Republican Sleaze Knows No Bounds -- From Coast to Coast, Dirty Gutter Tactics Abound!

I used to admire Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. But now, like John McCain, she has sold out to Republican gutter tactics, the Rove-Atwater doctrine. Dole is trailing in her re-election fight in North Carolina against Democrat Kay Hagan, and so she has resorted to outright lies to attack Hagan, a long time state senator, with character assassination. Sound familiar? She has taken Christianity as her cloak in attacking a Christian Sunday School teacher.

Dole's latest advertisement, according to Washington Monthly, suggests her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, is a godless heathen. "A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan," the 30-second spot says, showing footage of the group's members talking about their atheist beliefs on cable news. "Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money," the ad concludes. "What did Kay Hagan promise in return?"

At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan's says: "There is no God." Seriously, Dole used a Hagan impersonator to make voters think Hagan is an atheist. It's hard to know where to start with an ad this deplorable. First, Hagan is actually a Sunday school teacher and an elder in her church. Second, the fundraiser in question was co-hosted by 40 people, one of whom is on the board of an atheist political action committee. Third, there's nothing scandalous about non-believers.

I am a Christian. I pray for them. But they are Americans, too, and should be treated with respect, not hate and derision. Jesus came to proclaim love, not hate. Read your Bible, Libby!

Another question: what is "godless money"? Since all money has In God We Trust on it, how is it “godless”?

Hagan held a press conference this week with her family and pastor to denounce the ad, and announced that if Dole didn't pull the ad, she would seek a cease-and-desist order. But this is just another example of the sleazy, deplorable Republican attacks all over the country. It is time to throw the rascals out! Reject the lies, America!

It all reminds me of the excellent John Grisham novel, The Appeal, which details how dirty right wing political campaigns are a cancer on democracy, circumventing real debate with fear mongering and distortion of facts. Grisham uses his fiction to lambaste the amorality and greed of corporate America and the consequences suffered by its unwitting victims, mainly the defenseless poor.

The Appeal is an exposé of how highly organized special-interest groups, loaded with cash, can manipulate public opinion in elections. These are right wing tactics perfected by the current Republican Party, which is not the party of Lincoln, or Ford, or Eisenhower. It is the party of Rove and Atwater and Schmidt.

Now we hear that the Republicans, according to MSNBC's Chuck Todd, after complaining about Obama raising so much money from small donors, have thrown $325 million with the RNC (from large donors mostly) toward their get out the vote campaign during the last 72 hours! McCain's campaign manager, Rick "Fannie Mae PR Man" Davis is quoted crowing about it! No way Obama and the DNC can match that. So the right zealots will be voting in great numbers. That is what all the lies and smears are about -- to fire up that legendary angry right wing base. Even as they continue to suppress Democrat votes.

And in the past the Republicans have always had the money advantage. This is how it has been with the Republican Party until this year, when Obama swore off PAC’s and lobbyists and went straight to the people via the Internet, and 2 million small donors gave the little people a voice in an election. The fact that the Democrats have been competitive until this point makes the Republicans so mad. “We don’t know who these donors are!” cries John McCain.

Well, Mr. Pinocchio McCain, I am one of those small donors,, and I am proud of it. I just wish I had more money to give to the cause of saving the country that I love. America. May God bless America!

And if anyone would like to be a donor in the last days, to be a part of in the fight for your country's soul, donate to Obama by Sunday at midnight. Click www.barackobama.com

Then make sure you vote on Tuesday and call as many people as you can to vote for Obama-Biden. The future of America depends upon it!