In fact, according to a Kerry campaign volunteer, staff members and volunteers of the Kerry campaign in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles have been in almost constant contact with MoveOn.org staffers, including advanced viewing and reviews of MoveOn.org television commercials, online ads, and web content. As well, MoveOn.org staffers provided the Kerry campaign with opposition research within the past two months, as well as advance looks at speeches made by MoveOn.org speakers, including former Vice President Al Gore.
“We’re always running into those guys,” says a Kerry campaign volunteer in Washington, about MoveOn.org staffers. “We socialize with them, we see them at meetings, we can’t avoid it. And of course we talk about the campaign. In some cities, we get our volunteers from MoveOn. No one has ever raised an issue about it.”
Of course the Republicans can’t raise the issue of this flagrantly illegal activity, because that would be a dirty political trick (I mean, expecting the Democratic Party to obey election laws! Who ever heard of such a thing?). It is, of course, expected that the Democratic Party will protest even the weakest appearance of impropriety on the part of the Republicans because that’s keeping politics clean.
Ach, look, how the Americans have again suddenly become so dear and precious to the Germans when it hits them in the wallet. The announced withdrawal of large numbers of US troops stationed in Germany has unleashed consternation at the threatening loss of jobs and accusations that the Americans want to get themselves out of their “Nato responsibility.” Nanu? Since when is it a part of the responsibility of Nato and the US Army to maintain jobs in Germany? Just a year and a half ago the majority of Germans were certain the USA and its President represented a greater danger to world peace than Saddam Hussein, and the US armed forces were considered fearsome executors of the sinister US plans for world domination. Now, however, German politicians and union people, who marched at the very front of the peace demonstrations, are pouting and grimacing like children who feel they have been left in the lurch by Daddy because the number one warmonger wants to deny us the trusted presence of our uniformed American friends.
For Germany, it’s always about Germans. That’s so unilateral of them.
A truly excellent summary of the month of August (so far) for the Kerry campaign. At least they had one day that didn’t involved some kind of setback.