Sunday, August 06, 2006

"McGavick is latest victim of poisonous politics" (UPDATED)

UPDATE: "Darth Goldy"- Mr. Goldstein takes his turn on the lecturn:
I have to take issue with Joel for calling me out in his closing paragraphs:

"On the horsesass.org Web site, which helped spawn the lawsuit, founder David Goldstein held forth last Thursday: “McGavick’s midlife conversion to ‘civility’ is a joke to anyone who remembers the vicious campaign he ran on behalf of Slade Gorton.”

Not true, Goldie, and you didn’t even live here then."

No Joel, I didn’t live in the state back then, and even if I did I wouldn’t pretend to have the impressive institutional memory you possess. But you know me well enough to know that I am curious and inquisitive about my adopted state’s political history, and I’ve heard enough stories and read enough newspaper accounts to convince me that Mike!™ was no angel.

Civility isn’t a campaign theme. It’s an excuse. A shield. A feeble attempt to ward off all criticism or unfavorable analysis or probing questions as poisonous political debasement, all the while freeing his own surrogates to attack at will. But on this point I’m more than happy to agree to disagree.

See, I can forgive Joel for conflating unflattering facts and snark with character assassination. I can forgive Joel for lumping me in with some of the evil masters of the Republican attack machine. I can even forgive Joel for publicly accusing me of being wrong about Mike!™’s reputation as a political operative.

But there’s one final transgression for which I’m not quite sure I can ever forgive Joel.

It’s spelled “Goldy” with a “y.”

“Goldie” with an “ie” is the feminine spelling, and as a nom de guerre for an evil, political muckraker like me, that would just plain look silly.


Joel Connelly:

Why not have an above-board Senate campaign, where real stuff gets debated -- by the candidates? Cantwell and McGavick have both prospered in the private sector. Where they differ is on public issues, from the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to immigration policy.

The anti-McGavick campaign has been a mean, low-down attack on a stand-up guy.In the horsesass.org Web site, which helped spawn the lawsuit, founder David Goldstein held forth last Thursday: "McGavick's midlife conversion to 'civility' is a joke to anyone who remembers the vicious campaign he ran on behalf of Slade Gorton."

Not true Goldie, and you didn't even live here then.
Howie question: I did live here then. Can anyone refresh my memory of the Gorton-Cantwell race in 2000? Was McGavick a "stand-up guy" who didn't run a "vicious campaign"?
I can't recall the details, but my impression is that Gorton's campaign was run like all his others, "mean" and "low-down."

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