Dirty Tricks
Reported by Melanie - September 2, 2004 -
Rich Lowry (National Review) and Ellis Henican (Newsday) led today (September 2, 2004) on Dayside w/Linda Vester.
After the three discussed what Bush needs to say tonight in his speech, and talked about a "midnight news conference" that John Kerry will hold right afterward (will Fox cover it?), they turned to Zell Miller's speech of last night.
Vester said "people are still talking about it and the email we've gotten here - at least at Dayside - has been split 50/50."
Lowry said, "Yeah, it was a fascinating performance. It's like nothing we've seen in a long, long time. I think it proves a point that I've been trying to argue with Ellis for a long, long time - the Democrats are really angry this year Ellis..."
Henican: "Zell?"
Lowry: "...we have this Democrat out of control..."
Henican: "Zell? What happened to Zell? Oh my gosh."
Lowry: "...he's a Democrat. But my first-blush reaction was that the presentation was too hot but we'll have to see how it plays with the public. The substance was quite good. I mean, Kerry has a lot of explaining to do on the Senate votes, which he doesn't want to talk about."
COMMENT: Don't forget folks, this was the GOP's keynote speech; their answer to Barack Obama.
About the substance, Air America picked that apart this morning with devastating results. Hopefully there'll be critiques in the mainstream press. About Kerry's Senate record, I think Kerry is more than willing to talk about his Senate record. Unfortunately, it can't be done in a sound bite so nobody asks.
The real kicker here is that while the Republicans embrace the "substance" of what Miller said, they're now distancing themselves from his anger. They're pushing him back into the "angry Democrat" box, and using this event to again highlight that issue. You can't tell me that the GOP didn't encourage Miller and didn't know what they were getting into when they signed him on to speak. Dirty tricks GOP, but heck, what else is new? Oh, and thanks to Fox for helping to get that message up and running.
