Chanting Points Memo: “Maaaaaah! Tom’s Smearing Me!”
By Mitch Berg
In the DFL “Unity” rally yesterday, Mark Dayton – who has funded, along with his family, the most expensive orgy of attack advertising in Minnesota history, unprecedented in both its cost and its fallaciousness – complained:
“I expected the smears to start right away, and they have.”
He was complaining, of course, because after a month of carping on Emmer’s 20 and 30 year old careless driving arrests (and lying about his legislative record), the GOP – not the Emmer campaign – took out an ad highlighting Dayton’s genuine and recent erratic behavior.
Leaving aside that the MNGOP’s ad buy will be a tiny fraction of what “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” spent smearing Tom Emmer (on the Dayton family dime), one must ask; is reporting facts – something A4aBM never tried in re Emmer’s record – a “smear”? How does Dayton feel about the “smearing” that his family-funded PAC has been funding for the past month?
This is the beginning of the latest chanting point from the left. On Tuesday night, Jeff Rosenberg of the leftyblog MNPublius – a good guy, but as reliable a barometer of the direction of DFL spin as exists in the Twin Cities lefty “alternative” media since Dusty Trice exited the blogging stage in a welter of snark-splat – tweeted his vision of the upcoming discourse:
Dayton/DFL: “We should really solve the budget problem.” Emmer/GOP: “MARK DAYTON IS A POOHEAD.:
Which is an interesting take, given that while Dayton, his family and cronies have funded more attack ads in the past month than ran in the entire 2006 campaign against Pawlenty.
So let me ask you this, Jeff Rosenberg and, by the way, every single other lefty commentator: name and document one single attack that has come from Tom Emmer in this cycle, against anyone; against any of his convention opponents, or Kelliher, Entenza, Horner or Dayton.
You can not, of course. Emmer has taken an utterly scrupulous high road – as has his main political action committee, MNForward, funded by Minnesota businesses.
But expect this narrative over the next week or two; that Dayton is a victim!
Indeed, I’m going to go out on a thick, strong limb and say Dayton will issue nothing substantial for the next week; he’ll whing about being “Targetboated”, and he’ll redouble the efforts of his goons at A4aBM.
Enjoy this, Minnesota. This is your 2010 model DFL in action.
August 12th, 2010 at 7:44 am
Did anyone or everyone see this coming?
I mean, after all, facts mean nothing to the left and they rationalize that they can do anything they want, as long as they win! When they get called out on their lies, they cry foul or bring up the racism card.
August 12th, 2010 at 7:56 am
lets preempt peeve and his ilk
left logic on>
Mark Dayton supports Barak Obama.
Tom Emmer opposes Mark Dayton.
That means Tom Emmer must oppose Barak Obama.
That makes Tom Emmer a Racist!
/left logic off>
August 12th, 2010 at 8:11 am
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mitchpberg, mitchpberg. mitchpberg said: @Mark_Dayton: "I am a victim!" http://bit.ly/aDsbw2 – Because he's run such a clean, substantive campaign so far. #stribpol #mn2010 […]
August 12th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Dayton and his proxies have already shown the desperation of negative ads even before the primaries and that’s not a hopeful sign for the DFL side. How are they going to drive down Emmer much more?
Contrarily, the GOP is sitting on a huge trove of very recent Dayton behavior and policies that they haven’t even begun to highlight. Just don’t get cocky, kid.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
This just in from WCCO online.
“Dayton calls for a cease fire on attack ads.”
Shocker! It also acknowledges his attack ads on Tom Emmer through A4BM, pointing out that it is funded by the Daytons.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
After a month or more of a steady onslaught of slander againt Emmer they now want to play nice. Mad Mark and Dims not unlike any tough guy bully wants to make peace and have a civil campaign without “attack adds”. PFFT!!!
While it’s a matter of record Mad Mark has no balls, he’d like all to believe that the GOP is stomping on his.
The way I see it a couple more hard licks and Mad Mark will move his campaign and staff in the middle of the night (probably to Duluth) due to overwhelming and paralyzing fear.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
[…] of paying for “independent” PACs to slime Emmer, Dayton’s current narrative is “I’m Being Swiftboated!” In October of 2008, Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman decided he would pull all his negative ads […]
August 15th, 2010 at 9:04 am
“careless driving arrests”
I though they were DUI arrests that later were plead down to Careless Driving convictions.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/42100987.html
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Emmer, who was 30 at the time, pleaded guilty to careless driving, while two drunken-driving charges and a license-plate charge were dropped. He also received a DWI-related ticket in 1981, when he was 20.
—
I think the issue is silly, to be honest, but I like how you continue to triangulate facts and create an untruth that doesn’t exist.
FACT: Emmer arrested and charged with DUI
FACT: Plead to Careless Driving, DUI charges dropped
UNTRUTH: “careless driving arrests” They were, in fact DUI arrests