Liberal smears and evasions
Remember the campaign flap during George W. Bush’s presidential campaign? It was a flap involving a certain New York Times reporter, whom Mr. Bush characterized as an “a**h**e.” As you may recall, Vice President Cheney affirmed Mr. Bush’s assessment by saying “Big time.”
The unflattering remark Mr. Bush directed toward the New York Times reporter was intended to be completely off the record. It was part of a private conversation between George W. Bush and his runningmate, Mr. Cheney. George W. Bush had no idea the microphone in front of him was already recording. He had no idea his statement would later be released to the entire world.
The liberal, Gore-supporting media made complete hay of the incident. The liberal elites used the flap to embarrass George W. Bush–to call his character and credibility into question. They wanted to portray George W. Bush, the conservative Republican leader, as an immature idiot–as someone who could not be trusted with the American presidency.
That was the overriding strategy of America’s leading liberals during the last U.S. presidential election season: to fully exploit every opportunity to make the conservative leader look stupid, unstable, and unreliable. Although it did not work, that smear strategy continues to this day, as attempts to discredit the George W. Bush presidency are continually being made.
That liberal smear strategy not only applies to conservative Republican leaders in the United States. It also applies right here in the CNMI. It not only applies to President George W. Bush. It also applies to House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, the Covenant Party’s candidate for governor. The idea, in both cases, is to smear the opposition so as to avoid the real issues–so as to avoid intelligent debate.
Instead of stating that they don’t like his policies and then intelligently explaining why they oppose such policies, liberals prefer to smear the conservative candidate. Instead of intelligently debating school vouchers and tax cuts, mainland US liberals prefer to portray George W. Bush as a juvenile fraternity boy who can never be fully trusted. They prefer to portray him as beholden to “Big Business.”
CNMI liberals are basically employing the same political smear strategy in the CNMI. Instead of openly opposing the Federal takeover threat, they smear Ben Fitial–accusing him of all sorts of sordid things.
The liberals don’t want to deal directly with the real issues. They don’t want to come right out and say: “We oppose Mr. Fitial because he opposes a Federal takeover, which we want, and supports businesses, which we deplore.” So they say instead, “Fitial is . . . ,” such and such, etc., fill in the blanks. They look for opportunities to discredit him.
In the CNMI, the Marianas Variety is essentially the liberal New York Times and the reporter who published Mr. Fitial’s joking, off the record remarks probably has a similar agenda–big time. So don’t be thrown off by the smears–by the negative portrayal of conservative candidates. Stick to the real issues: to the economy, the federal takeover threat, and the bankrupt local government–all of which desperately need fixing.
The liberal smear campaign did not work in the United States with President Bush, and it will not work in the CNMI with Speaker Fitial. Our local people are too smart for that sort of thing.
Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com
