Brendan Doherty
So, on Sunday GoLocalProv ran a story entitled “Democratic Attack Book Against Brendan Doherty Revealed.” There was also a slideshow of accompanying bits from the “attack book.” Essentially, the story is that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (the Democratic Party organ which works to get Democrats elected to the U.S. House of Representatives) has a book of opposition research on Brendan Doherty.
The GoLocal stories utilized an image of a file labelled “Top Secret” making it seem as though this document was slipped to GoLocal and thus dragged kicking and screaming from the shadows. Lost was who was doing the revealing: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Yes, that’s right, the Democratic Party is making its opposition research publicly available. Now, from a strategic point of view, it might be considered a point of idiocy that the Democrats are tipping their hand in such a manner (GoLocal quotes Mr. Doherty’s campaign manager Ian Prior as having “been aware of the document for several months”). On the other hand, it might be that the DCCC simply wants to distribute these as far as possible instead of keeping it for a few party insiders.
In all fairness to Dan McGowan, the reporter who wrote the story, his article is actually a fine overview of what’s in the document. Its flaws are that it omits saying that the DCCC made the document available (though Mr. McGowan does link to the actual site) and the misleading headline and picture.* And that’s really what gets me here. The DCCC wasn’t making this a secret. If the headline had been a simpler “DCCC Publishes Opposition Research on Brendan Doherty” it not only would’ve been clearer, but it would’ve been less misleading (assuming the “Top Secret” images were removed as well).
Instead, what’s “revealed” is that the DCCC is working as it’s supposed to. I don’t know, maybe this is the kind of stuff that raises Republican hackles; such as Providence Republican Committee Chair Tara Pinsky freaking out in a letter to The Journal about David Cicilline’s campaign conducting opposition research (file that under “101 Reasons Republicans Are Losing in Providence). But every time I read this stuff, I think, “do they not know how this works?”
Anyhow, it’s the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to get worked up over this. After all, the DCCC’s Republican counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee notably doesn’t openly publish its opposition research (though its “Race of The Day” feature does publish attack articles).
Favorite bit of Mr. McGowan’s article? When Mr. Prior warns anyone using the book to verify its facts; something the DCCC book itself does on its first page!
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UPDATE: This article has been changed to reflect that in the GoLocalProv article that the DCCC site is linked to, and language has been clarified.
Too bad for David that there is no substance to the Doherty ‘book’ and a non-story. I guess it’s analogous to our current GA. They had to do something to justify their existence however useless it may be.
GUESS WHAT. There is a book on David Cicilline as well. I have a copy and have studied it. Dealings with International Arms dealers, Fundraising support from a Global Outsourcing firm, Represented child molester when he was an attorney not just in the trial but also in the appeal once convicted. Touted around Providence, Boston and DC with a male porn-star lover. Remember the books work both ways. I am certain this post will get de-bunked by RI FUTURE aka ( RI CICILLINE) but facts are facts. Anyone can order an Opposition Research book from firms in DC. Doherty’s is one quarter of the size of Davids.
Link or GTFO.
Frankly RR all I care about is what their voting record is likely to look like and what issues they support for the most part, and after assessing those factors I vote for the most “Liberal” (and rarely is there a true liberal). As for “Doherty’s is one quarter of the size of David’s”, I had to smile at that one and I bet David would too.
Notice how Mr. Howard didn’t discuss much of the substance in the ‘attack book’. If I were a Republican opposition research guru there’s no way I’d let this out. The only reason I can see to logically let out something like this is because you want your opponent to believe you’re focusing on certain things.
If, as Mr Howard suggests, the Dems are trying to get the research into as many hands as possible then they needed something much stronger against Doherty than this. This is real vanilla stuff and to any objective observer doesn’t really paint Doherty in a poor light. That this was the Dems doing the research makes it all the more beneficial for the Doherty team.
But I’d never put it past Cicilline to try to fake out the Doherty team.
Doherty will win this election because Mr. Cicilline is not good for RI’s First District. He is simply not a public servant, but rather a career politician like Mr. Reed, Mr. Whitehouse, and yes even Mr. Langevin. If and when the voting public awakens and sees what these people are doing to our state and our Country there will be a revolution and many heads will roll. The people must act with intelligence and unity to change the RI General Assembly and the Congress in Washington. Without that our country will continue its decline to the lowest form of statism, where a few greedy tyrants rule and the people are no longer free.