No (Smoking) Exit

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone has a huge scoop - 15 years too late, but still a huge scoop - that again shows the capture of our government by corporate interests. It turns out that Betsy McCaughey, the wingnut noise machine creation, was actually a creation of - get this - Philip Morris:

During the debate over Clinton's health care overhaul in the early 1990s, McCaughey — then an academic at the right-wing Manhattan Institute — wrote an article for The New Republic called "No Exit," in which she claimed that Hillarycare would prevent even wealthy Americans from "going outside the system to purchase basic health coverage you think is better." Even though the bill plainly stated that "nothing in this Act" would prohibit consumers from purchasing additional care, McCaughey's claim was echoed endlessly in the press, with each repetition pounding a stake further into the heart of the reform effort.

McCaughey's lies were later debunked in a 1995 post-mortem in The Atlantic, and The New Republic recanted the piece in 2006. But what has not been reported until now is that McCaughey's writing was influenced by Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company, as part of a secret campaign to scuttle Clinton's health care reform. (The measure would have been funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.) In an internal company memo from March 1994, the tobacco giant detailed its strategy to derail Hillarycare through an alliance with conservative think tanks, front groups and media outlets. Integral to the company's strategy, the memo observed, was an effort to "work on the development of favorable pieces" with "friendly contacts in the media." The memo, prepared by a Philip Morris executive, mentions only one author by name:

"Worked off-the-record with Manhattan and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part exposé in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. The first part detailed specifics of the plan."

The story goes on to say that Big Tobacco funded a front group called Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1993-94 to stage "grassroots revolts" in Congressional town hall meetings, which morphed this year into Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

We all knew McCaughey was a paid liar, but not a tobacco-funded paid liar. James Fallows has a bit more. This will be a great angle for the media to ignore the next time they invite McCaughey on one of their shows to tell us what's "really" in the health care bill.

The McCain Trainwreck

I think that the relentless negativity and cynical tactics are catching up with John McCain. Their strategy to paint Obama as "the other" and also to subtly push the racial message is drawing condemnation from all sides. Even Jake Tapper is counting all the white women praising Obama in his latest dogwhistle Web ad. The attacks are coming up short and leaving people discouraged about how this man with 26 years in the Congress has nothing to say about his own record.

Other veterans, such as James Jewett and Jay Johnson of Texas, expressed misgivings about McCain using the occasion to attack his opponent so fiercely.

Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain’s run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.

“John just isn’t the same as he used to be. He’s not his own man,” said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. “A lot of that has to do with how he’s wanted this job so bad for so long that he’s tied himself to President Bush.”

And the negative tone is inviting other attacks. Many are honing in on all the lobbyist ties inside the campaign. But more than just convenient attack ad fodder, these have real consequences. McCain championed stronger regulatory oversight for the tobacco industry for almost ten years, and this year he changed his position on his own bill.

The campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is declining to embrace McCain’s own 1998 tobacco bill, legislation that would have raised taxes to the tune of $516 billion over 25 years. … Asked repeatedly last week whether McCain still backs the bill and if he thought it was a good idea, senior adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin declined to answer directly.

But he noted that some of the aims of the legislation did not pan out as hoped for after the tobacco industry and the states settled on their own. … And McCain today does not support raising taxes on cigarettes, his adviser said.

Hosting fundraisers with the likes of Ralph Reed, he of the ties to convicted felon Jack Abramoff, is also crushing the maverick brand.

And if this article about the real McCain ever got traction, voters would view him in a whole new light. There's a wealth of new information in here, about his relationship to Charles Keating, his hypocrisy on campaign finance reform and earmarks, but most damning is his cruelty:

In the spring of 1988, things were a mess. Governor Evan Mecham had just been impeached, and everyone was busy licking wounds [...]

In Arizona, when a governor leaves office early, the secretary of state ascends. In this case, that was Rose Mofford, an old-school Democrat from the small mining town of Globe, a lady with a bright white beehive that Arizona Republic cartoonist Steve Benson once famously drew as a cone-full of Dairy Queen.

Mofford had served as secretary of state for decades. She'd never aspired to the state's top spot. But she accepted graciously and agreed to serve out the remaining 2 1/2 years of Mecham's term. She never showed interest in running for another term after that, although she was enormously popular.

As the story goes, John McCain and his friends wanted her out immediately. And, they figured, they had the mechanism in place to do it. Mecham was gone, but the recall effort was still in place. Why not shift gears and target Mofford instead?

The Democrats didn't like that one bit and asked the Arizona Supreme Court to consider the legality.

In mid-April 1988, Mofford and some staff flew to Washington for, as one former aide puts it, the "perfunctory wet kiss" meeting with the Arizona congressional delegation. Even in mean old D.C., there's such a thing as protocol, and the tour was expected to go along without incident.

At 10 in the morning on April 12, Mofford testified before the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Appropriations on the topic of the Central Arizona Project.

Now, Mofford had been governor for only eight days. Before that, her main task had been running the state's elections department. This appearance (there was a similar one, later that day, before the House) had been billed as ceremonial. She was not familiar with the particulars of federal water law. Nor did her staff think she'd be expected to be — just then.

But, apparently, Senator James McClure, a Republican from Idaho, did. After a lot of looking, that librarian and I (actually, it took three librarians) tracked down the testimony from that day. McClure asked Mofford a series of questions that would leave any water expert's mouth dry. Her staff jumped in to try to answer, but even so, ultimately they had to file an addendum to the testimony.

Word spread quickly about what had happened [...]

"During lunch, McCain said, almost with mischievous glee, that he had slipped some highly technical questions to [James McClure] to ask Mofford — questions she wouldn't be prepared to answer or expected to answer.

"Flabbergasted, I asked McCain why would he want to sabotage Mofford's testimony, when in fact the CAP was the nonpartisan pet of Republicans and Democrats — such as far-left Udall and far-right Goldwater — since its inception.

"His reply, as near as I remember, was, 'I'll embarrass a Democrat any time I get the chance.'

I'm not convinced this all plays nationally - the lobbyist love, the nastiness, the outbursts, the hypocrisy, the campaign of hate and not hope - but there's a cumulative effect. In the end, I believe voters will reject it if they know the facts.

Frederick of Hollywood Lands With A Thud?

The initial flush of "OMG he's Reagan incarnate HEWUZANACTORANDEVERYTHING!!!1!!1" surrounding the potential candidacy of Fred Thompson has given way to the reality that, well, he may not be the savior which the conservative movement was hoping for. First of all, his fundraising is crap, which is pretty stunning considering all the hype:

Sources close to the presumptive campaign tell NBC News that Fred Thompson's fundraising is down "markedly." One claimed it has "slowed down big-time." The pace is described as a consequence of the delayed announcement to enter the race.

"The Friends of Fred, Inc." will report to the IRS its revenue by July 31st. Sources reveal to NBC News that number will be in the range of about $3 million. Five million dollars had been the talked-about June goal. Sources describe an early burst of donations in June and say the summer fundraising has fallen off. While additional fundraisers are planned, sources say the scheduling of fundraisers was "frozen" for a time while the team was going through some internal strains.

Those strains include the loss of his campaign manager, which may have been for Yoko-related reasons:

Tom Collamore, the former Altria exec who had been running Fred Thompson's campaign, has resigned and will be replaced by Randy Enwright. Enwright is a Florida political hand with ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush. Also coming on board in a leadership capacity is Spencer Abraham, the former Michigan senator and Energy secretary.

"We’re making a number of planned changes as we move to the next phase," said Thompson communications director Linda Rozett. "We’re adding political muscle to the organization."

A Thompson aide said that Enwright would serve as the day-to-day manager while Abraham would take more of a campaign chairman capacity.

Collamore will stay on as a "senior adviser" to the effort, but with a diminished role. Accounts vary as to what exactly happened, but Collamore was reportedly unhappy with the level of involvement of Thompson's wife, Jeri, and others in Thompson's inner circle found Collamore not up to the task of overseeing a presidential campaign.

Now, Collamore is more suited to the task of killing people by inches through pushing cancer sticks on them, so maybe that is the reason. But this "level of involvement" from the trophy wife is pretty interesting. She apparently is a former RNC operative. The idea that the woman behind the man is running the show in a campaign is usual war room chatter, but in this case, when you have an inexperienced candidate and an inexperienced team, it could actually be happening. Which is kind of hilarious.

Meanwhile, with more indications that Thompson isn't the movement conservative he purports to be, it appears that he's actually losing his luster before he even joins the campaign. I can't believe that Mitt Frickin' Romney is the odds-on favorite to be the GOP nominee. That just blows my mind.

Invisible Fred

Guess what? Nobody knows who Fred Thompson is.

Hillary Clinton - 98%
Rudy Giuliani - 86%
John Edwards - 81%
John McCain - 80%
Barack Obama - 75%
Mitt Romney - 46%
Fred Thompson - 38%

We in the blogosphere sometimes overstate the importance of blog posts, and we expect the general public to have the same political literacy as we do. Plus, Fred Thompson's on TV, right, surely people know who he is? The short answer is no. Ronald Reagan was an actor, yes, but he also was Governor of California and a conservative icon for about 15 years before he became President. And Arnold Schwarzenegger was an "above-the-title" actor. Fred Thompson's a character actor, "the guy from Curly Sue." His face might be vaguely known but his name isn't. And he was a complete unknown as a Senator, not authoring or passing any notable piece of legislation in eight years.

So as much as the political press wants to push this he-looks-the-part nonsense, the truth is that Thompson is just some random character actor without any actual resonance in the country. The press may be star-struck, but the people aren't. And when people do start to figure out that he's pretty much your generic Republican, whose campaign manager is a former tobacco industry executive, whose main career is really as a lobbyist, whose political action committee was largely a slush fund for his son, they're going to look at him the same way they look at all Republicans in the "culture of corruption" era: with a jaundiced eye.