McCain-Obama battle over Missouri “Truth Squad”
With the Missouri polls showing a dead heat between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, every campaign move is igniting scrutiny.
That’s the backdrop over a two-day dust-up that is attracting local TV coverage, and has even ignited a Web fight between the Drudge Report and the Daily Kos.
At issue is a new Obama “Truth Squad” formed in the state.
(As an aside, please note that both sides have “Truth Squads” in numerous states, under numerous titles. McCain’s campaign has an Honest and Open Election Committee, whose Missouri members include former Sen. John Danforth and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, and another state McCain group monitoring any Democratic jabs at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.)
Obama’s Missouri Truth Squad members include St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, among others.
The inclusion of such officials has led to Gov. Matt Blunt, among other Republicans, to accuse the Obama camp of planning “to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.”
That tack was repeated in a conference call Saturday, where Republican National Committee deputy chairman Frank Donatelli said that the issue was the inclusion of law-enforcement officials on Obama’s squad. He called for Joyce, McCulloch, et al to step down.
In a statement Saturday (issued from the governor’s office), Blunt went further and contended that the state Obama campaign and its allies, including U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill “have attached the stench of police state tactics…”
His assertion was that the squad might prosecute people deemed to have made inaccurate or inappropriate claims against Obama.
“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them,” Blunt said in the statement. “Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”
Obama’s national campaign manager David Plouffe said Saturday that Truth Squads simply monitor attacks and refute them.
Later, state communications director Debbie Mesloh issued a statement that called it “the height of absurdity” for the GOP to contend that the Obama squad planned to go to court or jail critics.
She contended that Blunt, Donatelli, et al are out “to deceive voters about the role of respected Missourians across the state who want to see this election be about the truth, not false attacks like the ones we’ve seen today.
“Barack Obama’s Truth Squad is comprised of members of the community who – on their own time – are dedicated to raising the level of discourse in this campaign…,” she added.
By the way, a quick surf of the Internet found a McCain Truth Squad in New Hampshire, formed last January, that included several public officials with prosecutorial powers, including the state attorney general.
However, state Republicans have sent out a list of dozens of officeholders — who are lawmakers, not law enforcers — who they said make up the bulk of McCain’s Truth Squads around the country.
Let me get this straight. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch are going to silence free speech?
Well, as an attorney here in California with offices at the Plaza in Kansas City, my colleagues and I can’t wait to test your little gassy expose’.
Ms. Joyce and Messer’s McCulloch and Boyer, we will be coming to your State. Try this on us or anyone we observe being harassed and we’ll take their case Pro bono first and second, Jefferson County does not posses the amounts of money needed to cover the judicial events coming your way. Every attorney from here to New York will be testing your little charade just because. My firm will be one of them. You issued this dilatory and faux intimidating challenge and we have gladly accepted.
Seymour