Political Extremists

Earlier today we wrote in our post New Jersey’s House Members Support Patriot Act:

The left often throws around the expressions, “out of the mainstream” and “political extremists”, but always in the same breath with the term “right-wing”. Their logic escapes us.

A discussion ensured in the comments section concerning the “left” calling politicians and others “right-wing” extremists. In response we wrote:

For example, the left often refers to President Bush, Vice President Chaney, Ken Mehlman and other administration officials as right-wing extremists. This labeling by the left seems illogical, given as you have pointed out, 51% of voters have supported the positions advocated by these very officials. Even in New Jersey the Bush/Cheney ticket received 46% of the vote in 2004. Wouldn’t you agree the “extremist” label for the President, et al is false and purposefully misleading?

A commenter, not a participant of the discussion that prompted our response above, called us “liars” and demanded proof if we were big on “facts” and providing “examples”. We hope the following will settle the matter.

Our original post concerning House support for the Patriot Act brought us an email from the Corzine Connection Team forwarded to us by a reader. If the original recipient of this email is in any way representative of moderate Democrats, Corzine and his team are shooting themselves in the foot. We have verified the authenticity of the email with another person on the Corzine Connection mailing list. The following is the Corzine team email in its entirety:

Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005
Subject: Want to stop the right-wing? Show up

In the last few months, New Jersey has seen a parade of out-of-state conservative ideologues - people out of touch with the values of New Jersey -- arriving here to support Doug Forrester's campaign for Governor.

First RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, then Karl Rove, and now Dick Cheney.

Doug Forrester, like his partners RNC Chair Mehlman, Rove, and Cheney, is too extreme for New Jersey. This is an important week for the campaign, because this is the week we start sending the message that this right-wing influence in the New Jersey governor’s race is unwelcome.

Unlike the Republicans, we are going directly to the grassroots and taking our message door-to-door. And your push-back is already having an affect on Forrester’s campaign. After the New Jersey press exposed his links to Karl Rove, Doug Forrester was forced to remove advertising for the Cheney fundraiser and a photo of Forrester and Rove from his website. Forrester is trying to hide his connection with the right-wing extremists -- which means we have to keep up the pressure.

Our message needs lots of grassroots’ voices behind it— and you have several chances this week to join in the protest.

1. Come to the Anti-Cheney Block Party, countering the Cheney/Forrester high-dollar fundraiser on Friday. Join us today, Thursday, at 5:00 PM in East Windsor as we show the right-wing interlopers that this election is going to be about the grassroots, not wooing conservative ideologues.

2. Protest Cheney’s Fundraiser for Forrester. If we don’t want the right-wing’s dirty tactics and out-of-touch policies, we must make it clear now. Join us for the rally on Friday, July 22, at 4:00 PM outside the Westin Hotel in Princeton and tell Dick Cheney to go home.

3. Show the power of REAL grassroots by going door-to-door in our first big, statewide Action Day this Saturday, July 23. The best message we can send to conservative extremists is to show them the power of everyday people, who care about the future of this state, taking our message to the streets and kicking off our historic door-to-door operation.

Showing up is how we best stand against the right-wing exteremist onslaught unleashed by Doug Forrester. RSVP for these events online, or call us at 732-729-9940.

We can’t wait for this ideological shift to become entrenched as “political reality” in New Jersey — we don’t want them, or their dirty partisan tactics here. Let’s remind them now that New Jersey is and will stay a Blue State.

Sincerely,

Corzine Connection Team

PS: If you can, bring a camera to these events and share your photos—we’d love to show our grassroots in action. Send your photos to our blogger, Matt, at mstoller@votecorzine.org

Thank God for New Jersey’s press exposing Doug Forrester’s links to the “right-wing extremists” otherwise the people of New Jersey would never have known Forrester is a Republican.

Maybe the press should expose this aspect of Jon Corzine’s campaign for Governor of New Jersey.