The kitchen sink: The Daily Howler gets there second

Although Bob Somerby probably does not read Cannonfire, he has picked up on the absurdity of the "kitchen sink" line, which has been the subject of two previous posts here. The "sink" motif still sees frequent use throughout prog-land and the mainstream media. First, Somerby quotes Joe Klein's anti-Clinton hit piece in Time:

Even as he spoke, the former President was in the midst of a tiny, self-inflicted absurdity, having claimed in a radio interview that the Obama campaign had played the "race card" against him. And that was the least of the damage.

That is, in fact, precisely what happened. As we have seen in many previous columns, the Clintons never -- ever -- used the race card. They had no reason to do so: Such a strategy would have no appeal to any segment of the Democratic electorate, and would serve only to alienate black voters and others. Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe accidentally deep-sixed the O-bot propaganda line when he confessed that no Democrats would make a decision to vote for a presidential candidate based on anti-black antipathy, because the racists all went over to the Republican side long ago. (The exact quote appears in a recent post; scroll down.) An internal Obama campaign memo revealed that the Clintons-are-racists meme was a deliberate ploy. At the time when the Obama campaign made the calculated decision to spread this unforgivable smear, most black voters favored Hillary.

As we shall see presently, Klein does not say these things of his own accord. Somersby will prove that he is repeating an Obama script. (If, as the progs believe, the MSM hates Obama, why does O-bot propaganda fill the pages of Time?)

Klein continues:

Hillary Clinton won a convincing victory in Pennsylvania, but it came at a significant cost to the Clinton family's reputation and to the Democratic Party. She won by throwing the "kitchen sink" at Obama, as her campaign aides described it.

It takes ingenuity to fit so many lies into two sentences. What cost to the Clinton family reputation? Klein should expand his readings beyond the confines of Daily Kos.

Somerby's response:

That “kitchen sink” statement has now become a standard way of trashing Clinton’s campaign. It’s often attributed to Clinton’s staff, as Klein does here. Last week, even before reading Klein, we’d become curious about where this familiar script-point began. Through the magic of Nexis, we traced it on back. For those who want to examine the Pleasing Group Novels they’re handed, this is where story-lines come from:

The current “kitchen sink” story-element dates back to a piece by Patrick Healy. We regard Healy as highly unreliable. But here it is, in his opening paragraph, back on February 26. His headline: “Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama:”

HEALY (2/26/08):After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama's candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a ''kitchen sink'' fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines of attack since Saturday in hopes of stopping his political momentum.

The effort underscores not only Mrs. Clinton's recognition that the next round of primaries—in Ohio and Texas on March 4—are must-win contests for her. It also reflects her advisers' belief that they can persuade many undecided voters to embrace her at the last minute by finally drawing sharply worded, attention-grabbing contrasts with Mr. Obama.

How reliable is Healy? Pathetically, this was part of this same report. Deeply, deeply pathetic:

HEALY: [T]he attack that received the most pop, on cable television and blogs, came after a photograph of Mr. Obama in ceremonial African garb appeared on the Drudge Report, and the item's author, Matt Drudge, claimed that the image was provided by a Clinton staff member.

Mr. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said that the Clinton campaign had ''engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party.'' It has not been independently verified that the photograph came from the Clinton campaign.

Cute, innit, how Plouffe changed his tune when the subject turned from the anti-Clinton campaign to the general election? I may have a piece up soon which will give another major example of how the right-wing press falsely ascribed a transparently absurd anti-Obama smear to "the Clinton campaign."

As readers will recall, I've dealt with the same New York Times article in a previous post. (Thanks again, Scotty!) Even if we ascribe non-malign motives to Healy, what does the quote come to? Simply this: Back in February, Clinton gave a round of speeches in which she referred to five reasons not to vote for Obama -- as opposed to, say, two or three reasons. That, friends, is the "kitchen sink."

To which I say: Big deal. I refuse to accept the O-bot redefinition of the term "negative campaigning" to mean any statement which does not acknowledge Obama as the Messiah.

If you look at what Hillary was saying in those days, her commentary was entirely concerned with policy disagreements and Obama's lack of experience. Since when are those considerations out of bounds in a political campaign?

Back to Somerby:

Healy’s quote was widely repeated on cable that night, used to signify the grim negativity of the Clinton campaign. (Just look what Mister Drudge said!) The attribution became Standard Fare so quickly that Maureen Dowd didn’t bother explaining when she typed the next day:

DOWD (2/27/08): Just as in the White House, when her cascading images and hairstyles became dizzying and unsettling, suggesting that the first lady woke up every day struggling to create a persona, now she seems to think there is a political solution to her problem. If she can only change this or that about her persona, or tear down this or that about Obama's. But the whirlwind of changes and charges gets wearing.

By threatening to throw the kitchen sink at Obama, the Clinton campaign simply confirmed the fact that they might be going down the drain.

By now, “the Clinton campaign” was said to have made this claim. By the way: BS about hairstyles isn’t negative, according to rules of this guild.

By now, this reference has become Quite Standard. Klein improved on the tale a bit, pluralizing the number of aides who were said to have described the strategy. Just for the record: Before Klein’s report, the “kitchen sink” quote had only been cited twice in Time. No one had cited a second aide who had supposedly said it. But pluralizing is Standard “Journalistic” Practice. It’s a way to make weak stories better.

I apologize for quoting the bulk of Somerby's piece, but the final point he makes is the most important:

One last point: Why did this story-line become popular? Presumably, this is part of the story: In the days after Healy’s report, the Obama campaign began to cite the “kitchen sink” line, using it as a complaint against Clinton. When Klein repeats (and improves) this Standard Tale, he repeats an Obama narrative.

In other words, we cannot simply point the blame at the pundits or the progressives. The fault lies with Obama himself. He is the one who has tossed the "kitchen sink" at his opponent, filling his media outlets with smears, insults and character assaults.

Barack Obama has run the filthiest campaign in the modern history of the Democratic party. We cannot reward such tactics with success, or they will be repeated.