Dirty
Tricks 101 A Catalog of McCain's Alleged Dirty Tricks
The document outlined first here is not McCain-specific,
but provides a Republican "blueprint" for seizing control of the
nation and holding it in 2004, 2008 and beyond.. Written in July 2001 with the assistance of Karl Rove, who is now
advising McCain, it contains a frightening agenda. Perhaps McCain should
be directly confronted with this to learn if he endorses or rejects it.
The Free Congress Foundation (FCF), an influential organization headed
by longtime conservative operator Paul Weyrich and patronized at its
weekly lunches by Republican political operatives such as Karl Rove, [Time,
4/22/2001] issues a document entitled “The Integration of
Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement.”
It
is written by Eric Heubeck. The document is a matter-of-fact overview of
the exact tactics that Rove, Weyrich, and the conservative movement will
use to keep moderates and liberals out of office and off the media radar.
Heubeck writes, in part, “We must, as Mr. Weyrich has suggested, develop
a network of parallel cultural institutions existing side-by-side with the
dominant leftist cultural institutions. The building and promotion of
these institutions will require the development of a movement that will
not merely reform the existing post-war conservative movement, but will in
fact be forced to supersede it—if it is to succeed at all—because it
will pursue a very different strategy and be premised on a very different
view of its role in society….”
Heubeck writes that the process will
take place in three stages: developing a “highly motivated elite able to
coordinate future activities,” developing “institutions designed to
make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the
masses,” and transforming “the overall character of American popular
culture….”
Heubeck says the movement will be “entirely destructive,
and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing
institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them.
We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at
every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to
the creation of our own institutions….
We will maintain a constant
barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy
of the Left. We will not give them a moment’s rest. We will endeavor to
prove that the Left does not deserve to hold sway over the heart and mind
of a single American. We will offer constant reminders that there is an
alternative, there is a better way.
When people have had enough of the
sickness and decay of today’s American culture, they will be embraced by
and welcomed into the New Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the
existing society by the people will thus be accomplished by pushing them
and pulling them simultaneously. We will use guerrilla tactics to
undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime….
We must create a
countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating
people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but
are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities,
multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be
feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths….
We
will be results-oriented rather than good intentions-oriented. Making a
good-faith effort and being ideologically sound will be less important
than advancing the goals of the movement….”
Heubeck says that
television and video are the most “conducive to propagandistic
purposes” of any media, “and our movement must learn to make use of
this medium. A skillfully produced motion picture or television
documentary has tremendous persuasive power…. Rational arguments simply
do not have this power, and all arguments made in print tend to appeal to
the rational, critical faculties of the mind to a greater or lesser
degree….”
He writes that the movement intends to present “all the
examples of cultural decadence, irrationality and disingenuousness in
public debate, combined with our commentary, selectively edited and
arranged for maximum impact….” [Free
Congress Foundation, 7/13/2001]
The FCF manifesto outlines a
part of Rove’s overall strategy of retaining the White House, Congress,
and the judicial branch for 2004, 2008, and beyond—which began in the
same week that Bush took office in January 2001. [Time,
4/22/2001]
The Sproul Watch
A key player to watch in the coming McCain campaign is Sproul &
Associates, an Arizona PR-consulting firm that has played a pivotal role
in McCain's campaign over the years. Sproul has been behind some allegedly
dirty tricks in previous McCain/GOP campaigns.
Sproul got into a bit of trouble last fall [2004] when, in certain
states, it came out that the firm was playing dirty tricks in order to
suppress the Democratic vote: concealing their partisan agenda, tricking
Democrats into registering as Republicans, surreptitiously re-registering
Democrats and Independents as Republicans, and shredding Democratic
registration forms.
Sproul & Associates also managed the Republican National
Committee's paid Absentee Ballot Program. This project employed nationwide
over 7,500 workers for door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking and
Get-Out-the-Vote efforts. Sproul & Associates has also presented at
the RNC and has done personal trainings with Republican Party staff across
the nation on fraud prevention and organizing successful grass roots
petition and voter registration drives.
Nathan Sproul founded
Sproul & Associates in 2003. Since then, the firm has
represented over 100 clients in over 21 states. Prior to founding Sproul
& Associates, Sproul served as the Executive Director for the
Arizona Republican Party.
Here is the first page of a Google
search on Nathan Sproul.
Other key players at Sproul Associates include Meghan Cox, who got
her start in politics working as a volunteer coordinator on McCain
2000. She interned in Senator McCain’s Washington DC Senate
office while at Arizona State University. Meghan Cox joined up with
Sproul & Associates in the fall of 2003. Meghan oversees the
day to day operations of Sproul & Associates and is responsible for
the public affairs and campaign clients.
Garrick Taylor joined Sproul & Associates in 2007 after serving
as the communications director for the Arizona Republican Party in the
2006 election year, where he acted as the main liaison to the media and
served as the party's chief spokesperson. "Garrick works with our
clients to generate positive media coverage in order to influence voters
and opinion makers, while confronting dissenting opinion and recognizing
threats and opportunities."
Chuck Coolidge joined Sproul & Associates in March of
2006. He has in-depth experience in grassroots, voter registration,
and absentee ballot programming, with extensive work in Voter Vault,
micro-targeting and candidate website support. He now concentrates on
creating targeted mail/e-mail lists and implementing fundraising
programs aimed to build donor files. Prior to joining Sproul &
Associates, Chuck worked for Senator John McCain in Tucson and Tempe as
the Southern Arizona correspondent and also managed Senator McCain’s
Arizona federal grants program and Arizona press articles.
July
13, 2001:
We must create a
countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating
people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but
are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities,
multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be
feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths….
Nathan Sproul founded
Sproul & Associates in 2003. Since then, the firm has
represented over 100 clients in over 21 states. Prior to founding Sproul
& Associates, Sproul served as the Executive Director for the
Arizona Republican Party. 