Remember Lee Atwater? He was the most evil ....destroyed Dukakis

[amborin]

"Rebel. Liar. Manipulator. Mastermind. Sprinkle in a bit of hypocrisy and a ton of opportunism, and you have Harvey Leroy "Lee" Atwater, a key player in the transformation of the Republican Party into the political force it is today. His meteoric rise to the upper echelons of political power was cut short by a fatal brain tumor at the age of 40.

As director Stefan Forbes's smart, revealing new film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story shows, Atwater threw away the old Republican playbook and wrote a new one full of dirty tricks aimed not just at winning but at annihilating his opponents. His attack dog style, which included some of the worst political smear campaigns in US history, led to the election of three Republican presidents.

Boogie Man is an important film for those who wonder how the political landscape shifted so dramatically rightward over the past three decades. Forbes gives us an engaging look into the psyche of a person driven mostly by insecurity and a manic desire to win at all costs; he also presents a compelling account of exactly how Atwater lied, cheated and stole his way to power.

By choosing to straddle this tenuous narrative line, Forbes draws an absorbing portrait. In less capable hands, Atwater could have been a caricature, as he willfully and shamelessly used racial-scare campaigns to get his candidates elected, but denied being a racist because he played blues guitar and "loved blues music because it was real authentic black music."

Lee Atwater's story begins in South Carolina with the death of his brother, burned to death by boiling grease while Atwater watched helplessly.

Atwater later said that he heard his brother's scream every moment of every day for the rest of his life. The tragedy hardened him, giving him a cynical worldview that shaped his political work. While in high school, Atwater ran a friend's campaign for school president and the eventual victory sparked his interest in being the "man behind the man." As a student at Newberry College, he took charge of the College Republicans National Committee, recognizing the GOP's need to bring more youth into the party. Under his leadership, the organization became a national force.

As his success grew, so did his ambition, and it wasn't long before national Republican leaders took notice. Before leaving school to work for the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, Atwater orchestrated the campaign of Karl Rove, his protégé, in a bid to take over the College Republicans. Rove eventually won the election after the head of the Republican National Committee, George H.W. Bush, interceded on his behalf. The battle for the 2000 presidential election echoes loudly.

Boogie Man mixes commentaries from a range of political perspectives with fascinating archival footage, breathing life into a story that seems to strain credulity. With a steady hand, Forbes seeks to learn what motivated the man Republican strategist Ed Rollins describes as extremely "insecure" but possessing the "eyes of a killer." Early on, it was Atwater who understood that "people vote their fears, not their hopes"; he did all he could to stoke those fears. The cultural backlash he created wrested power from one party and firmly entrenched it in the hands of another.

Look no further than George W. Bush's entire presidency as one shining, painful example of just how successful Atwater was at devising a whole arsenal of tactics aimed at shifting the political discourse away from substantive issues to visceral ones. These tactics now dominate American politics and have served to distort the democratic process.

They include push polling (fake surveys conducted by "independent pollsters"), the use of coded language (i.e., "welfare queens") and tapping into white Southern and blue-collar resentment. Of the latter, Atwater acolyte and former deputy director of White House communications Tucker Eskew says, "Resentment became the destiny of the Republican Party, and Lee was adept at tapping into that."

Atwater was more than adept; he was an unrivaled master with a specialty in smear campaigns. Supporting this fact early on in the film is former South Carolina State Senator Tom Turnipseed, who recounts his bitter Congressional bid against Republican incumbent Floyd Spence.

Atwater's use of push polls, which linked Turnipseed to the NAACP and claimed he had been "hooked up to jumper cables" as a teen undergoing treatment for depression, cost Tunipspeed the election. Nearly three decades later, Turnispeed still can't believe Atwater got away with it. "I'm laughing now," Tunsipeed says, "but it's really not funny at all."

Soon after, Atwater went to work for Ronald Reagan, devising a new "Southern strategy" that effectively masked a far more sinister racist campaign. After securing the Republican nomination, Atwater convinced Reagan to kick off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in a not-so-subtle attempt to make race a central part of Reagan's presidential bid. It worked.

Then in the 1988 presidential race, serving as George H.W. Bush's campaign manager, he produced what many believe to be the most damaging and offensive smear ad in American political history: the Willie Horton "Weekend Passes" ad.

With Bush trailing former Massachusetts ...."

<snip>

<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081020/dambrosio>

tv program is on now....

[firedupdem]

1. I just watched it. It made me hate the republican party even more..

his same tactics were just attempted in this campaign. Horrible person.

[amborin]

2. whoops, I just saw the other post, also about Atwater

anyway....i watched some of the program....

Atwater was pure evil but Bush, jr. was also diabolical in the film, it made me hate him all the more, he came across like a true sociopath

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I did not see it, so do not delete this.

[Overseas]

39. If you missed Frontline you can get the DVD at Boogiemanfilm dot com

Lee Atwater is a modern Republican icon. The boldest in terms of lying and planting false news stories to smear opponents. Karl Rove's mentor.

It is spelled boogie man because Lee's hobby was blues guitar.

www.boogiemanfilm.com

[BrklynLiberal]

3. A brain tumor was what he deserved.

[Skittles]

6. I believe Mr. Atwater's tumor treatment was very painful indeed

I read a few stories about it

[shotten99]

17. My heart is broken for the poor man.,

/snark

[Danger Mouse]

7. I'm sorry but I can't agree with that. At all.

[firedupdem]

8. NO! Don't say that!! You don't mean that!!

:spank:

[Berry Cool]

11. Nobody deserves cancer.

People get it who are both good and evil. Cancer is blind.

[Colobo]

26. Don't wish your enemy something you wouldn't want for yourself.

[LeftishBrit]

28. I can't agree - or how do you explain all the other people who get brain tumours?

No one deserves cancer.

On the other hand, it *has* occurred to me that there may have been something abnormal about his brain to start with.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

31. The justice of the cosmos is irregularly harsh

and karma is a well known b*tch. There is no question that Atwater got exactly what he deserved in every conceivable way. He was consumed by his own purely distilled evil. At least one Repuke criminal did not survive to an old age living grandly off the things he stole. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[PresidentObama]

50. Your statement is idiotic. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy n/t

[CrownPrinceBandar]

54. No it wasn't.........

I have watched two grandparents die of cancer. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

[napi21]

5. I watched it tonight. It made me detest Shrub more than I did, if that's

possible! I was almost believing that it was Cheney and Rove who was really behind all the evil in the last 8 years, but after watching that show, I realize it was Shrub included! I'm now very afraid of what's behind this "Let's make this the smoothest transition." statement. First I thought it was Shrub trying to save his legacy, but now i can't shake the feeling that there is something evil going on behind the scenes.

[Honeycombe8]

22. The Shrub part WAS very enlightening, wasn't it? And did you notice the eyebrows?

I've heard rumors before about Bush having had his eyebrows "manicured" for the camera, and possibly a subtle nose job. I don't know about the nose job, but wow...those eyebrows! He has DEFINITELY had his eyebrows done to improve his appearance. And MAYBE a subtle nose job. He looks VERY different back then, and it's not just youth.

But his personality was the same...arrogant, hostile, egocentric.

[ailsagirl]

48. Yeh-- I noticed that shrub looked more simian than he does now

Was that an eyebrow thing?

[lunatica]

61. He looked a lot like Ted Bundy.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw him in the documentary. If Ted Bundy were alive I wonder if they would still look alike

Bush isn't as stupid as we think. He's been in on the character assassination value of Lee Atwater and Rove. He was there with both of them. I learned a hell of a lot watching that documentary.

[TheKentuckian]

9. Of course the shrub is involved

and though he is no genius, he ain't as stupid as people hope or make out. He plays his part willingly or did, now I think he actually is tired of his evil plundering or at least the weight of it.

Still, make no mistake. HW, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have been in on this the whole way going back to the Nixon coup attempt. They picked up Atwater, Reagan, Rove, Condi and the rest of the syndicate as they went along. The Bush clan of course has been a big part of calling the shots for decades or longer but the shrub has been such a "fuck it" type of guy that he actually gummed up the works. It'll probably be a long time before they'll be able to publicly wield power.

Atwater might have been the most full on evil of the whole gang, well maybe he gets edged by Darth Cheney but I reckon Dick just outclasses Lee by a mile or two. I think that the people that are always wigging out about Rove either forgot or don't remember Atwater. Rove, for our football fans, is to George Seifert as Atwater is to Bill Walsh.
The Republicans have been bankrupt on ideas and policy for a long time.
They've been running on this same insane culture war crap almost purely for forty years. One of the main reasons the masses are in love with Palin is they have the deepest hunger for anyone that can sell the shit sandwiches they're peddling that actually believes it because otherwise the culture war that they've been fed and gobbled up can't actually end with them being on the "winning" side.

I'll pass on the "Boogie Man" for now as not to get riled up into constantly calling for us to unwisely go to the mattresses and prosecuting them into the dirt.

[amborin]

34. you're right, rove really pales in comparison to atwater; atwater was incredibly diabolical

[ailsagirl]

49. Incredibly. It made me ill

:puke:

[salonghorn70]

10. Atwater Was Not A Nice Man

but Dukakis destroyed himself.

[nomaco-10]

12. It came as no surprise that mary matalin thought he was a genius...

I didn't realize she worked so closely with him, but it definitely didn't surprise me. I thought the most interesting interview was that of ed rollins. atwater stabbed in him in the back and rollins was decent enough to stand by him when he asked him to when he became very ill.

Most telling was when rollins said of his deathbed conversion, matalin told him that atwater's bible was still in his office wrapped in cellophane. Rollin's smiled and said "that's lee, still spinning all the way to the end".

[ErinBerin84]

16. oh god, Matalin was so annoying.

"The liberals want to make him out to be a dirty trickster. But he was....a BRILLIANT. POLITICAL. STRATEGIST!"

[KT2000]

40. she thought he was an intellectual

but it turned out the many books he was purported to have read - he did not.
She is certainly gullible.

[spanone]

13. rove worshipped at the altar of atwater

[BeyondGeography]

14. He put the Nixon/Buchanan model on steroids and then he died of a brain tumor

Sorry, but I felt God was sending a message with that one. So did Atwater, who was very apologetic at the end.

[Berry Cool]

30. Is God then "sending messages" to all the decent people who get brain tumors?

Just asking.

His end may have been ironic, but it wasn't scripted to create justice. It just WAS.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

32. BS. Ed Rollins said that he found the bible Atwater requested

still in its cellophane after the shitstain died. He was too much of a fucking coward to actually repent for the evil he did. Spinning to the end. He got what he deserved, and too few do.

[Arkansas Granny]

15. I watched that last night. You can surely see where Rove learned his tricks.

[mitchum]

18. One of those rare times I pulled for the brain tumor

the world is a much better place without Atwater

[chaska]

19. I had a class with his niece in college...

Pissed me off that he suddenly became an off limits topic once the prof was informed of this.

Goddamned thug. Burn in hell, you asshole.

And you sucked - absolutely sucked - as a guitar player.

He used to rub elbows with the black blues guys on stages around here. They sucked as bad as he, and cared more - obviously - about the publicity than their own dignity.

[gateley]

20. Sorry I missed it -- trying to find when it will run again. Thanks for posting this. nt

[Honeycombe8]

21. I saw that. Excellent documentary. Despicable human being. The essence of the GOP.

Really gave me insight into their party. They really are a sham...pretending to the uneducated, unsophisticated folks that they have their best interests at heart, when in fact, it's a smoke and mirrors game to get their votes, and then they give the benefits of their elected power to the richest of the rich and the most powerful of the powerful. And the uneducated, unsophisticated folks don't follow politics enuf to know it.

He said at the end that he regretted having done many of the things he did, but it seems that at the end, he was lying then, too. He'd said he'd poured over his Bible and found inspiration and salvation, etc. But his Bible was found after his death.....still wrapped in celophane and unopened.

[Overseas]

23. Get the DVD at Boogiemanfilm dot com

Lee Atwater threw all the rules of decorum out the window in campaigning. Big claim to fame was push polling and starting totally false rumors. The Ends Justified the Means to him.

He was just one part of the national move to the Right-- the dirty campaigning.

For the other very large, complex and dedicated campaign to move the national discourse to the right, please read: What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman. www.whatliberalmedia.com

Alterman's book details how the right wing think tanks have been distributing right wing talking points and training conservative reporters and manipulating the presentation and discussion of news in many ways.

One prominent Right Wing technique has been "playing the ref" -- accuse the media of being liberal so they will bend over backward to prove they are not. We see that everywhere. Even those of us who have known the media are conservative go along with the right wing "liberal" media myth.

And in the meantime, media ownership has been consolidated into conservative hands. We had diverse ownership of 50 media companies in the 80's and now have only FIVE conservative conglomerates.

http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

[olegramps]

45. I agree with you. Most Americans have bought this bull crap of the Liberal media.

We only have to look at how the media totally ignored the direct ties that the Bush administration had with the PNAC to justify how the Fourth Estate has been castrated. Once again in this election the ball-less Fourth Estate failed to inform people of the connections of the Palins to the AIP. It is absolutely preposterous that Sarah Palin, who welcomed the support of these anarchists and secessionists, was selected as McCain's running mate. These are facts that are supported by absolute truth as opposed to the lies manufacture by the Republicans to crush their opponents. While the press was effectively muzzled on these and numerous other issues, they provided nonstop coverage of the Obama's association with Wright and Ayers. The myth of the Liberal Media is just another example of their disinformation campaigns. It doesn't appear that the Republicans are about to disavow these dirty tactics as demonstrated by their adoption of Sarah Palin as their hope to recapture the White House in 2012. Their attack dogs will be out in full force as the "Liberal Media" once again with the heel of their corporate masters on the throats turns a deaf ear to truth.

[kenziemom06]

24. Pretty Ironic...

"Early on, it was Atwater who understood that 'people vote their fears, not their hopes'; he did all he could to stoke those fears."

Wonder if PBS planned to run this one week after Election Day, when Atwater and his proteges and that sick belief got completely thrown under the speeding bus!

[Born_A_Truman]

25. I watched it last night (most of it)

Disgusting man. Sure did shine the light on the cockroaches (father and son) and their ilk.

[gkhouston]

27. My first reaction: I wonder if anyone verified the story about the brother's death.

Second reaction: if true, I wonder if there were any other witnesses.

[amborin]

35. where are you going with this, just curious?

do you think it was foul play? and if so, at whose hands?

the brother's scalding must have been horrific and in those days burn treatment was surely in its infancy. the family wrapped the little brother in sheets, that must have intensified the burns.

if it's true that lee idolized the little brother, that kind of experience could have contributed some to his diabolical behavior. but it sounded as if he was pretty high strung and 'atypical' before the brother's tragic accident.

[gkhouston]

38. So many horrific lies have come from the likes of Atwater

that it wouldn't surprise me to learn a brother had never existed. Or that one had, but that Atwater had wittingly or unwittingly played a role in his death. And when you think about it, that's some sort of "reputation" to be proud of: to be so known for shameless deceit that strangers suspect the most tragic and pivotal event of your life is a just another manipulation.

[LeftishBrit]

29. I remember 1988 and being horrified by what happened (even 3000 miles away)

Not just because I admired Dukakis, and distrusted Bush; but because it seemed to show the triumph of evil, and that the rascals and bullies will always defeat the decent people. Not true, but that was how it felt.(Bear in mind, that this was at a time when, though we did not have those extremes, Thatcher was turning my country into a much harsher, 'anything goes', 'weakest go to the wall' society than before, and it was depressing me.) This seemed to be repeated when Kerry was 'swiftboated' in 2004. In the latest election, part of the good news was that there seemed to be a reaction in at least some quarters against the more indecent sorts of campaigning; Palin's tactics seemed to rebound on her, and a few -though not enough - of the viler hatemongers in Congress earned an electoral boot in the rear end, which may make others think twice about using such tactics.

[amborin]

36. do you think technology contributed partly to the difference

between 2008 and the two earlier elections, in terms of the 2008 public's somewhat diminished susceptibility to the smears? i wonder if internet organizing or emails helped discredit some of the lies?

[LeftishBrit]

42. Especially with not being in America, it's hard to be sure what the difference was..

I would guess three factors: (1) by now there was such a mess with the war AND the economy, that it made these smears seemed trivial; (2) these smears become less effective, the more often they are tried;(3) huge difference in turnout - around 65% vs around 50% in 1988. The latter change was one of the most impressive things about the election and I wonder what are the reasons: systematic GOTV efforts? frustration with Bush? Obama as an attractive candidate?

[DU GrovelBot]

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[KT2000]

41. Bush Sr, was a mean, petty man -

had forgotten about that. For some reason he is now known as an affable guy.
Sure showed how Sr. and Jr. are cut from the same cloth.
ethics and morality??? - that's for the little people.

[NashVegas]

43. Ugly On the Inside

It was just that his inward evil finally manifested and displayed itself physically. It's a tragedy the ugliness didn't die with him.

[ailsagirl]

52. I liked the way one viewer summed the story up....

Dear FRONTLINE,

Sad. Interesting. Didactic. As I watched "Boogie Man," I kept being reminded of Oscar Wilde's novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Atwater -- amoral to the end -- morphing into a grotesque embodiment of his disturbing life. Never more than the hired help for the Bush family. Discarded at the end. And, among the politicos, only Ed Rollins seemed to have a shred of humanity.

Robert Wood
Little Rock, AR

[olegramps]

44. This is why I despise McCain and Palin

Bush and his henchmen destroyed McCain in his bid for the nomination and he not only came crawling back to kiss Bush's ass, but embraced the very same smear tactics in his attempt to destroy Obama. Sarah the Witch is a Rovian disciple of hatred and division. Sorry, I have no compassion for these demons and wish them the worst of fates since I don't put very much faith in after life retribution. To me, the are evil incarnate and a cancer that has to be dealt with here.

[laundry_queen]

46. I watched it.

Just sort of stumbled upon it while channel surfing.
As a Canadian who was pretty young during this time, I didn't know much about Lee Atwater. As I watched the program I just became SO disgusted with what a vile bunch they all were/are. And it's pretty obvious the republican playbook hasn't changed much. Thank god it didn't work this time.

[ailsagirl]

47. UGH-- watched the PBS Frontline special on him... I guess the

roots of repug evil-- I mean the REAL nasty stuff-- started with him. I couldn't believe it. It was hard to get through the program, what with seeing bush sr and junior and all the rest of them.

The program itself was excellent. If you have the stomach for it.

[CatWoman]

53. I was so intrigued by it that I ordered the DVD

:hi:

[ailsagirl]

56. It's definitely an excellent program. You might want to read an

interview with the man who made the film (Stefan Forbes). Very interesting!!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/etc/qa.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/


P.S. It made my four cats race out of the room!!! heehee

[CatWoman]

58. thanks for the interview link

and I see that your cats are as wimpy as mine!! :)

[ailsagirl]

59. Knowing you are a cat person, I just had to add that...

I have two torties, a tiger, and a black one (mom of the torties)

Can't imagine life without them!!
:)

[PresidentObama]

51. I watched it, and I noticed how many tactics have been recycled in the W and McCain campaigns n/t

[ailsagirl]

60. We knew it couldn't have lasted forever. Now the repugs are

standing in the ruins of their once-powerful party.

Disgusting that Atwater was without conscience-- a real sociopath.

[karynnj]

55. th kid he menored, Rove threw far more at Senator Kerry

and the media was even less helpful.

[PaDem]

62. ironically Rove is older than Atwater..........

by less than a year.

[mokawanis]

57. Atwater was an asshole

It's really that simple. The guy was an asshole and he worked hard to undermine the very notion of democracy.

[RandomKoolzip]

63. The most revealing comment in that presentation was from Tucker Eskew...

He was commenting on why low-income voters always seem to vote against their own economic interests, and (I'm paraphrasing) he said something like "Democrats and people on the left always get confused by this, but it's actually really simple: proud patriotism always trumps economic concerns for those people." And of course, Eskew (what a perfect name) didn't seem to have a problem with that.

I got chills of anger down my back when he said that. Basically, he was saying, "They're willingly stupid and we exploit that stupidity proudly."

And WE'RE the elitists?!