Tom McClintock Kind Of A Failure At Ratfucking

Tom McClintock is doing his ratfucking best to win his primary, but it isn't a very good performance. Daily Kos featured an article last week regarding how to ratfuck (with language switched, because it was meant as a guide for Democrats):

This is the most important part of the strategy. The trick to successful ratfucking is to get (Democratic) primary voters to support your preferred candidate while making them think it was their idea. The key is to use language that makes it look like you're attacking Joe Unelectable while in fact you're propping him up.

I'm against the practice myself. Even huge successes can backfire:

It's also important to use the right language when you're trying to prevent a strong candidate from advancing. California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' 2002 gubernatorial campaign is a good case study for this. Davis was very vulnerable (indeed, he'd be recalled a year later) and knew he was in danger of losing a general election to former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. However, Riordan's opponent, businessman Bill Simon, was seen as much easier to beat. Only weeks before the primary, Riordan held a clear lead in the primary polls, but Davis' team set to work on making Riordan unappealing to primary voters. Davis spent about $10 million attacking Riordan for changing his mind on key issues like the death penalty and abortion.

It was clear to political observers what Davis was doing. Some Republican voters may have even caught on. But to the vast majority of primary voters what mattered wasn't the messenger but the message. The idea that Riordan was wishy-washy on conservative values was appealing to them, even if they came from Davis. Democratic interference wasn't the only reason Simon won; Riordan had his own missteps and Simon spent heavily at the end of the race. But Davis' decision to ratfuck the primary payed off big time. Simon transformed a massive polling deficit into a huge 49-31 primary victory. Davis proceeded to defeat Simon 47-42 and win a second (albeit abridged) term.

Bitter California conservative Republicans sponsored the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall election, a serious backfire, which wouldn't have happened if Davis had had better discipline and hadn't had so much money to burn on stupid projects.

McClintock's problem this year is that he's violating a cardinal commandment about ratfucking:

Ratfucking works because most primary voters don't pay enough attention to politics to know it's happening. Still, it's always possible to be too obvious about it. It's vital never to admit you're trying to game the primary.

McClintock is WAY TOO OBVIOUS!:

McClintock, whose challengers include upstart Republican Art Moore and independent Jeffrey Gerlach, is sending campaign mailers to Democratic voters that portray Gerlach as the lone alternative and describe him as a “liberal” who supports universal health care, gay marriage and amnesty for illegal immigrants. McClintock’s flier says he’s led the fight to repeal the health care law, strengthen traditional families and secure U.S. borders.

...“Gerlach, who has not even raised enough money to file a statement, is a very little-known candidate that in most years Tom McClintock would ignore,” Uppal said. “He’s really just trying to say ‘the alternative to me is Gerlach,’ and it’s not. I think Democrats have a very good alternative in Art Moore.”

Moore, a businessman and combat veteran with roots in the region, is considered a formidable challenger and is also the subject of McClintock’s attacks. Still, the Gerlach mailer clearly illustrates the congressman is trying to select the weaker opponent, said Rob Stutzman, Moore’s campaign strategist.

“If I was McClintock’s consultant, I would probably be doing the same thing,” Stutzman said.

McClintock’s campaign rejected the assertion. Gerlach is the stronger candidate to place second in the primary and “we’re going after him,” campaign manager Jon Huey said.

...McClintock’s campaign, with its considerable fundraising advantage and unanimous support from local GOP activists, has stuck to focusing on Moore’s failure to vote in past elections. In separate mailers, McClintock took aim at Moore for never registering to vote, comparing the situation to a doctor who didn’t go to medical school or a pilot who didn’t know how to fly.

...The mailer omits that Moore, a West Point graduate, has a combined 14 years of active duty and reserves service that includes 30 months of overseas deployment. After it began hitting mailboxes last week, Moore’s campaign released a statement from local veterans and other supporters condemning the “deceitful attack” and calling on McClintock to apologize for criticizing a veteran.

Moore’s campaign also reiterated his decision not to participate in civilian politics until he registered to vote for the first time in January, and noted the practice was shared by such legendary military leaders as George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George C. Marshall.

“For Tom McClintock, who has never even sniffed an infantry boot, to criticize the manner in which Art Moore has served his country, is deeply offensive,” Stutzman said.

Huey defended the pieces, pointing to a Defense Department directive encouraging members of the armed forces to “carry out the obligations of citizenship.”

“Mr. Moore’s excuse that he was following some sort of military creed makes a mockery of the extraordinary efforts that our military personnel make under the most difficult circumstances to discharge the most basic obligation of citizenship – to vote,” Huey said. “Art Moore owes every one of our servicemen and women an apology for invoking his military service as an excuse for failing to take his responsibility as an American citizen seriously.”

I take Art Moore's point.  There is a long tradition of military men, particularly those in command positions, of not voting. They seek to preserve their neutrality and their oath to follow their leaders, whatever their party might be. Here is an instructive Letter to the Editor:

Re “Dems Blast McClintock for his mailer tactics,” (Capitol & California, May 15): Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, is dead wrong when he suggests there isn't a strong code among military officers to avoid all political involvement, including for many of us the personal decision not to vote while on active duty. We rarely discussed politics and never openly. The oath we swore was to obey the orders of the President of the United States, regardless of political persuasion. Nothing is more infuriating to veterans than to have politicians who never served cynically try to manipulate voters by weighing in on the ideals of military service. In West Point graduate and combat veteran Maj. Art Moore, the voters of the 4th Congressional District have an opportunity to elect someone who reflects the district's Republican demographic and conservative values, while adding military service and courage under fire to his qualifications. Those are character traits Mr. McClintock will never have.

Bruce Hupe, Lt. Col. U.S. Army (Ret.), Davis

I'm sure Democrats would like to support a liberal Democrat in the 4th Congressional District race, but given Gerlach's weakness as a candidate, they are free to support Republican Art Moore instead. Moore's qualifications are enviable. He appears to be a (gasp!) honorable Republican! Someone who even a liberal Democrat like me could envision supporting! And Art Moore isn't a failed ratfucker like McClintock, or someone like McClintock, who appears unable to recognize that financial crimes are even possible. (Just bad business decisions, McClintock says; no crimes were ever done, so just go away).

Yes, Democrats should look at Art Moore as someone they might prefer supporting.