Back in 2000, Democratic strategist and political writer Cliff Schecter contributed $20 to the presidential campaign of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. An admirer of McCain's independent streak then in opposing Republican orthodoxy on supply-side tax cuts and overturning Roe v Wade, Schecter admitted, "I trusted him." Eight years and seemingly endless McCain flip-flops later, Cliff Schecter wants his money back.
This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising through your local independent bookstore.
NASHVILLE, TN - We tend to complain a lot about not having progressive voices in the media, and yet we watch how the conservative movement rams their voices into the media through books and publications. When conservative authors sell lots of books or conservative magazines build a big circulation, the rest of the media comes calling. It's a pretty simple formula, and that's why one of the things I tell audiences at my events is that by buying a progressive book or by subscribing to a progressive magazine, you are engaging in an act of movement building. This concept is at the heart of my new newspaper column today.
On the stump in New Jersey today, John McCain launched a thundering two-pronged assault on yesterday's Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Again raising the specter of "unaccountable judges," McCain picked up on his earlier, right-wing handbook assault against so-called judicial activism. Then turning to fear-mongering, McCain proclaimed "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country" will lead to more attacks against the American people. But lost in McCain's red-faced response is his effort to whitewash his own past role in undermining both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
"I bought [The Straight Talk Express] once. I gave the man a campaign contribution... back in 2000, when I thought he held informed, principled positions high above the fray of partisan politics. That moderate McCain (McCain 1.0) quickly vanished in the late 1990s. Who knows what will follow?"
...
"This book is more than a cautionary tale. It's enough to make you vote for someone else."
Being Cliff Schecter's first book, it’s reassuring that he doesn’t focus on scrutinizing McCain’s public characteristics with malevolence. Instead, he plainly examines the senator’s frequent political maneuvers and how they have shaped and reshaped public opinion of him.
In 150 pages of clear, researched and witty language, McCain’s reinvention of himself is adeptly detailed. This book contains a gauged chronology, comprehensive voting record, direct interviews to explain why the Gentleman from Arizona’s character-shifting should be anything but polyamorous.
Cliff Schecter, author of the new book,The Real McCain , has posted an devastating YouTube video at his blog on HuffingtonPost.com. chock filled with McCain's flipflopping and confused statements all emblematic of his Derailing Confused Talk Express.
I don't think YouTube video's can be embedded here at Dkos so just clink the link and take a look.
Hey folks - this is Adam Green with MoveOn. I wanted to let you know that the good folks at OpenLeft.com have opened up their front page this Sunday morning from 10am to 11am EST for me to liveblog ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
I wanted to invite you to join me there for active discussion, and to suggest in the comments below any thoughts you have on things to look for. Be they big issues or small nuances...or questions you think should be asked to McCain...I'm all ears.
As many of you probably know, MoveOn launched a petition this week to ABC and other networks in reaction to this week's travesty of a debate on ABC. If you haven't seen it yet, it says:
"Debate moderators abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about. Enough with the distractions--ABC and other networks must focus on issues that affect people's daily lives."
There was a ton of energy behind this media critique. (More below.)
Buy Cliff Schecter book "The Real McCain" for personal use and for five friends and relatives. Check.
Write letter to editor bemoaning the absence of reporting on the fact that the President of the United States signed an order creating a class of persons who the United States and its proxies can torture. Check.
Write letter to Wall Street Journal decrying slip shod hit job on Barack Obama - charmed life plus elitism plus untested. Check.
Act on Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Act Blue candidate information. Contribute to four democratic Congressional campaigns. Check.
Today April 10 I was driving home and had to turn my car radio off. I'd been listening to All Things Considered, and they ran not one but two stories outrageously pimping John McCain.
First they ran a story by Peter Overby relating how McCain and Obama are battling over public financing of their campaigns.
McCain intends to take public funds. He accuses Obama of breaking a promise to do the same. But the cash machine built by the Obama campaign may dwarf the $84 million federal grant that he would get from Washington under public financing.
Except Overby never mentions it's McCain who's breaking the law.
I went, I saw, I returned. I'm not one of the more prominent or prolific Kossacks, and I didn't have any idea what to expect or what (if anything) I might be able to contribute. Even so, the closeness of the venue this year (I'm in a suburb of Detroit) combined with the realization that I haven't been on an overnight trip by myself (ie, no family) in a whopping 7 years made it a no-brainer to attend.
The first thing I'll say is that I should've paid more attention to the schedule--for some reason I was under the impression that Dean's keynote address on Thursday evening was the first event; sadly, this meant that my Thursday afternoon arrival (followed by having to check in, find my hotel room, etc) resulted in my missing several sessions earlier that day. Worse yet, the timing of my return trip meant that I missed all of the closing stuff on Sunday. Live and learn; lesson for next year: if you want the full experience, show up the day before and don't leave until the evening of the last day.
This past Friday morning at YearlyKos 2007, a session caught my attention. It was called Going on TV in my schedule. I looked it up to find this description in the program:
Learn how to defeat wingnut shysters in debates ranging from local radio to national television. Cliff Schecter has been there, and will provide you with the strategies and techniques he’s used to disembowel elitist conservative pundits on CNN, NPR, MSNBC and FoxNews.
Gee, that seemed like something I wanted to have some help with. And Cliff Schecter has really taken them on as we have seen plenty of times, he's the real deal. Not that I'm being asked to go up against wingnut shysters much on TV. But--I do see them in the wild sometimes.
First, Joe had to step over a prostrate protester in his office to get to work:
"Would someone please, please give me some water?" whimpered the fainting Code Pink demonstrator.
"Get that damned woman out of my way!" roared the impatient Senator. "I have to give another press conference - to let everyone know that things are going beautifully in Iraq!"
This is the second in a weekly series of articles, written by John Javna, that will appear on BlogPAC.org, recognizing unsung heroes of the progressive movement — ordinary people who are working tirelessly to make America a better place. If you have suggestions about people who deserve more recognition for their work as progressive activists, please contact us at fighttheright@opendoor.com.
Think about it: The Right has dozens of hard-ass TV pundits—Buchanan, Coulter, Malkin, and so on. But who do we have? Sure, a few mainstream Democrats show up regularly on talk-TV, but where are the attack-dog progressives—the ones who’ll throw right-wingers’ bullshit right back in their faces? The ones who say what YOU’D want to say?
It is our opinion that no matter how much that putz Cliff Schecter yips and yaps, America knows where the Senior Senator from Arizona stands on the issues.
America always has.
And, whether or not you agree with the proposed troop surge, Senator McCain has consistently argued that more troops are needed in Iraq to help stabilize Baghdad, prevent the outbreak of a wider regional war and finish the job that 373 members of Congress voted to start in 2002.
Although we are the minority in the Daily Kos community, GreenMountainPolitics1 wholeheartedly supports the Senator's support of the surge.
