Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze

[existentialist]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/03/abramoff/print.html

I read this article earlier today. Then, while taking a walk this evening I decided that one quote in particular from this article was well worth posting on DU. I don't know of anything that better illustrates the neocon/Republican attitude toward much of their nominal base that they manipulate mercilessly:



Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze

Wednesday's Senate hearings yielded more scandalous revelations about how the dynamic lobbying duo bilked American Indian tribes out of millions and used the money to win elections for their Republican clients.

By Michael Scherer

Nov. 03, 2005 |

Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sent the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to describe his strategy for protecting the tribe's gambling business. In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.


"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.

[pauldp]

1. The idiots on the right will do anything they are told.

they are the best base any political party could have. Amazing that Scanlon calls them "wackos".

[BJW]

2. Unfortunately too true--another example

Just before Gray Davis got the boot and Ahnold was elected, there was a bill pending in California to outlaw workplace harassment. This bill would have expanded the definition of "protected class" to include EVERYBODY who works (yes, including even straight white Christian males under 30) and, importantly defined "harassment" as intrusive, abusive behaviors (I'm really paraphrasing here, plz. excuse the lack of particulars) that aren't necessarily directed at someone because of their race, sex, religion, etc.

I'm sure there's a lot of DU'ers who have worked in horrible places and experienced a lot of workplace bullying and harassment, only to find out that because they either weren't a member of a "protected class" or because the harassment wasn't directed at or about their "protected class" status, that they were SOL when they complained about it.

Anyways--it was a GREAT bill! And what happened? I came across a RR website where they had presented it to their people as a "gay rights" bill that would force employers to further tolerate gays even more than they already had to (again paraphrasing here).

So, a bill that would have finally, once and for all, protected EVERYBODY who works against on the job harassment, and which would really set a good precedent, was shot down because the RR believed their leaders and were militantly opposed to this bill because of their wrong belief it was all about gay rights.

Sheesh....

[Peter Frank]

3. Kick...

:kick: