One of the big stories on the blogs this weekend was this mea culpa by Matthew Dowd, a former Bush-Cheney campaign strategist in 2000 and 2004.  In the article, Dowd details his loss of faith in the President and his disappointment with the policies he helped put into place.

Of course, you need only look at who Dowd decided to campaign for next to see this story for what it is.  On the flip…

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”

This is perceived as noble, as Dowd going public with his criticisms of Bush is a kind of apology for helping him get elected; he calls it “karma.”

So, what has Matthew Dowd been doing since 2004, to set right his cosmic imbalance and help move the country on a better path?  After all, in the article he claims that he was starting to have his own doubts about the President even during the election.  And then after Hurricane Katrina, and Bush’s refusal to meet with Cindy Sheehan, Dowd’s disappointment reached its apex.  So surely he would move in his professional life to right his personal wrongs by standing up for honest, principled, forthright leadership.  Right?

Mr. Dowd spent 2006 in the Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign.  During which time:

• Schwarzenegger campaigned in a series of staged town-hall meetings and closed-door sessions, just like the President, including closing the campaign to certain reporters while giving briefings to those newspapers whose owners gave him campaign money…

• Spent the entire campaign lying about his opponent’s record on taxes, claiming that he would raise them by $18 billion when the truth was nothing of the sort…

• During the election, he used executive orders to weaken the landmark global warming law, no different than a Presidential signing statement, a move which prompted the Democratic legislature to force Arnold to stop talking about what a great job he’s doing on the environment and start actually doing something…

• Schwarzenegger refused to give the details of his health-care plan until after the election, forcing voters to decide blind on what he actually would do on his signature issue if elected (sound like the Social Security plan of 2005?)…

• The campaign accused Phil Angelides and his team of “hacking” into a secure Schwarzenegger database to “steal” audio of Arnold talking about his fellow lawmakers.  At the time, this rocked the Angelides campaign on its heels and really ended the race, even though a later report determined it was a complete lie, that this “hacking” consisted of erasing the end of the URL to find the parent directory, and that the Schwarzenegger camp knew there was no wrongdoing here.  It’s akin to a Rovian tactic of bugging one’s own office and blaming it on the opponent.

• Arnold paid staff members massive bonuses for doing political work on the campaign, money that comes from the taxpayers and not his campaign accounts, and then raised all their salaries while trying to stop automatic pay raises for working-class state employees…

• To add even more cronyism, Arnold just received half a million dollars in his after-school charity fund from AT&T, after signing a law that would allow them to roll out their own TV service throughout the state.  And then we just learned that Arnold hired his personal dentist and chiropractor to sit on state boards, even though they are completely unqualified for the position and have meddled in state legislation despite conflicts of interest.

This is the guy to whom Matthew Dowd turned to try to restore confidence in government.  Someone who campaigned in secret, used executive orders to govern, promoted his friends to top positions and stoked them with taxpayer dollars, and used a dirty trick to finish off the campaign.

So spare me the “come to Jesus” act.  Matthew Dowd is just another lover of authoritarians who’s lingering legacy will be the ruthlessness with which he brought them into the lives of all Americans, to damage this great country.

Matthew Dowd, Schwarzenegger’s key strategist and former George W. Bush campaign staffer, has more than one gig.  Not only does he work for Arnold, he also does some side consulting.  One of his clients? AT&T.  You know, the company that has a huge stake in the telecommunications bill currently up for debate and likely headed to Arnold’s desk before the end of the session in September.  Yup, that AT&T:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top campaign advisor is being paid to provide marketing strategy to AT&T Inc. at a time when the governor’s office is involved in negotiations on legislation potentially worth billions of dollars to the telecommunications giant. Political consultant Matthew Dowd’s involvement with the governor and AT&T at the same time presents, at minimum, the appearance of a conflict of interest, government watchdogs warned.

Dowd and his consulting firm are currently assisting San Antonio-based AT&T with the rollout of its U-verse service in Texas. The product is designed to compete with cable TV by sending television programming and a bundle of Internet and communications services over existing and upgraded telephone lines. At the same time, in California, AT&T is lobbying for passage of a bill being carried by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), AB 2789, that would ease the financial and regulatory burdens of installing the new technology for the industry.

“If AT&T hired Dowd to sell TV, and Dowd also has been hired to sell Schwarzenegger on TV, you’ve got to wonder if Dowd also is selling your governor on AT&T’s legislative agenda for TV,” said Andrew Wheat, a public interest activist. Wheat is research director of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks the influence of money and corporate power in the state’s politics.(LA Times 7/18/06)

Arnold needs to inform Dowd that he can work for AT&T or him.  He can’t have it both ways; the impropreity is just oozing out of this situation.
 

(cross-posted on BetterCA and DailyKos)

Arnold wants to win re-election and will do just about anything to do so.  Just look at who he hired to run his campaign, the Bush/Cheney team who managed turn a war hero into a flip-flopper and an draft dodger into a tough leader.  The Merc does a great job profiling these imports and their hardball tactics.

Steve Schmidt, campaign manager: [snip]

Schmidt ran Bush’s re-election war room and rapid response team — which provides immediate responses to opponents’ assertions — during the Democratic National Convention, has served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s spokesman, and was a member of Karl Rove’s inner circle.

As the rapid response guy for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, he was responsible for creating sympathy for Alito by pounding home the image of his sobbing wife during tough grilling.

The man is getting paid an amazing $52,000 a month.  In contrast. Cathy Calfo, Angelides campaign manager is earning $15,000.  I guess bullets are expensive.

Matthew Dowd, chief strategist: The man who plotted strategy for Bush’s 2004 re-election, Dowd is close to Rove — the two once taught a class together on campaigning as political opponents, before Dowd joined Rove’s Texas shop in 1998.

Dowd is known for his successful microtargeting strategy and advertising on cable TV.

Alex Castellanos, political advertising: Considered the Republican Party’s ultimate political hit man, Castellanos is best known for producing searing negative ads. His 1990 “White Hands” ad is considered one of the most racially divisive in campaign history. It featured an angry white worker crumpling up a job-rejection notice after losing it “because they had to give it to a minority.”

Castellanos is also the guy responsible for the subliminal “rats” ad in 2000.  The GOP had an ad up attacking Gore’s prescription drug campaign and for 1/30th of a second the word “rats” flashed across the screen.  At the time Castellanos denied that he put it in there.  However, even after it was brought to his attention, he continued to run the ad as is for another two weeks, before finally yanking it.

The governor has tried to stay away from the unpopular president as much as possible.  Instead, he has hired Bush’s brain trust.  These are the guys who worked for one of the most divisive administrations in history.  Their record of lowest common denominator politics is deplorable.

Salon writes:

Over the years Castellanos has produced a trail of caustic ads either pulled off the air, like the Bush spot in Florida, or judged by his own Republican clients to be too misleading or biting for public consumption. Yet today, because of his expertise at the negative, he has been given a central role in the Bush campaign.

Steve Schmit, learned from one of the most successful campaign operatives, Karl Rove.  Rove was not successful because he runs positive campaigns.  Rove’s strategy usually consists “of taking your own weakness and turning it into your opponent’s weakness instead, through relentless misrepresentation of facts.”  Do not be surprised to see this strategy crop up at some point in the race.

Schmidt seems to have adapted a Castellanos strategy: it is true because I say so.  Evidently accoriding to Castellanos, false advertising is “freedom and democracy on display”.

“You know, ultimately all this messy stuff we have in politics, all this conflict, all this chaos — by another name, it’s freedom. And I think that a country that has fought so hard to earn its freedom and keep its freedom shouldn’t give an ounce of it away,” he once said on a 1998 documentary broadcast on PBS. “If you take all the negative aspects out of politics, if you take all the divisiveness out of politics, what you’re left with is, is very bland, unimaginative oatmeal.”

I guess you can twist the flag into just about anything.  Personally, I would much rather have a debate over the issues and a vibrant Democracy, rather than discourage participation with false advertising.

This is the stellar team that Arnold has put together.  This cycle is not going to be pretty.  They will stop at nothing to get Arnold re-elected and that is just the way he wants it.  This is the Bush legacy in all its glory.