Michael Gaynor
Coming close is NOT good enough!
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By Michael Gaynor
November 5, 2009

Public ignorance is President Obama's friend, and for the truth to prevail, the truth must become generally known.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, on the Election Day 2009 results:

"To dismiss the narrow defeat of Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman as a lesson in the playing out of the 'conservative spoiler' in a three-way race would be to miss the real lesson completely. Conservative efforts on the ground finally gave a voice to the thousands of voters in the district who believe that life, marriage, and fiscal responsibility all matter. Without these people, no GOP candidate can win, in New York or elsewhere.

"To be frank, this is a win for motivated conservative activists who are driven by issues and not party. Dede Scozzafava's advocacy of the extreme Obama agenda would have been a great loss for the GOP and all those who care about the values enshrined in its platform. The road to a GOP majority is not paved with taxpayer-funded abortion, same-sex marriage, and government-run health care.

"The resounding Democratic defeats in Virginia and New Jersey came as the result of a unified effort, and a candidate who heartily embraced conservative values won the largest margin. Such success should serve as a cautionary tale to Congress and the White House, whose overreach on health care could cause them to meet a similar demise."

Valid points all.

BUT, (1) a critical part of the "real" lesson of Hoffman's narrow defeat is that the truth about the corrupt relationship between ACORN and SEIU and President Obama and his perpetual presidential campaign has not become general knowledge...or else Hoffman would have won in New York's 23rd Congressional district, (2) the cautionary tale to the Republican political establishment and Fox News is that the result of their timidity will be the continued political success of President Obama and continued implementation of his radical agenda (including legislation and appointments) to America's detriment, and (3) the bottom line at the federal level is that the Obama plan to capture NY 23 worked, so the Republicans have one less House seat and the Democrats have one more.

Michelle Malkin, in "Who Are You Calling 'Extremist'?" (November 4, 2009), focused on the positive: "The days when immoderate political operatives and feckless Beltway opportunists could define 'moderation' by their own warped yardsticks without pushback are over."

May it continue to be so!

Public ignorance is President Obama's friend, and for the truth to prevail, the truth must become generally known.

Instead of reporting the truth in October 2008, The New York Times killed an Obama/ACORN expose, fearing that it would be "a game changer," and ABC and CNN chose not to go there.

Reality: the liberal media establishment is still keeping its readers and viewers uninformed and even deluded and the conservative media has not done enough. A Nexis search to find how many articles with ACORN in the headline had run in National Review and Weekly Standard in the past year yielded one article apiece — both in 2008. If conservative publications — which one might expect to be more excited than most publications — are not more excited about ACORN, then the liberal media establishment is not feeling enough "pushback."

Ms. Malkin: "Here is one of the loudest messages of the 2009 off-off-year elections: Conservatives in America will no longer let their opponents define them as outside of the mainstream. They will not submit to Democrats. Or to the media. Or to Beltway Republican capitulationists. They will not 'rebrand.' They will not sit down. They will not shut up."

HURRAY! (But bold conservatives do not control Fox News.)

Count on Fox News contributor Ms. Malkin not to submit to Democrats, the media or Beltway Republican capitulationists, of course. But the Fox News commentators with their own shows are Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta van Susteren.

What will Fox News do now?

Will it "make peace" with the Obama administration?

How's that "war" on The New York Times that O'Reilly declared last spring coming?

O'Reilly not only quickly backed down, but now seems to be seeking peace with the Obama administration and presuming that it is well-intentioned instead of scrutinizing it.

Beck is battling the Obama administration in his self-promoting, clownish way. But his alliance with the radical ACORN 8 confuses his message and his personal blend of enlightenment and entertainment does not enhance his credibility, even when he's throwing strikes.

Sean Hannity regularly recites that he was right about Obama, but he was a year too late with the videotape of Rev. Jeremiah A. "God damn America" Wright, Jr. and he's mostly left exposing ACORN to Beck.

Ms. Malkin took it to The New York Times by publicizing the ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief's shocking story on her blog, www.michellemalkin.com, in her number 1 best seller, Culture of Corruption, on her book tour and elsewhere.

In sharp contrast, Fox News itself gullibly allied (and foolishly has stayed allied) with the ACORN, so it has not exposed the ACORN 8 and their myth about ACORN being a wonderful morganization that was recently hijacked.

In "Suicidal tendencies: The GOP and its deadly alliances" (November 2, 2009), Ms. Malkin quoted at length from Ms. MonCrief's "related must-read in the Hot Air Green Room on 'How NY23 Revealed the Republicans' ACORN Problem,'" including this excerpt: "ACORN is a Democrat scandal and it is hard to separate one from the other. Corruption is the overriding theme and it comes mostly from the left.... The ACORN 8, a group of former ACORN board members, have formed a Scozzafava-like partnership with the Republicans. In attempting to expose ACORN, some appear to have ignored key facts and overlooked a pattern of withholding key information to coincide with opportunistic timing aimed at aiding Democrats. An example of this is the complete removal of two longtime Obama ACORN cronies from a complaint filed with the United States Justice Department last January by the ACORN 8. Madeline Talbot is described by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review Online as 'the woman who first drew Obama into an alliance with ACORN.' And Keith Kelleher is Talbot's husband, the Chief Organizer of SEIU Local 880 in Chicago."

That's ONE example.

Ms. Malkin challenged The Times in her latest syndicated article: "New York Times columnist Frank Rich decried the right's 'Jacobins' and 'Stalinists' who he said joined a 'putsch' by supporting Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman instead of ACORN-embracing, Big Labor-promoting, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, tax-and-spend Republican Dede Scozzafava in New York's 23rd congressional special election."

The Obama administration decision to publicly classify Fox News as an "opponent" seems to have had some of its intended effect.

Hoffman nearly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but, as a result of general ignorance and successful manipulation, Team Obama narrowly won the NY 23 race.

That is dangerous for America and a disgrace.

Ms. Malkin: "...Patrick Gaspard, Obama's political director...intervened in the race to convince Scozzafava to endorse the Democratic candidate Bill Owens after she dropped out" and he "was a top organizer at the militant Local 1199 chapter of the Service Employees International Union and an activist/organizer for the New Party and the Working Families Party — both ACORN/Democratic Socialists of America front groups."

Team Obama had created a win-win situation for itself by having President Obama appoint the incumbent Republican Congressman Secretary of the Army. Then the Democrats nominated an SEIU favorite (Bill Owens) and an ACORN Republican (Dede Scozzafava)obtained the Republican and Working Family nominations without a primary. (New York's Working Family Party is led by ACORN Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis.)

New York's Conservative Party nominated Doug Hoffman. His presence in the race forced out Ms. Scozzafava, but she endorsed Owens and he won narrowly.

Ms. Malkin:

"As I pointed out in my Oct. 16 column, there was never anything moderate about Scozzafava. There was no fiscal conservatism to balance her social radicalism. It wasn't merely that she was 'pro-choice.' She was also a proud recipient of a pro-abortion award named after eugenicist Margaret Sanger.

"It wasn't merely that she favored higher government spending. It was also that she supported the stimulus, which every single House Republican in office opposed, on top of her support for the union-expanding card-check bill, on top of her ambiguous statements on the energy tax-imposing cap-and-trade bill."

All true!

If she won, Ms. Scozzafava was slated to become the Obama Republican who would provide the cover of "biparisanship" for moderate and conservative Democrats who would vote for the bulk of the radical Obama agenda.

THAT was blocked.

But Obama/ACORN corruption has not been sufficiently publicized to keep Owens from winning a plurality of the votes.

Ronald Reagan (1975): "A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers."

Right.

Ms. Malkin: "The Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee threw upward of $900,000 down the toilet for a candidate whose core views and political alliances undermined conservatism's fundamental beliefs in limited government from Day One. It was a reckless expenditure of the GOP base's hard-earned money and a bitter tuition bill for a teachable moment on the perils of political expediency."

Right.

But the ugly truth about Obama and ACORN needs to be generally known if good candidates like Hoffman are to win instead of make a very good showing.

The key is expose the radicalism and corruption of ACORN and Obama AND their ties to President Obama and leftist Democrats.

When Ms. MonCrief, who knew what she was talking about, declared on "The O'Reilly Factor" that ACORN had served as "an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party," O'Reilly let it drop.

Fox News has been willing to trumpet ACORN's criminal tendency, but, as to its illicit relationship with the Obama presidential campaign, not so much.

Instead, Fox News has gone with the "Pimp and Pro" ACORN story starring beautiful 20-year old Hannah Giles and 25-year old activist/filmmaker/dancer James O'Keefe.

In 2007 O'Keefe appeared on the public radar screen as a result of a lawful sting on Planned Parenthood that exposed Planned Parenthood's willingness to take money earmarked for aborting black babies.

In 2008, Ms. O'Keefe joined her dad, Doug Giles, as a Townhall columnist, posting two articles, the second lauding O'Keefe's expose and carefulness in conducting it only in states where one-party consent to recording was lawful.

In 2009, O'Keefe and Ms. Giles joined forces to target ACORN, hoping to expose a willingness to facilitate prostitution, child prostitution, child abuse, illegal immigration, tax fraud and bank fraud and succeeding by surreptitiously recording their discussions with ACORN employees in Maryland, New York, California, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.

It's despicable, but unsurprising, that the liberal media establishment did not want to cover the sensational "Pimp and Pro" ACORN story.

It's also not surprising that Fox News trumpeted the story.

Doug Giles updated his biographies at www.townhall.com and www.clashradio.com.

Doug's biography at www.townhall.com now reads:

"Doug Giles is the creator and host of ClashRadio.com (IRN/USA Radio Network). In addition, Doug is a popular columnist, minister, artist, campus lecturer and author.

"His articles have also appeared on several other print and online news sources, including The Washington Times, New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Examiner, NRA News and ABC News, and he has been a guest on both major television news programs and nationally syndicated radio shows across the nation.

"Doug earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech University and studied for his Master of Arts in Christianity and Culture from Knox Theological Seminary.

"He's the author of ten books on Christianity, masculinity and cultural insanity. His latest book, If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going is published by Bridge-Logos (Oct. 2009) and yet the little voices inside his head still will not go away."

"Doug and his wife of 20 plus years have two daughters. Giles' interests include guns, big game hunting, big game fishing, fine art, cigars and being a big pain in the butt to people who dislike God and the USA."

There's no mention that one of Doug's daughters is Hannah Giles, the twenty-year old who played the prostitute in the "Pimp and Pro" ACORN sting last summer or of Fox News, which gave great coverage to that sting and had both Doug and his daughter as guests after the sting broke.

Doug Giles' biography at www.clashradio.com is the same, plus recommendations.

Fox News is mentioned only in this one: "Doug is a raucous and rowdy mix of old-school, traditional conservative values with the kind of eff-you attitude folks like Ted Nugent have made millions on. He's one part rebellious rock star, one part crusading missionary, and another part rough rider. -S.E.Cupp, Author & Fox News Contributor"

Before the recent revision, Doug had proudly showed many Fox News connections on his Clash Radio biography page. What is gone completely is the list of "Recent Guests on Giles' Talk Show." I ran out of fingers counting Doug's named Fox News-connected guests as of 2007.

Doug should not be downplaying his Fox News connections and Fox News needs to do much better in dispelling the ignorance on which the Obama Administration relies to implement its radical agenda.

© Michael Gaynor

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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Michael Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member... (more)

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