Monday Morning Flak Attack: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

As expected, the flak is going to keep getting thicker and thicker the nearer we get to the election.

Oregon had a supporting role as Barack Obama attempted to make it past the latest barrage, this time over the comments of his preacher. Again, much has already been written and said, but it's probably worth noting there's a good reason Thomas Jefferson and others insisted on a separation between church and state. This is just another chapter in a volume that could fill infinite libraries.

But no surprise, the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate continues to generate the wildest smears, fanciest fibs and impressive double-twisting-back-flips of hypocrisy.

For the second week in row, Jeff Merkley's internet supporters went old school (and I mean really old school) with a little red-baiting, attempting to paint Steve Novick with the broad brush of the dreaded red menace (for God's sake cover the kids' ears) ... COMMUNISM.

You can't make this stuff up.

But the clear winner this week (based on pure "ick" factor alone) is the latest messaging rollout from the Merkley campaign trying to paint Steve Novick as something less than a worthy Democrat. It's a classic "off-the-shelf" move from an establishment candidate trying to regain lost ground from a quicker and more-determined underdog.

It started with Merkley's appearance on KPOJ where he falsely claimed Novick favored Ralph Nader over Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the candidate he's already endorsed for president.

It continued the next day at the Eugene debate when Merkley claimed Novick said he was "profoundly disappointed" with Clinton and Obama. Merkley completely made that up. Novick never said it. Or, as Al Franken used to say about Rush Limbaugh, "(Merkley) pulled it right out of his ass."

But the dogs were really primed to slobber when Merkley's hit teams dug up a 2006 BlueOregon post where Novick criticized Obama's sugar/ethanol policy.

An exasperated Kari Chisholm, Merkley's Mandate Media Man at BlueOregon, could hardly contain himself:

"Steve Novick's made great sport of beating up on other Democrats, like Jeff Merkley and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and Ted Kulongoski, while the rest of us spend our time trying to figure out how to beat Republicans."

Here's a list of stories attacking Novick that have appeared on Chisholm's BlueOregon. (I'm sure I've missed some):

1). BeaverBoundary: Novick and Taxes
2). Nolan and Greenlick's hit piece.
3). Post accusing Novick of joining Republicans in attacking Merkley
4). Could Steve Novick's height Cost Him The Election.
5). Novick and CIM/CAM
6, 7, 8 & 9). The four-part hit piece Kari himself authored about the trumped up PDA-gate. (Until his main source told him to stop misrepresenting their conversation and to stop using him to "swiftboat" Novick).
10). OR Senate Race: The OEA Endorsement (elements later retracted)
11). The "damage" caused by Novick's anti-Obama "rants"
12 & 13). DOUBLE BONUS: Chisholm's own Rogue of the Week from Willamette Week for "excessive use of bullshit in his mudslinging" against fellow Democrat Steve Novick.

And I'd be remiss not to mention that He Without Shame, the Merkley campaign's one-man internet ick machine who had previously tried to link Novick to communism, was also quite upset:

"Novick has a history of gratuitous attacks on Democrats."

The list of hit pieces this guy has written on Novick is so long and ridiculous I'll save the time laying them out. But his history of gratuitously attacking Democrat Steve Novick is extensive, wracking up more than 20 in the past three months.

It's clear that Merkley's D.C. consultants realize they can't beat Novick on the issues. He's consistently a step ahead and offers a more detailed vision for the future. So they hope to bog him down in silly season doubt about his "loyalty." Sound familiar? It's what Bill clinton was trying to do to Barack Obama with his "who-has-proved-their-love-of-America" comments that included his wife and John McCain, but left out Obama as somewhat less than worthy.

I guess the question here in Oregon's senate race is this: How do people go to work in the morning knowing that they've been given marching orders to smear a fellow Democrat by saying he too freely attacks other Democrats -- after they've been ruthlessly and disingenuously attacking that very Democrat for months? Is that what they dreamed of doing when they were growing up?

Maybe this'll help: