Yep. You read that right. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in its infinite wisdom, put out an attack mail piece aimed at Independent 2nd CD candidate Kenny Golden. The front of the piece (below the fold) shows a crowd shot of what look like Tea Party protesters. Among the signs is the now infamous one showing President Obama as the Joker.
It’s bad enough when those who dislike our president use such images. It’s far worse when the Democrats do it. I’m truly disappointed that the DCCC went this far and displayed such a racist image.
UPDATE: I’ve included the back of the mailer as well (had to remove the address info) so that you can see that it came from the DCCC.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian,
I can’t for the life of me figure out what the DCCC could be doing here or what their polling could show them that would lead them to believe this is a good idea.
Why go after Golden? Why use this imagery? Why use this message? Etc., etc.
It just doesn’t make sense from my perspective across the state in Roanoke.
The Golden strategy of the DCCC is absolutely brilliant.
Telling Republicans that Golden wants to cut government spending and cut taxes and cut entitlements won’t hurt him.
They are trying to get likely Rigell voters to vote Golden so that Nye’s pitifully low numbers will be enough to win anyway.
“Well, if DCCC did it and it’s ok, that means we in the Tea Party can too, right?”
Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes for someone to (seriously) make that leap in logic?
Actually, the left made Bush up like the Joker first. This President or another makes no difference.
Sure it makes a difference. Because two wrongs still don’t add up to a right.
They are both wrong. Hence my assertion that there was no difference.
I agree with Brian that the strategy is to try to pull the hard right vote from Rigell. But using that image was just too much for me. And yes, Coby, that will be the next step.
According to Rigell’s own poll, Kenny is taking more votes away from Nye than him. If that is true, then maybe the dems should be sending this to their base. If its true, Rigell should be hoping Kenny stays in the race. If it is not true, then Rigell is so full of crap from publishing cooked polls that he deserves to lose.
Brian is absolutely right. If Nye wins I will likly chaulk it up to dirty politics… It seems that some very bright people think it’s a good idea to help the third party candidate in order to secure the win for the Democratic Party.
In various races across the country Democrats are putting out massive mailings costing millions seemingly attacking the 3rd party candidate but really supporting them. It’s sooooo sad.
Maybe the only way Nye can beat Rigell is via Kenny Golden. Don’t believe me? Some of the smartest Democrats in the country agree and they are dumping tons of money into the Virginia 2nd District and it’s ending up in my mail box. I’ve gotten no less than four glossy mailers of which the first one I could have sworn Kenny produced but low and behold it was paid for by the Democratic Party of Virginia! The Democrats will likely spend more than $300,000 dollars marketing Kenny Golden as a hard core conservative in an effort to secure my vote.
Anyone who voted in the last few Republican primaries is likely to witness this absolutely Machiavellian campaign tactic.
My hope is that Kenny realizes he is being USED by the Democrats. I hope he calls a press conference to support Scott Rigell. There is still time for him to make a difference and earn back the respect he once held within the Republican Party.
My hope is that he will then campaign against Byler for 2nd District Chair to effect change from within. Do that Mr. Golden and you have my word I will do everything in my power to help you succeed…
I’ve got a lot of hopes this fall… Lastly I hope we have some really nasty weather on the 2nd!
You should keep in mind that Golden is NOT a Tea Party candidate and that local Tea Party leaders have asked him to withdraw.
So, whatever the DCCC motivation might be, the ad is also deceptive.