Searching for Claude Pepper

Well, it's high political season and the attack ads are out in full force. Makes you sort of want to give up television long before Lent rolls around, doesn't it?

I know that "negative campaigning" has been around as long as politics have been part of human existence. One of my favorite mudslinging stories of all time comes from the 1950 Senate campaign of Claude "Red" Pepper in Florida. His former friend and colleague George Smathers ran against the incumbent senator, and was reported to have used the following remarks in his stump speech throughout the rural areas of the state (Pepper was from the strongly Democratic Miami area):


"Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, he has a brother who is a known homo sapiens, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper, before his marriage, habitually practiced celibacy."
(quoted in Time magazine, April 17, 1950 -- read the story here.)


Unfortunately, today's pols can't hold a candle to the chicanery of old; the name calling and innuendo-placing that passes for political ads today is simply nauseating. There's nothing entertaining about it.

But I must say that, if you're going to produce and place a negative advertisement to try and pull down your opponent, you need to do a great deal better than the Democratic National Committee's latest effort. They have begun running an "attack ad" against Karl Rove and other purported "thieves" of our democracy. (You can watch it here, if you really want to waste 30 seconds.)

They try to paint the Master of Disaster and his supposed cronies, The US Chamber of Commerce, as breaking the law and stealing our democracy by taking foreign money to place political ads. This would be an illegal activity if it were true, but the Dems don't really have any proof. Nobody seems to be able to say exactly how much money was accepted, who it came from, or what it was spent on.

This is an embarrassing effort. First, it's probably not that smart to try to beat Rove at his own game. He's way better than you guys, DNC. And second, if you're going to try to whip people up into a political lather before the November election, why don't you pick an issue that ANYBODY GIVES A RIP ABOUT!

Maybe Thomas Friedman will turn out to be the real prophet with his "Third Party Rising" prediction for 2012. (read it here) America may finally be getting so fed up with both the Democrats and the Republicans that we can collectively give them the old "heave-ho!"

As I fondly remember a bumper sticker from the 70's saying: "Flush twice; it's a long way to Washington!"