermonte
Campaign Director
[email protected]

[marbuc]

1. I'm sure Vermonters know what they're getting with Bernie Sanders

nt

[ugarte]

2. Fascist bastards

What else can you say? Luckily, Vermonters are too smart for this crap.

[Armstead]

3. That makes me want to vomit

Gee I thoughtJohn O'neil weasn't politically motivated. I thought his attacks on kerry were only because he had ben offended by his conduct in Vietnam and his anti-war activities......RRRRRiiiight.

If the GOP tries to aim their stink machine at Bernie, I hope it backfires big time...Whether one agrees with Bernie's politics or not, he is one of the truly "good guys" and that rare breed of politician who has always kept his focus solely on the real issues that mattr to real people.

[TheFarseer]

4. Funny they don't cite any examples

What counts as dangerous liberal wacko these days? Opposition to massive budget-busting tax cuts to the rich? Opposition to senseless and costly wars? Funny how weighing the facts and trying to do right by your constituency is "crazy liberal wackoism" and selling you out to corporations and the rich is "common sense" and "the American way"

[killbotfactory]

8. Putting people ahead of profit makes you a radical

to these people.

[TheFarseer]

9. One thing that I thought was so telling during the last election

Kerry was saying how he would roll back the tax cuts for the richest of the rich and the RWers were all saying, “He can’t mean that! He’s trying to fool you. He won’t do that because he IS the richest of the rich!” As if doing what was best for the country instead of best for yourself was a completely foreign and unimaginable concept to them.

[BOSSHOG]

5. The cowardly bastards never answered my emails

during the 2004 election. I'm a retired Navy Chief and I told them (junior officers) they needed their asses kicked and they should be ashamed of their actions. Not a man amongst them. I'm glad I never served with the likes of them.

[Cassandra]

6. The idea of John Kerry for President...

is starting to look really good to those New England Republicans. They're wishing they had voted for him just around now.

[Catchawave]

7. This strategy backfired on the repugs in Virginia !

They smeared the airwaves with "Tim Kaine is a Liberal and that's BAD for Virginia". Obviously the voters disagreed :)

[Coastie for Truth]

10. John O'Neill

I know Mr. O'Neill.

Back in the deep dark days of the VietNam war I knew LTJG David Brostrom, and EN2 Jerry Phillips. They were killed by fratricide off the coast of VietNam.

I was the Casualty Assistance Case Officer for Jerry Phillips.

Read about the total that killed two Coasties -- and was covered up by some of the bastard "SWift Boat Veterans For Truth."

Another question about Texas Lawyer O'Neill - he was a naval academy graduate - and had a six year pay back -- how did this politically connected Texan get out after only two years.

[Doctor_J]

11. I don't see this working in VT

With Bernie's record and Howard campaigning for him, this is a loser for the RW.

[zbdent]

12. "most dangerous liberal" seems so overused as much as

"number 2 al qaeda operative" . . .

[xxqqqzme]

as w/ #2 al qaeda operative

I certain we would all B very surprized at how many 'dangerous liberls' there R in the Senate. I can think of a number of truly whacked-out, dangerous, neo-con kool-aid drinkers but dangerous liberals - don't think so.

[Rainscents]

15. Lets see, Kerry was #1 killer liberal and now,

Sander is another #1 killer Liberal? This sounds like Al qaeda operative Bush and the company tactic O'Neil is trying to use again. This time, this shit ain't going to happen.. Not this time!

Go home you O'Neil baster! Vermonters knows better and they ain't going to buy your shit!

[snowbear]

13. Bernie Sanders was on Big Eddie talking about this....

...yesterday.

He's still sounded very upbeat about the upcoming election, even with the dirtball swiftboaters after him.

[Adelante]

25. They may be running up against the wrong guy, here

He's a tough one.

[gratuitous]

14. I think Mr. O'Neill will find, to his chagrin

That Bernie Sanders won't take his shit lying down. If O'Neill goes gunning for Sanders, thinking that he's some liberal softie, he's in for a big surprise.

[elperromagico]

16. Didn't Sanders actively oppose the war in Vietnam?

Might that be one of the reasons the Swift Boaters are focusing on him in particular?

Does O'Neill think he's still working for Nixon and Chuck Colson?

[SpiralHawk]

17. This shit won't float

It didn't float for the NeoCon-Swifties this time out, and it won't float in Vermont against Sanders.

The Swiftboat Propaganda Turds will choke in their own jaundiced throats.

[Ignacio Upton]

18. Will this even work in Vermont?

Sanders is the state's only Congress-person so he has been running state-wide campaigns for the last 15 years. He will basically be running the same campaign only for a different title.

[foo_bar]

19. they're just increasing Bernie's popularity

Allen then moved back to Vermont, which had become a hotbed of anti-everyone sentiment harboring little affection for either England or for the nascent United States and was harboring a significant number of deserters from the armies of both. Allen settled a homestead in the delta of the Winooski River near the modern city of Burlington. Allen remained active in Vermont politics and was appointed general in the Army of the independent state of Vermont. He was one of the participants in a failed attempt to bring Vermont back into the British Empire and thereby separate Vermont from New York permanently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen

Later, Ethan Allen and his brother Ira Allen, acting on their own, entered into devious negotiations with British agents, possibly with the intent of annexing Vermont to Canada. The talks were inconclusive and ended when the Americans finally triumphed at Yorktown in 1781. For ten years Vermont remained an independent state, performing all the offices of a sovereign government (such as coining money, setting up post offices, naturalizing new citizens, and appointing ambassadors) and gradually becoming more and more independent.

Not until 1791, after many delays and misunderstandings and, most important, after the dispute with New York was finally adjusted (1790) by payment of $30,000, did Vermont enter the Union. It was the first state to be admitted after the adoption of the Constitution by the 13 original states.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ve/Vermont.html

[dkofos]

20. Bernie is a true American

I don't think the people of Vermont will believe there crap.

Imagine a congress and senate full of Bernies.

[dogday]

21. They will become like the boy who cried wolf

It might of turned people's heads the first time, but they were soon discovered. This makes them look like a bunch of sore losers trying to use their military service for political advantage.

Swift-boats swimming upstream without a paddle....

[Adelante]

22. I saw this today

This really pisses me off. Ratbastards.

[paineinthearse]

23. The Nation: Swift Boat Attack on Bernie Sanders

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=34486

The latest polls from Vermont show that U.S. Representative Bernie Sanders, the only independent member of the House, has a dramatic lead in the race for that state's open U.S. Senate seat. In a race where the Democrats are expected to fall back and allow the Sanders a clean shot at the seat, a WCAX-TV/Research 2000 poll, released last week, found the congressman to be leading the likely Republican nominee, millionaire Rich Tarrant, by a margin of 64 percent to 16 percent of Vermonters who were surveyed. Those numbers will not come as much of a surprise to anyone who has spent time in Vermont, where Sanders' three decades of political independence and straight-talk about economic issues have earned him the admiration even of those who do not always agree with his progressive populism. But Sanders' strong position is a source of frustration for inside-the-Beltway Republican operatives and their network of henchmen.

Aside from impending indictments, few things frighten the political hacks who run the White House more than the thought of Sanders, who has served with great success as an independent member of the House since 1991, entering the Senate and developing an even greater national profile. Unlike the Democrats who have such a hard time appealing across lines of party and ideology on fundamental economic issues, Sanders is something of a genius when it comes to building broad coalitions – as illustrated by his big wins in Vermont regions that generally vote Republican. In the Senate, Sanders would give voice to a critique of Bush administration economic policies and the White House's assault on domestic civil liberties that would make would be far more likely to resonate with voters than the tepid Democratic message. And Karl Rove and his compatriots know that voice could turn the direction on debates on a host of major issues. It's for that reason that -- despite Sanders' immense popularity in Vermont -- the hacks in Washington have not given up on trying to figure out how to beat him in next year's Senate race.

Needless to say, they understand that it will take a lot of character assassination, innuendo and outright deception to defeat the man who is generally recognized as the most popular political figure in Vermont. So it comes as no surprise that, just days after the WCAX-TV/Research 2000 poll results showed just how daunting the task of taking on Sanders has become for the Beltway bandits, the big gun were called out.

John O'Neill, the man behind the "swiftboating" of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, is now going after Sanders. O'Neill, who started working with Republicans to attack political dissenters back in the Nixon years but who really came into his own with his role in promoting the wildly disingenuous and broadly disputed "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" attacks on Kerry's Vietnam service record during the 2004 campaign, has just penned an anti-Sanders letter that is being distributed on right-wing websites. O'Neill says he's enthusiastic about the campaign of little-known perennial candidate Greg Parke in the Republican Senate primary, but it's clear that he is getting involved in the race to attack Sanders rather than to promote Parke.

more......

[bunny planet]

24. From what I understand Vermonters love Bernie Sanders.

They know from watching him in action that he is a decent, progressive man who cares about the issues that affect them. He is great on Thom Hartmann's program every Friday (Brunch with Bernie), that's how I first became aware of him. I think Vermonters will see right through the likes of John O'Neill but I will be sure to visit his site and give my support in whatever way I can.

[Douglas Carpenter]

26. you can contribute to Bernie's campaign right now

http://bernie.org/



http://bernie.org/

Sen. Kerry pledges support for Sanders, Times Argus
By Louis Porter



"BARRE - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in the last presidential election, came to the Old Labor Hall here Saturday night to rally his party as it prepares for U.S. House and Senate elections next year. Vermont will have open seats in both bodies, meaning the elections in the state might be the focus of national attention.

Kerry and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont were joined on stage by U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, another sign that the Independent’s bid for the Senate seat, which will be vacated by Sen. James Jeffords, has the Democrats’ approval…"

http://bernie.org/

[EndElectoral]

27. I'm surprised Swift Boaters silent on Muhammad Ali's Medal of Freedom

After all he avoided the draft in Nam, yet Bush proudly pinned the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon him.

[paineinthearse]

28. Cross-posted to the Vermont forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=182&topic_id=319&mesg_id=319

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. kick

[Wind Dancer]

30. Bernie is a threat to the Washington elite establishment.

O'Neill is a POS bought and paid for by the corrupt repubes. Vermonters are not going to be happy with Swift Boat attacks on their favorite representative so I hope this backfires in their shameless faces.

Bernie appeals to the rural populace in Vermont by speaking the truth and proving his devotion to the people not the establishment. He is one of the few politicians that truly represent the citizens and the issues facing our military. He refuses to be silenced by the corporate owned media, special interest groups and corrupt politicians.

Thanks for posting this info - time to donate to Bernie's campaign. He refuses to take corporate donations leaving him free to represent us, not big business or media monopolies.