Taking a page from the Bill and Monica Show playbook, the Democrats are up to their old tricks again. In an effort to stave off a recall petition against Gov. Greyout Davis, they are attacking Darrell Issa, the Republican congressman who is bankrolling the recall drive.

Issa, R-Vista, plans to begin campaigning this weekend, addressing an annual gathering of moderate Republicans near Santa Barbara on Saturday and talking to party members in Orange County later in the day.

Davis allies, meanwhile, are seeking to keep the focus away from the governor and on Issa. They've scheduled press conferences and demonstrations Tuesday in Beverly Hills, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, where abortion rights supporters plan to draw attention to the congressman's opposition to abortion.

"Basically the message they're going to be sending tomorrow is Darrell Issa shouldn't be allowed to recall a woman's right to choose," said Carroll Wills, spokesman for Taxpayers Against the Recall, the group of Davis allies that organized last month to fight the recall campaign.

Basically, the message they're going to be sending tomorrow is that Grey Davis's supporters are so intellectually bankrupt that they have to turn a referendum on Davis into a referendum on abortion, by tying a Davis foe to an unpopular stance, rather than confronting the real issue, which is Davis's abysmal management of the state.

They are so terrified of the recall, that they cannot rely on Issa's record to weaken support; they have to lie about that as well:

Issa campaign consultant Scott Taylor said Issa opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when a mother's life is in danger, but has not supported a constitutional amendment banning abortion, as recall opponents claimed in a press release announcing Tuesday's rallies.

Hey, it worked in 1998; they managed to put Ken Starr on trial, rather than B.J. They managed to demagogue the real issue out of view, by harping on Ken Starr's alleged failings to the exclusion of all else. (Their allies in the mainstream media were more than willing to help them in this endeavour.) Why not stick with a winning game plan, even if it is morally reprehensible?

posted on June 09, 2003 08:51 PM



Comments:

Nauseating, isn't it? "Recall Governor Davis and the streets will run red with blood from discarded coat-hangers." I'm beginning to think I got out of there (I was a California resident, briefly, in the late 80s) just in time.

posted by CGHill on June 10, 2003 01:15 PM

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