Pat Caddell Goes 'Zell' On His Party

A "Leading Democrat" Lambasts DNC
Pat Caddell appeared today (September 13, 2004) on Dayside w/Linda Vester. Caddell, introduced by Vester as "a leading Democrat," was on to discuss the sorry state of the Kerry campaign.

Opening, Vester said that it's "all over the newspapers and TV" that Kerry's behind in the polls and even the "so called liberal media" says he's floundering. So, when "respected Democrats take to the airways to talk about this you know it's gotta be bad," and Pat Caddell is here with a list of all the "screw ups" he's seen.

Caddell said people know Kerry's "not stupid," but they wonder why politicans can't "be honest" and say campaigning is a tough process, that they've made some mistakes but that they're going to keep fighting. Caddell said telling the truth has become "contaminated" in the Washington-world.

Caddell said the Kerry campaign has "no definition." Caddell said the Swift Boat "problem" happened because the Democrats made the Kerry campaign about Vietnam; that nobody has ever run for president as a hero (COMMENT: George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower come to mind.), that you become a hero because people know you're a hero, not because you "run around" and say you're one.

Vester said that Kerry, "you know how he travels with the national news media and they trail him and record everything he does," hasn't given an interview in 34 days and wondered why. (COMMENT: Don't you just love all the insinuations here?)

Caddell said it was because of "arrogance;" that, as a Democrat, he felt that the party had been hijacked by some "politico crypto gangsters" who were taking over the heart and soul of the party and that they hold the power and the money, at which point video of Ted Kennedy greeing John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry appeared on screen.

Caddell proceeded to say that Democratic leaders are counting on things like what when on at CBS this morning, "with those documents." Caddell asked "why do they, the Democratic party, want to get into the issue of the National Guard? National Guard leads to Swift Boats." (COMMENT: Republican-think if I ever heard it.)

Vester then asked about a DNC push called "Operation Fortunate Son," which apparently involves the DNC sending Guardsmen out into the states to talk about the favoritism Bush received surrounding his National Guard service.

Caddell decided it was time to throw out some red meat. He said that when you have a party headed by Terry McAuliffe who put $100,000 into Global Crossing and then "walked off with $18 million," it tells you about the "moral and the integrity level my party has been reduced to."

Caddell said the "other day [McAuliffe was] calling the President of the United States a liar. What is wrong with these people?" He said nobody likes "political hacks" calling the President of the United States a liar. He said we should be talking about what our vision for the future is but that this crowd, the same who took the Democrats down in 2000 and 2002, are going it again, "hand in hand with some of the national media."

Caddell said NBC might as well have had the National Enquirer on today instead of Kitty Kelly and then pointed out that none of the Swift Boat Veterans have ever been on the Today show.

Vester asked if the "so called liberal media" are part of the problem, to which Caddell responsed that they weren't just part of the problem but "a threat to our liberties right now." He said the 1st Amendment is there to protect the people but when the press decides "who should be president and who should be not, what truth you should know, what truth you should not," they destroy the very premise of the 1st Amendment, which threatens all of us, that there are some values more important than your party affiliation card, and people are dying for our country right now and we need to stand up for truth.

COMMENT: First of all, Pat Caddell is anything but a "leading Democrat." Second, introducing him as such doesn't mean that Fox's viewers heard the issues from the position of the Democrats - this guy barked right up the neoconservative's tree. But, this is "fair and balanced," Fox News style.