*** ORBUSMAX GUEST OP/ED ***

A Candidacy of Duplicity and Deceit - By Justin Darr

July 12, 2004

Every political party has its lunatic fringe. You know, the folks who run around saying the Bilderbugers are going to team up with Interpol outside Waco, Texas, to plot the start of the "New World Order" by taking over the multipurpose room of the Chamber of Commerce. While these groups can be a source of endless entertainment to web surfers, few think anyone would actually take them seriously. For instance, would you trust a guy wearing a giant placard saying "The End is Near" with your credit cards? Sadly, we are wrong. Polls show that roughly half the voting public would, indeed, trust their futures to a group that makes the "Flat Earth Society" sound like the "National Academy of the Sciences" in comparison. Who is this cabal of paranoid, power hunger, maniacs? The Democratic Party, whose leadership has offered little more than foolish conspiracy theories and mind bending distortions as reasons to support John Kerry for President.

Wild eyed veteran to the reality challenged sect, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), has joined his fellow Democrats in their chagrin at America's victories in the War on Terror with his latest investigative report from Fantasy Land. While visiting India, McDermott stated American forces had already captured Osama Bin Laden, and President Bush is not announcing the fact until a point in time were he can achieve maximum political benefit. What is Rep McDermott's source for this accusation? Well, none if you consider a "source" a human being who actually knows something about the hunt for Bin Laden. But, if you define "source" as a 32 year old man who lives in his mother's basement and spends all his time in internet chat rooms, then BINGO!

Curiously, McDermott made the same accusation in regard to the capture of Saddam Hussein several months ago. When Saddam was captured, McDermott could shout, "Ah ha! See, I told you so!" However, if Bush was really trying to surreptitiously gain political mileage out of Hussein's capture, would he not have released the information in, oh, I do not know. November, instead of over six months out from the election?

McDermott is not the only Democrat to take the long walk off the short pier of sanity. The list of names of Democrats who have voiced some of these ridiculous cloak and dagger speculations reads like a "Who's Who" of the Democratic political elite. Al Gore believes that Bush has a secret team of "brown shirts" who prevent the media from undermining support for American troops. Teddy Kennedy believes Bush planned the Iraqi War as part of a plot to beef up political support for Republicans. Howard Dean's "interesting theory" about Bush knowing about 9/11 in advance is now as much a part of Liberal pathos as the belief that Bush stole the 2000 Election. And, who can forget Hillary's "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy"?

Even more disconcerting than these slanderous statements from the leaders of the Democrats is John Kerry's attempts to capitalize from them politically. While Kerry himself has not endorsed most of the accusations of his Democratic brethren, he has not criticized or distanced himself from them either. In effect, Kerry is allowing his supporters to run a cynical, distorted campaign for him. Kerry can then stand aloof (something he is good at), claim to run a positive campaign, all the while hoping to benefit from the pessimistic spin the "unbiased" news media is slavering to heap on Bush.

John Kerry's campaign tactics are the very definition of duplicity and deceit. When Bush attempts to respond, as he did when his campaign highlighted the group Move On's ads comparing Bush to Adolph Hitler, the Kerry Campaign reacted with outrage at Bush's "negative campaigning" and demanded an apology. However, noticeably missing was any sense of outrage when Move On first ran their ad contest that produced the Bush/Hitler ads. Where was the demand for an apology from Move On for associating Kerry's name with such vitriol? There was none. Instead all the Kerry Camp did was issue a bland piece of "Hitler is Bad" fluff to the media and then "moved on".

In his silence, Kerry is granting these outrageous attacks on Bush his tacit support. Does he too share these views, or not? Like most issues, nobody really knows what Kerry believes. Liberals from around the country accuse Bush of everything from funneling drugs into the United States to looking like he "did not know what to do on 9/11" (despite the fact he knew about the attack in advance), and Kerry says nothing. Then, he talks about Bush's alleged "credibility gap" because of all the rumors Kerry's supporters are spreading about him.

What does this say about John Kerry? Does he have to rely a constant series of personal attacks on the President to distract the voters from evaluating his stands on the issues? One thing is certain. If Kerry wins this election because of the hateful lies of his Party's leadership, the loser will not be Bush as much as the American people.

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Justin Darr lives with his wife and twin children in the Philadelphia area where he is an executive manager for a national company. You can see all of his work each week on TheFence.com, TheRant.us, TheRealityCheck.org, RightTurns.com and several other local and national publications.