I Am Sort Of Taking This Personally

Stanley Kurtz is a "slimy character assassin" because he has been poking at the Obama/Ayers/Chicago Annenberg Challenge story?  Geez, that is a bizarre over-reaction from Team Obama.  What's next, the Kewl Kids will mock his wheels at the Prom?

Here we go:

And tonight, the campaign launched a more specific campaign: an effort to disrupt the appearance by a writer for National Review, Stanley Kurtz, on a Chicago radio program. Kurtz has been writing about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, and has suggested that papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details of that relationship.

The campaign e-mailed Chicago supporters who had signed up for the Obama Action Wire with detailed instructions including the station's telephone number and the show's extension, as well as a research file on Kurtz, which seems to prove that he's a conservative, which isn't in dispute. The file cites a couple of his more controversial pieces, notably his much-maligned claim that same-sex unions have undermined marriage in Scandinavia.

"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," says the email, which picks up a form of pressure on the press pioneered by conservative talk radio hosts and activists in the 1990s, and since adopted by Media Matters and other liberal groups.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies," it continues.

Kurtz's lies?  Examples, please:

Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack's connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts.

And there is more on this a bit later:

Kurtz claimed on Fox News that William Ayers recruited Obama to the
Annenberg Challenge -- a flat out lie. Ayers did not serve on the
board of the Challenge, and he had nothing to do with Barack's
recruitment.

As to the "numerous press accounts", I have no idea what they are talking about - there has been very little contemporary press coverage of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge to date (neither the WaPo nor the Times had discovered it as of this morning).  As to press coverage in 1995, it was sparse; the fact of Obama's chairmanship is scarcely reported, let alone details as to how he was recruited.

Now, it is true that Ayers was not on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - so what?  He was a prominent co-founder and worked with the Challenge for several years through his  role as co-founder of the Chicago  School Reform Collaborative.

So it is certainly plausible that Ayers recruited Obama (I would bet on it); it is implausible that Ayers had no role at all in selecting a chairman.  But did Ayers recruit Obama?  Who would know, other than Ayers and Obama, and who has asked them?  And considering Obama's past tap-dancing on this issue, who would believe his answer?

A possible resolution might be available in the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Mr. Kurtz has been riffling through for a couple of days now.  Research, evidence, new conclusions... possible?  Before this campaign flack calls Kurtz a liar, let's see some evidence, from either side [and see CLARIFICATION below].

And while we are on the topic - another reason to think that Ayers recruited Obama in 1995 is that there is an excellent chance Obama and Ayers first partnered up on education reform in 1987.  Bill Ayers was coordinating the ABC's Coalition of which Obama's group, the Developing Communities Project, was a part.  That is one more "smear" for Team Obama to contest bitterly, I suppose.

SPEAKING OF SMEARS:  Obama's "Fight The Smears" website is a blank on Ayers.  Maybe they are planning a whole new website devoted to this?

CLARIFICATION:  From Q&O:

First off, Kurtz has not made any such claim, neither in the interview cited in the email, nor in his article for the National Review. He has suggested that Obama's recruitment by Ayers was likely given the extent of their relationship, but he hasn't explicitly claimed that Obama was definitely recruited. This is why Smith hasn't seen any "hard evidence" backing up such a claim: Kurtz didn't make it.

MORE:  The LA Times blog comments; their lead:

As nation watches Denver, Obama campaign muscles Chicago station over ex-radical Ayres

In a surprising attempt to stifle broadcast criticism of its candidate, the presidential campaign of freshman Illinois senator Barack Obama is organizing supporters to confront Chicago's WGN radio station for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its main evening discussion program.

They spell "Ayers" correctly in the body - can't they make common cause with the headline writers?

John Fund has a few paragraphs on Ayers and Obama in the WSJ, picking up on the cover-up theme:

Also unexplained is the sudden sensitivity on Team Obama's part. It's already known that Mr. Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, hosted a key fund-raising party during Mr. Obama's first bid for public office and also served with Mr. Obama on the board of a Chicago-based charity until 2002. Today, the University of Illinois will finally release documents it tried to keep from the public on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the liberal school reform effort founded by Mr. Ayers and chaired by Mr. Obama. Obama campaign aides insist the two men had only a casual relationship. During a Democratic primary debate last April, Mr. Obama said that "the notion that . . . me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

We may know more about the relationship between the two men later this week, after reporters have plowed through the once-suppressed Annenberg Challenge records.

Comments

[anduril]

I'll try to be the first to make this prediction: this lame effort by the Obamites will fail.

[Neuro-conservative]

The horror...the horror...

[red forman]

The talking points of the callers were remarkably similar and DUMBASS!!

[clarice]

Kurtz never sais=d Ayres put O on the Board. He said their was evidence that he may have been cannot say that definitively yet. He also said Ayres was often listed ambiguously on the CAC Board (i.e. as an "ex officio" member of the Board or his name was handwritten in under the typed names of Board members on the list of Bd members in attendendance.) He said Ayres was head of the other arm of the project; had made the proposal to Annenberg and received money from CAC.

Kurtz, like TM< thinks it would be nice if some reporter got off his duff and asked O how he came to be chairman of CAC.

[clarice]

*said....* *there was evidence*

[clarice]

The O callers were lame and dumbass, indeed.

[bad]

My spidy sense is tingling. The O's are either incredibly stupid in their handling of this thing or there is lots of there there.

[BarbaraS]

Don't you just love their version of free speach. I think Frank Davis might have introduced Obama to Ayers.

[clarice]

I expect independents like Rosenberg, the radio host. He seemed a measured and Intelligent man, and these tactics are not likely to win the Obama team a lot of new admirers.
Kurtz also seemed a very careful academic type not given to wild charges.

[bad]

The CAC closed down in 2002. When did Mr. Annenberg pass away?

[clarice]

Niters..and thanks for the help.

[Danube of Thought]

Couple this with the effort to get DoJ to sqelch a campaign ad he doesn't like. Anybody want this guy in charge of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Justice?

Let's hear from some civil libertarians. Let's hear from Anonymous Liberal, the once-proud Foobs, the very strange Cleo and all the rest of them.

An honorable ACLU lawyer would be very upset about all of this. (I assume there are one or more such creatures.)

[bad]

Both men were impressive.

[bad]

Isn't Bernardine Dohrn affiliated with the ACLU?

[MayBee]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

I also think it is really strong for a presidential candidate to be writing corporate sponsors of a press critic. And by strong, I mean...wrong. Unseemly. Bad.

[First Time Listener]

I loved the callers reading from the Obama email saying Kurtz was a liar and they were disappointed in WGN. Then the host calmly asked the callers "could you please give some examples of these lies?". The callers would stammer like idiots and say things like "no, I'm not going to tell you, you know already".

Does Obama realize how stupid his attack email was? Those callers made Obama and his followers look worse. If this is Obama's idea of a rapid response team, he is screwed.

[bad]

Hey

[bad]

"no, I'm not going to tell you, you know already".

They were sad weren't they.

[bad]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

It must be quite a secret.

[clarice]

For their sake I hope the O rapid response team doesn't play poker for money--there's quite a "tell" there.

[Pofarmer]

Is there something keeping Obama from just explaining his position on the CAC?

He probably has 2 or 3. One thing is for sure, he certainly doesn't handle these types of things like Bush.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

It won't be for long, bad.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Anyone else getting the impression from Milt and his producer that they are shocked by this Obama tactic? Like maybe they are getting their eyes open for the first time to what a sleaze his campaign actually is?

[clarice]

They were clearly shocked and said so repeatedly.

[Pofarmer]

Does Obama realize how stupid his attack email was? Those callers made Obama and his followers look worse. If this is Obama's idea of a rapid response team, he is screwed.

Once you realize that Barack Hussein is a Hugo Chavez wannabe, it all comes into focus.

[scoopa]

Just lovin' this!! As much fun as the swifties 4 years ago. Maybe Larry O'Donell will come back for an encore and call Kurtz a "creepy liar"!!! Anyone watching the MSNBC meltdown going on too??? POPCORN!!!

[MayBee]

I think it's creepy that people actually called just because they were told to.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

Two words as to why these BS tactics are going on:

Saul Alinsky

[JM Hanes]

I bet WGN had to have the time delay set to Max. The Obamobots are the candidates' worst enemy, and that kind of mobilizing seems incredibly amateur. How to tick off a host in one easy lesson. Obama's PR team has made one faux pas after another, and I think this one has really knocked them for a loop. They probably didn't even see it coming -- when any team worth its salt should have -- and maybe just didn't have time to pull the usual strings. Having moved HQ to Chicago, they may have gotten complacent about being in control. (cross posted from the old thread)

scoopa:

I just happened to catch Chris Matthews' reaction to the talk show host who said he thought Bill & Hill would vote for McCain in the seclusion of the ballot box. Matthews was hysterical! Harold Ford was AbFab as always.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Crossposted.

The man admits he was a cokehead and he is afraid to admit that he worked with Ayers on a school funding project? And we shouldn't be curious why this disconnect? It is creepy.

[MayBee]

I really love Harold Ford.

Yeah, Matthews was weird in that clip, JMH. Why couldn't he just have fun with what Murphy said? He got all indignant.

[JM Hanes]

And Pat Buchannan sounds as mad as a hatter now. I picture guys with massive comb-overs like his having to run through parking lots in the rain.

[MayBee]

Semi cross posted.
Do you all prefer
Ayersmas
or
CACsmas
or
Kurtzmas ?

[JM Hanes]

MayBee: He sure didn't mind repeating, ad nauseum, that the guy gave the Bush administration a C for performance though, did he? No lapse of judgment there, apparently!

[JM Hanes]

I'd vote for Kurtzmas. It seems appropriate, since he'll be marshalling the evidence on this one, and it has a nice ring as well. I imagine we can find a lot of other uses for CAC, and someone is sure to find a fit use for Ayers.

[MayBee]

I still remember the first time I saw a wet combover. I was about 8 and on a family vacation with friends. One of the dads- the coolest one- got in the pool and started throwing his sons around. And suddenly his hair just started.... uncoiling from his head until it was shoulder length on one side. I did not understand what I was seeing.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

If Obama wins, a C will look pretty good to me.

[JM Hanes]

It may ultimately look good to everyone, Jim.

[paul]

This is worse for Obama than the swift Vets...

the media structured the response for Kerry-'why doesn't he hit back?' implying that there was something he could do.

The obama campaign doesn't have a reasonable defense. the time for clarification for Obama and the press, has passed. There is no legitimate response and the media doesn't want to put obama in a losing situation.

The problem is a nightmare-

If the press won't discuss Ayers, McCain will go to town on it without restriction. To my knowledge, there are no legitimate talking points, that can support previous statements that BO has made.

ditto for rezko...when the 527's are done, people will believe that Ayers is the next secretary of state and rezko will take over for bernanke jan 20.

[JM Hanes]

I turned the sound off awhile ago when the phone rang and forgot to turn it back on. They're re-running Biden, and he really works his mouth. If you were trying to learn to lip read, he'd be a good place to start. His eyes seem much narrower than they used to -- he doesn't really look like he's had a face lift, but I've noticed on others that it can really change a person's eyes. Wouldn't want to look like his drop dead gorgeous wife's father.....

[Elliott]

"slimy character assassin"

Not a "heart of darkness" for Mr. Kurtz*?
___________________
Who, in this tale, should probably be assigned the role of Marlow.

[JM Hanes]

Interesting tidbit , from Politico's Gossip Column

It might be a good time to feel sorry for marshmallow Evan Bayh. A pretty solid whispering going around is that the Obama camp had chosen the Indiana senator for his veep, and then the Georgia chaos occured and they decided to go with Joe Biden, who clearly has more foreign policy experience.

I'm really going to miss Brit Hume when he retires, if only for stuff like this: "Every four years we find out that the American Dream has died, and the opposition party promises to resurrect it."

[scoopa]

JM,

What does AbFab mean? I always liked Harold Ford too (yeah, he's a lib but not too bad and was always good on the war). I really thought that he would be our first black president. Maybe he still will be...... Although I'd vote for Michael Steele in a heartbeat

BTW - love Kurtzmas!

[bgates]

Kurtzmas.
I imagine we can find a lot of other uses for CAC,
I'm not that kind of boy. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
and someone is sure to find a fit use for Ayers.
Someday, a mortician...oh, you meant the name.

F Ayer-ness Doctrine?
Truth or D'Ayers?
Miserable piece of carp?

[Topsecretk9]

Posted by: JM Hanes | August 28, 2008 at 03:33 AM

JMH

I really think that they wanted Edwards and then all the Enquirer stuff got out of hand about the same time as Georgia and to move far, far away from their Edwards negotiations and since Georgia was happening at same time of the body surfing rock star optic and thier first choice went sideways, they went for a weird hasty NOT HILARY cut.

That's just me though.

I have to say that I am with Jonah Goldberg and HH, Joe [TEETH FLASH] Biden is my fav Democrat in that the entertainment that man provides is priceless. If ever their were a transparently smarmy politician Joe Biden drips in smarm.

I hope the McCain campaign does this ad
------

Narrator:"Here's Joe Biden on such and such day"

Visual:
[pan into TEETH FLASH] of Joe Biden rambling at a hearing

Voice/Visual of Biden:
"I didn't even like Princeton," he said, to laughter from the gallery. "I mean, I really didn't like Princeton. I was an Irish Catholic kid who thought it had not changed like you concluded it had," referring to Alito's earlier statement that Princeton had changed its traditional ways before he enrolled.

Narrator: And when he was reminded praising Princeton in speech years earlier? Here is what Joe Biden said the NEXT Day [pan into TEETH FLASH, Joe wearing Princeton Cap]

Voice/Visual-Biden wearing ball cap:
I really love Princeton, no I mean I really like Princeton.

Narrator:
And you know what Keith Olbermann asked at the time? “Will the hat hurt his hairplugs?”

Narrator: Is this man [teeth flash] even serious?

-------------------

Proof of Olbermann's scorn.
Biden showed up at the hearing wearing a Princeton hat. Keith Olbermann asked, “Will the hat hurt his hairplugs?”

http://cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/joe-biden-is-definitely-a-characterbut-does-he-have-character,1583/

[Topsecretk9]

also my 2 cents on Hillary:

I am sure there is a loyalty that would endear her to make her say all the right words at the convention, but there is a clear - POLLING - reason for her to not sound all the right buzz words. If the polling was saying different, Hill would lick Obama's toes.

She sees the train wreck cometh and therefore needs to detach from it quite a bit, perchance?

If Hillary wants to maintain a higher standing she's walking a tight rope about now, but I'd bet internals are spelling out an enticing '12 challenge potential, and if so she does NOT want to be so attached to the "failure of "08 it's time to mount '12 now and it would be a feature, NOT a bug, to be unconsumed and unconnected with the Obama failure.

[Jane]

I saw snippets of "Secretary" Daley on Greta last night - (I'm not exactly sure who that is in the scheme of Daley's). He was outraged that anyone was checking into the Annenburg challenge which accomplished so much, and spoke about how successful Bill Ayers is, even if he may have done something "slightly criminal" a long long long time ago.

[Pagar]

I can't find it this morning, but on some site last night I saw a teaser ad on the side that said the Obama team was coming out with a Ayers rebuttal. IMO, there is no rebuttal, the potential damage for a bomb such as was being contructed for the Ft Dix NCO Club dance could have been worse than damage from a suicide bomber in Iraq. I don't understand how it was possible for Ayers to avoid punishment for that without some serious anti-American help somewhere in the criminal justice system. I suggest someone look at who made the decision to let him go.

[kim]

It was prosecutorial misbehaviour by Mark Felt; I believe he exceeded his authority with respect to wiretaps. Wiretaps, which, of course, had Ayers et al dead to rights. Shouldn't they be in the public domain, now?
============================

[Seixon]

"Ayers did not serve on the board of the Challenge, and he had nothing to do with Barack's recruitment."

Valerie Plame wasn't in a position to decide to send her husband to Niger, so therefore she could not have suggested him for the trip.

Yeah. That's the ticket! Keep on recycling those Clintonesque denials!