09/13/2002 Archived Entry: "Republicans and SS Word Games"

Gene Lyons has an excellent article out on Graham's and Hutchinson's attempts to lie their way toward election, following on the heels of Boozman holding off Hathorn's surge in the 2001 special election to replace Hutchinson in the AR 3rd CD, An Election Year Carnival Game:

The prototype for both commercials was John Boozman's last-minute ad barrage in the Nov. 2001 special election to replace Hutchinson's brother, Asa, as Arkansas's third district congressman. Democrat Mike Hathorn had been cutting into Boozman's lead by attacking Republican plans to "privatize" Social Security by diverting payroll taxes into speculative investments.

Shaken by Boozman's diminishing lead in a strongly Republican district, GOP imagineers crafted an ad heavy on buzzwords like "sacred," "promise," and "guarantee." It worked well enough to prevent Boozman from falling on his face. Now Republicans hope to deceive enough voters about President Junior's plan to turn Social Security into a taxpayer-funded stockbroker subsidy to bring Hutchinson and Graham limping in ahead of their Democratic opponents.

Josh Marshall has been writing about this topic over the last few weeks, with lots of good links.

Replies: 1 Comment

Hithcinson is a habitual lier and proven philanderer. Nothing new about that. Remember, he was educated at BJU...who perhaps taught him that it is Ok to flirt with other women as long as they were of the same race! BJU also probably taught him how to lie. Back in 2000, one BJU Professor Hand spread some dirty and false rumor about McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh...so Hutchinson lying is nothing new. As far as Graham is concerned, I think BJU is in his district. Hence, some of that lying has rubbed off on him.

Posted by G.C. Raj @ 09/15/2002 05:10 PM PST