Republicans on the attack: Race, sex, and desperation

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Latino immigrants are being targeted by Republicans in their attack ads, but this GOP strategy isn't limited to Latinos. As WaPo puts it today:

On the brink of what could be a power-shifting election, it is kitchen-sink time: Desperate candidates are throwing everything. While negative campaigning is a tradition in American politics, this year's version in many races has an eccentric shade, filled with allegations of moral bankruptcy and sexual perversion.

And so Republicans are attempting to portray Democrats as "fatally flawed characters". Consider these examples:

-- "In New York, the NRCC ran an ad accusing Democratic House candidate Michael A. Arcuri, a district attorney, of using taxpayer dollars for phone sex. 'Hi, sexy,' a dancing woman purrs. 'You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.' It turns out that one of Arcuri's aides had tried to call the state Division of Criminal Justice, which had a number that was almost identical to that of a porn line. The misdial cost taxpayers $1.25."

-- "In Ohio, GOP gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, trailing by more than 20 points in polls, has accused front-running Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland of protecting a former aide who was convicted in 1994 on a misdemeanor indecency charge. Blackwell's campaign is also warning voters through suggestive 'push polls' that Strickland failed to support a resolution condemning sex between adults and children. Strickland, a psychiatrist, objected to a line suggesting that sexually abused children cannot have healthy relationships when they grow up." (They've also played the gay card.)

-- "In two dozen congressional districts, a political action committee supported by a white Indianapolis businessman, J. Patrick Rooney, is running ads saying Democrats want to abort black babies. A voice says, 'If you make a little mistake with one of your hos, you'll want to dispose of that problem tout de suite, no questions asked.'" (Ah, the reverse race card!)

You all know they can't win on the issues. You all know they're desperate. You all know the writing is on the wall. And you all know they'll stop at nothing.

And, here, you'll notice that their obsession with sex is driving their negative ads.

Welcome to the Republican Party of 2006.