Sherrod strikes back

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_02.html

Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown is vehemently denying an allegation that his campaign spread rumors that Paul Hackett, his former rival for the U.S. Senate nomination from Ohio, committed war crimes while serving in Iraq.

Hackett, who dropped out of the race last week, made the allegation Monday in an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball program. Brown, asked to respond to Hackett's claim, made the following comments Tuesday after a campaign appearance before students at Muskingum College in New Concord, OH:

"A week and a half ago, Paul Hackett got out of the (Senate) race and said it was the Deomocratic bosses that pushed him out. Then he said he got out of the race because he didn't have enough money. Then he said he got out of the race because his poll numbers were too low. Now he's saying our campaign is spreading rumors.

"It's absolutely not true. I heard lots of rumors about Paul Hackett months ago. Connie (Brown's wife, Connie Schultz) and I heard it together from somebody. We immediately told our campaign that we were not interested in those and they were not to spread any rumors or discuss any rumors about Paul Hackett, period.''...

form a circle.....

nt

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I must agree with stepnw1f's observation that you seem to be especially enthusiastic further inflaming passions here. We need to let this rest!

people feeding these posts are names I never see on any other issue. Very interesting... I suppose it could be me, and that it's just a coincidence.

We Ohioans don't like Rove tampering in our senate races.

unless money rules over popular majority

He's a progressive. He voted against the war. What ARE you talking about, dear?

...so you're going to destroy Brown's candidacy because Hackett dropped out?

Hackett was going to lose the primary anyway!

And Brown is far more progressive!

If Brown should lose, many people - including myself - will point the finger at Hackett's comments.

Jesus, I supported both. I would have been happy with either. I always thought that the loser in the primary would be the candidate in the 2008 Ohio Senate race. The one thing I never wanted was for the two sides to tear each other apart.

Maybe you people don't have a dog in this race. Maybe for you this is just another excuse to tear into the Washington Democrats. But fuck, I live here. This fuck Dewine is my Senator. And I want to change that.

Never in a million years did I think this would happen. I was feeling very optimistic about the whole prospect of taking the Senate seat this year and then the other one in 2008. But instead we have to deal with this FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!

For you non-Ohio Hackett supporters here's a reality check (and I have a fleeting suspicion that's where this is all coming from):

Brown WAS GOING TO WIN THE PRIMARY!!! Brown had no reason to go negative against Hackett. He had a 20+ point lead, organizational superiority, and a 10 to 1 money advantage. Brown was the progressive and Hackett was the conservative in the race.

Many of you will say, "well he reneged on not running. He waited until Paul was in the race and decided to jump in himself." FALSE! That is revisionism gone wild. If you remember, after Hackett nearly won the Ohio-02 race in early August of last year, many people looked at him as a possible star candidate. Even the DLC were singing this guys praises. Many people, including myself, wanted him to run for the Senate. Others, including Brown, had already declined. And we desperately wanted a candidate for this race. But at first Hackett hestitated and refused to commit. So by Labor Day, Brown had changed his mind and decided to run after all. IT WAS THEN AND ONLY THEN, after Brown had changed his mind, that Hackett decided to run. Brown announced his candidacy BEFORE Hackett did!

Hackett was also the one who was going negative first. Doing so several times this past month. At every stop he was blasting Brown much to the dismay of the Ohio Democratic Party and faithful. He was heckled and booed at many of his speeches for doing so. It was at this point that I began to see Hackett for what he really was: an amateur. At one event some older man screamed out at him, "Why are you doing this Paul? Brown never says anything about you!" Hackett's problem wasn't his presence or his message. It was his guile and immaturity. He had a complete lack of understanding of how to run a campaign. When it caught up to him, he had a tantrum.

Realizing that the gig was up, accepting the reality of the situation (that he was going to lose), Hackett decided to torpedo the Brown campaign in a petty last ditch move. And in the process probably torpedoed his own chance of running again in 2008. He turned a minority of the Ohio Democratic Party and national attention against Brown who had never done anything wrong, other than run a successful campaign.

The only one excited about any of this is Dewine and Karl Rove.

I was defending Brown.

It wasn't directed at you. I was scrowling down, after having read another post on the subject and just could not contain myself anymore.

You're tops.

I am horrified at how many non-Ohio DUers are promoting rumours and various other crap that is so counter-productive.

Thanks for the good post.

Julie

Sherrod Brown is one of the most progressive members of the U.S. Congress and a true grassroots democrat and Democrat.

Sherrod Brown bucked the Administration of his own party to fight furiously against NAFTA.

Sherrod Brown defied the tide and courageously fought and voted against the so-called Patriot Act.

Representative Brown fought and voted against the Iraq War Resolution

Sherrod Brown almost personally led the fight against CAFTA and the Bankruptcy Bill

Sherrod Brown helped pass the bill in Congress to provide Medicaid coverage to uninsured women diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer patients.


Brown Tops DeWine in New Poll
An Opinion Consultants poll finds Ohio voters favor Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for the U.S. Senate over incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), 43% to 38%

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2006/01/26/brown_tops_dewine_in_new_poll.html

Sherrod Brown is endorsed by PDA (Progressive Democrats of America) and is an outspoken member of the Progressive Caucus.

courtesy of vote smart - link:

http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=H3141103&type=category&category=Foreign%2BAid%2Band%2BPolicy%2BIssues&go.x=12&go.y=8


2006 In 2006 Citizens for Global Solutions gave Representative Brown a rating of A.

2005 In 2005 Citizens for Global Solutions gave Representative Brown a rating of A.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Council on American-Islamic Relations 100 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Peace Action 100 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the American Civil Liberties Union 84 percent in 2003-2004.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 96 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Arab American Institute 50 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the National Council of La Raza 100 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Human Rights Campaign 77 percent in 2003-2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 90 percent in 2003-2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights 100 percent in 2003-2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the National Education Association 89 percent in 2003-2004.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers 100 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Service Employees International Union 100 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the United Auto Workers 93 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the American Postal Workers Union 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the AFL-CIO 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the United Auto Workers 93 percent in 2004.

2004 On the votes that the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers considered to be the most important in 2004, Representative Brown voted their preferred position 88 percent of the time.

2004 On the votes that the Service Employees International Union considered to be the most important in 2004, Representative Brown voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Communications Workers of America 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers 100 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees 100 percent in 2003-2004.

2003-2004 On the votes that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers considered to be the most important in 2003-2004, Representative Brown voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Americans for Democratic Action 95 percent in 2004.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the American Wilderness Coalition 100 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund 100 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the American Wilderness Coalition 100 percent in 2004.

2004 On the votes that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance considered to be the most important in 2004, Representative Brown voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund 100 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Brown supported the interests of the League of Conservation Voters 94 percent in 2003-2004.

2004 In 2004 National Organization for Women endorsed Representative Brown.

2005 Representative Brown supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2005.

choice of "smoke filled room" vs active participant in the criminal destruction of Fallujah, take your pick

give you a ble state. I wish Sherrod Brown would have come out and said something along this line, especially seeing he is the former OH SOS.

That's who you've chosen, the guy who tried to booby-trap the Dems Ohio primary by planting false rumor stories then attacking his Dem opponent using Rove talking points.

Maybe you're in the wrong party. Here in Ohio, we support Dems, not newbies who crop up out of nowhere and decide to switch from Republican to Democrat overnight.

You may want to learn some lessons from this in case it happens in your state.

It's a good thing all of this is going on in Ohio, so it won't make any difference,
other than saving Blackwell the trouble of stealing the election for the Repubs this year.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

probably paid a shill to "go to Brown's camp" . . .

(that's where the cries of "war crimes" started . . .)

in the Gore campaign, sending the tape of Bush's campaign strategy session to Gore's campaign staffers. They promptly called the FBI and gave them the tape.

Sherrod did the same thing, squelched the rumor fast and distanced his campaign from Rove's trap.

The more Hackett keeps harping on this, the more I'm convinced he's a Rove plant.

Stalking horse...

Hackett doesn't understand how politics works. He's an amateur. He sees this as the worst that can happen in politics, because he's never been in politics. He's young and inexperienced. In reality, he hasn't seen anything. Anyone who has fought in the trenches knows what a "swift boating" is really like. But he keeps going on television, for no apparent reason other than to stick it to Brown out of pettiness, and keeps saying how he was maligned.

If Hackett keeps this up, this is what I would say if I were Brown.

"Hackett claims to have been 'swift boated.' But where are the books that were published? When did the television or radio ads air? Where are the pamphlets that were released? When was the push-polling done? What are the urls to the websites? Where are the leaked newspaper articles?" There were none. Because there was no smear campaign against Hackett. There were questions that were raised, true. But I think it's important to point out that I live in Ohio, volunteer for the campaigns and am following this election closely, but I had never even heard these "accusations" until Hackett himself brought it up last week. Questions and clarifications are not smears, they are just that: questions and clarifications. There are questions in every campaign. Hackett had answered those questions to the satisfaction of everyone involved. Is Hackett so arrogant that he doesn't believe he should have to answer any questions about himself? The only reason the Washington Democrats asked Hackett to leave the race was because they saw that he was going to lose. Anyone even remotely political and following this race could see that Hackett was losing it. They didn't want to lose Hackett. So, with less than a week before the filing deadline, they asked him to drop out and consider running for Congress instead. He would have had the full support of the Democratic Party. This is hardly the stuff of conspiracies.

The irony is that Hackett is the one doing the 'swift boating' now. He carries on a lie because it helps soothe the fact that he lost the campaign. For in the final analysis, the only person I know of who went negative in this race was Hackett himself. Throughout January and February he delivered speech after speech of scathing criticisms of Sherrod Brown. And now? Hackett is continuing his scorthed earth policy to feed his fragile ego. He allowed all his press clippings to go to his head. He can't admit that he ran a bad campaign, so he makes excuses instead of accepting responsibility. He divides the Democratic party for no other reason than to save face.

That is the most dishonorable thing I can think of. He betrays every Democrat in Ohio when he does that. Everyone, myself included, who donated to him when he ran in OH-02 and who routed or volunteered for him. He spits in all our faces. I don't care about Paul Hackett because I don't know Paul Hackett. I supported him because I thought he could win. I supported his message. The same way I support Sherrod Brown, because I think he can win. Because I support his policies and message. But along the way this became about Paul Hackett, and was no longer about the people of Ohio. And to me, that is unacceptable.

This has become a cult of personality that has no basis in fact. He's only 34 years old, but Hackett's guile probably cost him a future political career.

Sherrod Brown is a good and honorable man. He is a strong voice for Ohio voters. He deserves better than the rantings of an immature man who can not accept the fact that he lost.

So there were rumors.

I hadn't heard them. This is the first confirmation that I have heard that Brown heard the whispers. I doubt he spread them though.

into a war criminal (back on 04) . . .

for the rumors this time around. Typical GOP dirty tricks.

enough of Hackett's bull**** fantasies.

You mean the rumors Sherrod Brown heard that you claim in every thread were never whispered in the whole State of Ohio? :rofl:

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

"I heard lots of rumors about Paul Hackett months ago. Connie (Brown's wife, Connie Schultz) and I heard it together from somebody."

I think Sherrod Brown is telling the truth.

saying that he's a Rove plant or somesuch is going over the top IMHO.

Now that Sherrod Brown has said there were rumors - the meme can't be that there were no rumors against Hackett in the whole state of Ohio - the switch is to Hackett is a Rove plant.

I tell ya, LC, I'm laughin' my ass off over here :rofl:

Hackett (for whatever reaon(s)), is out. Move on. It's Brown against DeWine...and Brown HAS to win. That's all we should be focusing on now.

I hope to god this isn't an indication of how nasty the next Democratic Presidential primary will be...

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers /

When Sherrod Brown addressed about 150 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 212 in Cincinnati on Tuesday night, at least a few of its members didn't want to hear what he had to say...

But Brown's remarks about health care, the minimum wage and Social Security earned hearty applause from those who, unlike Triosi, stayed to hear him out.

Afterwards, Brown discounted Triosi's beef. "You can find someone for any anecdote," he said as he dined on a 3-Way (spaghetti, chili and shredded cheese) at a Skyline Chili franchise next to the union hall. "We're going to unify Democrats. I think we have already done that. These people are with me. Paul last week said 'Vote for Sherrod Brown.'...

Union representative Chris Fridel said he believed that most of Hackett's backers would rally around Brown. "There are a lot of people that aren't very happy with some of the politics that happened at this point to get Paul to drop out of the race, but that's politics and you move forward to get Democrats elected," Fridel said.

Boring!

(kidding) :-)

Now he can attack republicans! Enough with this nonsense!