The Argus has yet another story on the Johnson campaign's attempt to smear Steve Kirby before he even announces for Senate. What is obvious is that the Johnson campaign legitimately fears Kirby, otherwise they would not attack him so vigorously.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University
of Virginia, said Democrats could be trying to scare Kirby out of the
race. Under current conditions, Sabato thinks Kirby would have a
difficult time winning, but those conditions could change, and
Democrats know that.
"Suppose he had a health glitch during the campaign," Sabato said of Johnson. "That, I think, is what they're worried about."
Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage in December 2006 and spent nine months recovering.
Kirby, Sabato said, is a viable candidate, and in small states, incumbents can be vulnerable to a "living, breathing candidate."
The Johnson campaign is using good old fashioned class envy against Kirby, claiming that a wealthy man like Kirby cannot understand the problems of the "common man." According to Johnson campaign manager Steve Jarding:
Jarding said Friday that Kirby's wealth insulates him from issues that many people are facing."Anybody worth $200 million is not sitting there worrying about, 'Is my home going to get foreclosed on,' " he said.
Really? Take a look at the list of wealthiest U.S. Senators. How rich do you have to be to not worry "Is my home going to get foreclosed on"? Herb Kohl, Democrat from Wisconsin is also worth over
$200 million. John Kerry is worth over $165 million. Are they out of touch? How about Dianne Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, Frank Lautenberg, Hillary Clinton? Jay Rockefeller for goodness sake! He's a Rockefeller! Are these Democratic Senators, multi-millionaires all, out of touch with the American people and unfit for the Senate? And two of them, Kennedy and Rockefeller, didn't even work for their money, they just inherited it. How about the sainted Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man who came from vast wealth and privilege? Was he out of touch? No, this is a clear example of an ad hominem attack: they attempt to discredit Kirby not by attacking his ideas but by attacking the man.
Naturally, Sen. Johnson himself was "unavailable for comment." Smart move. Have other people do
your dirty work to inoculate you from criticism. Quite Machiavellian of him. In Chapter Seven of The Prince, Machiavelli tells the story of Cesare Borgia and his efforts at placating the newly conquered Romagna. He found the region under weak rule, so, "Thereupon he promoted Messer Ramiro d'Orco [de
Lorqua], a swift and cruel man, to whom he gave the fullest power. This
man in a short time restored peace and unity with the greatest success." Ramiro pacified Romagna with dispatch, cruelty, and, as Machiavelli tells us, great success. But the goal being achieved, Borgia had only one more use for Ramiro. Ramiro was hated by the people due to his cruelty, and so:
[Borgia] desired to show that, if any cruelty had been practised, it
had not originated with him, but in the natural sternness of the minister.
Under this pretence he took Ramiro, and one morning caused him to be
executed and left on the piazza at Cesena with the block and a bloody
knife at his side. The barbarity of this spectacle caused the people to be at once satisfied and dismayed.
Let's hope Steve Jarding earns a better fate.
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