By MATTERS BY JACK NEWORTH
I don’t know about you, but I’m burned out on nasty campaign ads. They’re everywhere: in the mail, on radio and TV. Next, they’ll be on my cereal box. This election may be the most mean-spirited, except for the last one, and the one before that.
Today in Virginia, a man asked a question of Sen. George “Macaca” Allen and was almost thrown through a plate glass window. Obviously, it was the wrong question. I’m not saying it’s testy out there, but if the Lincoln-Douglas debates were held today, they’d probably be in a steel wrestling cage.
Here in Santa Monica, things aren’t much better. Mud-slinging has become an organized sport. A few weeks back during Monday Night Football, I saw a political commercial about Santa Monica. It was an attack ad blaming Councilman Kevin McKeown for our homeless problem, paid for by the owners of Shutters and Casa del Mar. I suppose it could have been worse, like what happened to Harold Ford in Tennessee. Picture a seminude starlet purring into her imaginary cell phone, “Kevin, call me.”
The actual commercial had commentary from Tim McAlevey, a bearded artist and longtime Santa Monica resident, while shots of the homeless were flashed across the screen. It ended as subtle as a sledgehammer: “Kevin McKeown, Bad for Santa Monica!” How about, “Attack Ads, Bad for Santa Monica?” McAlevey said a friend, the editor on the commercial, offered him $200 to voice his opinions, but then insisted on one line, “Kevin McKeown has been a council member for 10 years.” Tim didn’t think too much of it until he saw the commercial on TV. He called his friend and protested. Ironically, Tim’s voting for Kevin. He even has a “McKeown for Council” sign in his window!
I had a few questions about the commercial, so I phoned the p.r. firm that created it. Not too thrilled to hear from me, they suggested I was “fishing,” whatever that meant, and overreacting. I suppose if I were them I might say the same thing. That’s the problem these days. Everybody’s sure they’re right and all too willing to prove it.
The all-time worst political ad had to be against Max Cleland in the U.S. Senate race in Georgia, 2002. Cleland had lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam. His senate opponent, Saxby Chambliss, avoided Vietnam via a student deferment and a “bad back.” The Chambliss ad showed a photo of Osama bin Laden next to Cleland’s, with the inference Cleland was unpatriotic -- because he still had one limb?
Attack ads go way back in our history. In 1796, John Adams was vilified as “a monarchist” and Thomas Jefferson was called an “atheist.” The only difference between then and now, it wasn’t done during Monday Night Football.
The undisputed king of political sleaze was Joe McCarthy, who would hold up sheets of paper he claimed contained the names of communist spies in our government. As it turned out, they were blank. Joe would have been perfect on Fox News. Fortunately, in televised hearings, the country saw McCarthy for the bully he was. The attorney for the Army asked him that famous question, “At long last, have you no decency, sir?” The answer was obviously “no.” Within months, the Senate censured McCarthy, his drinking worsened, and his fall from grace was as spectacular as his rise.
Today, we are deluged with McCarthy-types: Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and Ann Coulter, who said of the 9/11 widows, they “were enjoying their husbands’ deaths.” Have you no decency, madam? Limbaugh recently attacked Michael J. Fox for commercials favoring stem cell research. A recovering drug addict, Rush flailed his arms wildly mocking Fox’s symptoms, which he labeled, “Purely an act.” A few years back when Rush checked himself into rehab, I thought it was courageous. Attacking someone with Parkinson’s is beyond the pale, even for Rush.
I’ve decided I’m going to TiVo the election. I do it to avoid seeing UCLA football losses, so why not this? If it turns out bad, I’ll bury my head in the sand. If it’s good, I’ll watch. I can’t bear the thought of Bush and two more years of a rubber-stamp Congress. The country can’t afford it. The world can’t either. With all that has gone wrong this past six years, if the Democrats can’t win one house, they may have to start all over and become Whigs.
As for the negative ads, I say vote the exact opposite of what the ad recommends. Tell them Santa Monicans don’t care for sleaze. Of course, that would leave only the truth. Has it really come to that? Let’s hope so.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.