The Pink Flamingo :: Today’s Blog Kudos & Smears Against McCain & Lindsey

THE GOOD GUYS
Brad Warthen’s Blog has the story Mac in Hanoi and someone from SC who was there.

The Opinionated Catholic is a huge Mike Huckabee supporter, but is honest enough to make note of a Huckabee mis-step.

Steve Maloney is taking on “Gamecock” on Red State. at Campaign Victory 2008 and his personal blog.

Conservatism With Heart earns kudos today for taking out Mike Huckabee – ON HIS RECORD! There was not denigrating, no name calling, just stating a record with which the blogger disagreed. You get a gold star.

THE BLOGGING RASPBERRIES
Naturally the Thumb Nosed Raspberry Award of the day goes to Michelle Malkin for her ongoing degradation and denigration of Mac and my friend Lindsey. Note to Michelle, get a life and a new platform. This one is getting old and you are starting to make yourself look really bad.

Let Freedom Ring failed to make their point against Huck & Mac because of the “Shaminsty” epitaph. If you dislike a candidate, take them out on their record, and do not denigrate them because you disagree with a position. (You could be wrong). The only acceptable exception to this rule is Ron Paul.

Killbuck Creek Politics (a blog for Romney) is demanding McCain answer whether he is the “Manchurian Candidate”. This blog wins the award as the WORST post of the day.

THE ATTACKS
A BritBart primer on SC.
Americans for the Preservation for American Culture is going after both McCain and Romney in South Carolina because of the Confederate flag issue in SC. They are praising Huckabee for standing up for it.

“..Ron Wilson, a former national commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a South Carolinian who was involved in raising money for the ads, said they will be run today through Saturday's primary on every radio station in the state that carries the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly. He wouldn't say how big the ad buy was, but said the buyers have been told they will reach 60 percent to 65 percent of all Republican primary voters with the ads...”

From The Palmetto Scoop on how Huckabee handled the issue. And the CofCC and their plans.

"...Neither Mr. McCain's nor Mr. Romney's campaigns responded immediately to requests for comment.Mr. McCain leads the polls here heading into Saturday's Republican primary, but the flag has a history of being a potent political issue. It is credited with helping derail the Arizona senator’s previous run against then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and helping oust one-term South Carolina Gov. David Beasley in 1999….”

Does the flag ad link with the Witherspoon ad and the hit vet piece?

RASING RACE IN SOUTH CAROLINA
When I first saw this today, I figured Buddy Witherspoon was running a nasty ad against Lindsey, obviously trying to hurt Mac. The Palmetto Scoop has more information on it, as well as the ad, which is the most blatantly racist I’ve seen – to date. The Shot has more. I would consider the Witherspoon ad just a fluke if it weren’t for the Jan 12 meeting of the SC Minutemen in Myrtle Beach (Thanks to Greg Siskind’s Blog) ,.where the following was said.

“…Not racism As in the previous meeting, participants aired their frustration. "We want to make it very clear that we're not racists," said Patricia Matthews, the Minuteman chapter director. "We just want our country back. Most comments focused on Hispanics. Audience members and speakers alike appeared especially irritated by the growing presence of the Spanish language, on telephone prompts and in public-school classes. "You ride by a work site and you don't see black people there, and you don't see white people there," said Margaret Thompson, a Clemson city councilwoman who has crusaded against illegal immigration. "If it appears they are all Hispanic-speaking, does not a red flag go up?" Other speakers decried what they saw as unfair application of the law or complained of costly car crashes with uninsured drivers. Roan Garcia-Quintana, a Cuban immigrant and director of the Mauldin-based group Americans Have Had Enough, said many illegal immigrants are involved in other crimes and the government ignores it. "I do love the South, and by the grace of God I am Southern," Garcia-Quintana said. "If the rest of the U.S. doesn't want to do anything, the Confederate States of America will rise again and we will do it." One of the activities of the national Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is sending members to the Mexican border for voluntary patrols. Bill McCarthy of Murrells Inlet, who said he planned to join the Horry chapter, said the trip was probably too expensive to be worthwhile when activism is needed at home. "We have enough work right here in Horry County; you don't have to go to the border," McCarthy said. "It's a big problem here in Horry County."…”

THE PUSH POLLS
From FTS News evidently everyone is being either helped or attacked by them.

THE REBUTTAL
Ed Rollins with the Huckabee campaign and Terry Sullivan of Romney’s campaign both think McCain was making way too much of the flyer that went out the other day in SC, claiming that Mac was a traitor.

“…In 2000, McCain was the target of a whisper campaign alleging that he fathered a black child while married to his wife, Cindy. The truth was McCain and his wife had adopted their daughter, Bridget, from Bangladesh. In 2008, the Arizona senator's staff is "trying to make McCain the victim," said senior Thompson adviser Rich Galen. "But 'the victim of what?' is, I think, a legitimate question. His victimhood is kind of empty," Galen said. Rival strategists said that's because McCain has not been the target of the same kinds of dirty tricks that helped end his presidential bid in the state eight years ago. Until a few weeks ago, McCain, long an underdog here, was hardly mentioned in rival Republicans' South Carolina campaign mail. Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani took the most flak, usually from Mitt Romney supporters focusing on taxes and immigration. Watch how the South Carolina is up for grabs » Just days ago, an independent pro-Huckabee group named "Common Sense Issues" began a push-polling campaign -- asking questions that raise negatives about the candidate. In it, they attacked McCain on abortion, but also took aim at the records of Romney and Thompson. The only smear directed exclusively at McCain, however, was engineered by "Vietnam Veterans against John McCain." The group mailed a cartoon flier to state newspaper editors calling the senator a "songbird" and accusing him of betraying his fellow veterans. The flier, which was not sent to voters, was further distributed by the McCain campaign, which e-mailed a scanned version to national and local reporters, before arranging a conference call to condemn it. Ed Rollins, Huckabee's national campaign chairman, said the flier hardly stacks up to what McCain faced in 2000. The McCain campaign and the press, he said, "know what's real and what's not real." [The year] "2000 was a long time ago," Rollins said. "I think to come in here and say the bogeymen are coming again ... they haven't come." Terry Sullivan, Romney's state director, accused McCain's camp of over-hyping the flier attack. "The senator doth protest too much, methinks," Sullivan said. "That's from Hamlet. Anger ended his campaign too."

THE ROMNEY DONNEYBROOK
I am going to turn it over to The Palmetto Scoop. I happen to think the whole dust up was about lobbyists in South Carolina. FTS News has more about a major scandal involving Tompkins, Kinnard, & Associates who (were) are running Romney’s SC Campaign.

A MINI RANT
Riehl World View thinks Ross Perot is behind the McCain smear. The Newsweek piece shows a person so out of touch that I don’t think he is involved. If you eliminate this theory, which I do, I go back to the Witherspoon hit on Lindsey. I think it probably heralds the possibility of a CofCC or League of the South participation. Neither group likes either Lindsey or Mac and would love to have a two-fer. You also need to remember that Witherspoon is backed by John Tanton and his whole FAIR-NumbersUSA machine. Considering how much Tanton hates both men, I would not put it past a Tanton connection to both groups. Heaven knows his heavy hand of anti-Hispanic racism and bigotry is all over this whole SC race and indeed the entire GOP Primary scene. (My guide to dirty SC politics) ALIPACis trying to stir up some anti-McCain sentiment. This in itself interests me. ALIPAC did quite a bit in Iowa to create problems for McCain.

The CofCC has an editorial today complaining about Mac.
My Blog Critics article on Witherspoon
There is a little activity over at Stormfront on the subject, but not enough to point fingers.
Note these sites and the similarities.
The Web site behind the McCain Hit
Smear Site against Lindsey
Old NumbersSC site
Witherspoon’s site
If they had the money, it could also have come from Teshua Press
As far as I am concerned, the two “hits” are connected.

There is no doubt in my mind the two “hits are connected. I think if we could ever follow the money in the Tanton laundering scheme of life, we would find it out it came from one of those sources. Both attacks involved some deep pockets. Somehow Tanton’s pockets are bottomless. It is entirely possible it all goes back to Ted Sampley and Jerry Kiley who detest McCain and were part of Swiftboating of John Kerry in 2004.

The whole thing is to stir up anti-immigration sentiments before Saturday’s primary.

I have one question, if Mitt Romney has “Pulled” out of SC, why has he increased his ad buy in SC to run through the Low Country where McCain is strongest? I honestly think the Romney buy had nothing to do with the smear against Mac. Why on earth, after Tompkins has been "outed" as having smeared McCain in 2000, would he do it again?

Who ever did this had the money to produce the flyers and the money to purchase the mailing labels. My bet is on an anti-immigration connection. Why didn't they pull the Vietnam thing on McCain before this? The only logical answer is the anti-immigration connection. In an interview with the AZ Central two days ago Roy Beck of NumbersUSA basically threatened McCain.

"...And most recently, his support of legislation that would grant most illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship has earned him enmity from some of the staunchest conservatives in the country."I can tell you every single immigration activist and organization is terrified by the New Hampshire results," said Roy Beck, executive director of the self-described "immigration reduction" group Numbers- USA...."

Never ever under-estimate the power and duplicity of these people. They work for John Tanton who is, currently, the most powerful person in the country. Tanton cannot allow either John McCain or Rudy Giuliani to win the nomination, nor can he allow a Dem to win the White House. He has too much riding on his population reduction and eugenics theories that are cloaked in intense and bigoted anti-immigration rhetoric. Then today we get this glorious article from the Sun Myung Moon owned Washington Times telling how anti-immigration Mike Huckabee is.

I know I am constantly repeating myself about Immigration, Tanton, the CofCC, NumbersUSA, Stormfront and the like, but I now know when you smell a rat, check and see what kind of bait Tanton is using. The outsider might not understand what a potentially explosive topic this is in South Carolina, thanks to the antics of the above individuals, who have vowed to basically destroy Lindsey politically. If Witherspoon had not dumped that racist ad against Lindsey, I would not have lumped all of this together. But, I go back to my old theory, if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck - well - just start looking for the John Tanton connection. Somehow it will be there.

Just to seal the deal, segue back up to the Confederate Flag Flap that Huckabee should have run, not walked away from as quickly as possible. Ron Wilson is behind it. Wilson has been sited by the SPLC for some of his anti-Semetic actions. Wilson is also connected with the CofCC along with Buddy Witherspoon. Now, frankly, I smell a big fat anti-immigration, CofCC, racist rat.

"....In 2002, Mr. Wilson was elected Commander in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Wilson’s moves to fill the hierarchy of the SCV with radicals were so strong, that Walt Hilderman, III created a group called Save the SCV. On his website, Hilderman contends “Wilson and Lyons have quietly filled the high level leadership positions in the SCV with members of the League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens and Free Mississippi.” Further, Hilderman goes on to contend, “…shall the SCV be a political organization for contemporary issues in modern American politics or shall the SCV be the consistent defender and representative of the Confederate soldier…”

All of this leads to one logical anti-immigration source with means, motive, opportunity and money. It is one who could implicate and damn with suspicion Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson and take out John McCain and Lindsey Graham at the same time. It needs to be a deep pocket source with ties to Stormfront and the CofCC. Just think about it. You decide.