Robert Gibbs

[syrakusos]

Ahead of tonight's "Town Hall Debate" at Hofstra University, I followed some news stories and this reminded me of an incident.

"I think you'll see somebody who will be strong, who will be passionate, who will be energetic, who will talk about ... not just the last four years but what the agenda is for the future and how we continue to move ... our economy forward," Obama's senior campaign adviser, Robert Gibbs, said on MSNBC." (Reuters here.)

Robert Gibbs...

Back in 2008/2009, at my desk, I had a list of the Presidential Cabinet. I googled them each and was shocked when I got to Gibbs. I had forgotten all about that, what with my own life to manage and all. But when I saw his name, it was not hard to retrace my steps, and gather new evidence.

... when Howard Dean was the 2004 Democratic front-runner, a new group abruptly popped up — calling itself “Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values” — and, shortly before the Iowa primary, began running an extremely ugly anti-Dean TV ad campaign, featuring images of Osama bin Laden, along with ominous claims that Howard Dean would fail to Keep Us Safe, that he could not “compete with George Bush on foreign policy.”

"Hypocritical Transparency Crusader," by Glenn Greenwald, on Salon, Oct. 13, 2010 here.

This is the story as it appeared in 2004.

How Democrat fund-raiser scored Dean knockout

February 19, 2004

BY LYNN SWEET WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

There is much to study in the rise and fall of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. A chapter in that story is the attack against the former Vermont governor bankrolled by a small group of anti-Dean Democrats, led by Democratic fund-raiser David Jones.

Anti-Dean television spots by Jones' group ran from Dec. 5 to Dec. 19, a fateful period that could mark the beginning of Dean's downfall. Dean, once the front-runner deemed all but impossible to beat, quit the race on Wednesday having not won a single state.

The 18 individuals, two corporations and six unions Jones persuaded to donate to his Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values fund helped knocked Dean out of contention.

"Clearly did," concurred Dean media adviser Steve McMahon when we talked. He likened Jones' handiwork to "drive-by shootings."

It's the first demonstration of how a political group can attack working under the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Jones collected $663,000 from the 26 donors in the last quarter of 2003 and was able -- with some luck in timing -- to irrevocably wound Dean's $42 million campaign fueled by thousands and thousands of small contributors.

Here is the inside story:

Creation: Jones conceived the anti-Dean operation last year and became the treasurer of what is called a 527 organization, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Code under which these groups operate. According to the rules, 527 groups cannot coordinate with campaigns, and they cannot advocate for a specific candidate. Jones said he did not work with any campaign.

Jones' group would operate in initial anonymity because it did not have to file a report disclosing donors with the IRS until Jan. 31 to reflect money collected in 2003. That would be after the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina contests. That's a reason most of the stories written about Jones' group -- really a fund since there were only a few people involved, despite the name -- described it as "shadowy" and "secretive."

Tactical goal: The point of the operation was to peel off Dean's liberal supporters in the crucial Jan. 19 Iowa caucus, which was a must-win for Dean. The Jones-commissioned survey of 800 likely Iowa caucusgoers by pollster Paul Harstad, taken after Thanksgiving when Dean was riding high, showed that a whopping 77 percent of Dean's backers identified themselves as liberal. Testing several issues, the poll determined that most of his supporters knew Dean for his opposition to the Iraq War, and they were not aware of where he stood on other issues dear to die-hard progressives: that Dean was endorsed eight times by the National Rifle Association; backed NAFTA, and favored cuts in Medicare spending Republicans had proposed in the mid-1990s.

Timing: The first spot, on Dean's NRA endorsements, ran Dec. 5-12 in Iowa. The second ad ran Dec. 12-19 in Iowa and hit Dean on his NRA backing and NAFTA and Medicare stands. By this time, Jones did not have much money left.

Jones could spend only about $15,000 to buy time in New Hampshire and South Carolina for an inflammatory spot that ran Dec. 13 accusing Dean of "having no military or foreign experience" with a shot of Osama bin Laden on the cover of Time magazine. Jones caught a break when U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein on Dec. 14, starting a week where Dean spiraled downward. Dean said in a Dec. 15 speech that Saddam's capture "has not made America safer" -- a statement seized by Dean's rivals, which gave Jones' ad free airtime on news and talk shows. On Dec. 16, Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi handed Jones more free exposure when he sent a letter to the other Democratic candidates asking them to condemn "this despicable ad." The ad gets even more free airplay when Dean said a few days later that bin Laden deserved a trial.

Why: Dean's campaign accused the Jones fund of being a front for former candidate Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), who at one time was Dean's main Iowa rival, and the current front-runner Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Jones is most often identified as a former fund-raiser for Gephardt, but he has a string of Democratic clients, including former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). At least five of the individual donors and all the unions have ties to Gephardt; other donors have connections to Kerry and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who dropped out of the race Feb. 11.

Next: Friday is when the next reports come out, and Jones' will show he has replenished his kitty and is sitting on $270,000.

Copyright © The Sun-Times Company

from "Progressive Values" here

Use your browser to follow Robert Gibbs and David Jones and their gang.

[Robert Campbell]

Michael,

I knew nothing about this.

Quite the eye-opener: Paul Begala has nothing on Robert Gibbs in the dirty tricks department.

Robert Campbell

[Selene]

Yep. This is how the game is played and most folks have no clue why candidates get eviscerated.

[syrakusos]

If you put "robert gibbs howard dean" in a search engine you will see some of the factions within the Democratic Party. I seem to be able to appreciate this more. I simply do not know the equivalent gangs within the GOP, except the old Yankees versus Cowboys with Nancy Reagan hating Barbara Bush, and the Bushes implicated in the assassination attempt via their friendship with the Hinckley family. Who in the Romney campaign represents the Christian Right, who speaks for the libertarians, who represents oil or computers, is invisible to me. On the other hand, I "get" the Democrats.

And for them, it is all about power, as they all share the same ideology. They have no "big tent" with Fundamentalist Christians and gay "Log Cabin Republicans" in the same place. Among the factions, there, though, are the globalist Illuminati (for lack of a better word). When I ran down the Cabinet members, I found that the two White House Counsels came from multinational consulting firms. Contrary to rightwing propaganda, the Obama power base is not street-fighting Marxists from Acorn, though they have a role. Among the unions, public employees have eclipsed industrial workers.

With the Clinton gang, it is all about the money and without those street-fighting hoodlums and unions. With her, it is the Ivies.

Howard Dean pulls the center, the old guard, and what would have been the middle class young, the college crowd destined to work in mid-levels. They respond to Costco, because it is one company with one guy as its face, but distrust Big Business and Corporations. It is to them that President Obama nods about rewarding initiative while recognizing our responsibilities to others. They would be likely to align with Republicans wanting a tariff on manufactured goods.

But those are all nuances.

The push and shove is never about ideologies or agendas, but always about power, which is why Howard Dean and the White House accuse each other of being "irrational." It is why after his defeat, Dean became DNC chair: he was thrown a sop to prevent a split in the power base.

If anyone can map the GOP like this, it would be instructive.