How do you define insolence, chutzpah, impudence, effrontery, audacity et al? The defining moment for Josh Mandel, the Republican senate candidate, arrived in Columbus Thursday night when he called Sen. Sherrod Brown, his Democratic debate opponent, a "liar".
He said WHAT?
Given Josh's well-deserved fact-checked reputation of being the GOP's Liar-in-Chief in this Ohio race, wouldn't you think that the Whiz Kid would sort of avoid the liar thing in his assault on Brown? (He's burned more pants than any candidate I can recall in a half-century.) No sense reminding people, me included, of the shamefully superficial way he has evolved in this campaign.
The facts are simply this: he is a commodity on the open market for big-time contributors who have spent $19 million to oust the incumbent, whether they are laying up the cash for Mandel or, if it so served their main objective, Honey Boo Boo.
His ad hoc financiers include the usual suspects on the Dollared Right: The American Petroleum Institute, U.S.Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Right to Life, Karl Rove, Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Republican Jewish Coalition. The consequences are scary. But without these groups adding a pre-paid vote to the Senate, Josh Mandel and his lean-and-hungry look would be a mere blip on the radar screen.
Or as Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post's former executive editor, liked to say about inconsequential people, "When the history of this day is written, you won't be in it." And that's no lie.
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One of the signal omens of a desperate political campaign arrives when a candidate stoops to school-yard taunts and name-calling against an opponent. Sadly, there are few rules of civility left in today's political climate and most lines already have been crossed. Next thing you know, panicked candidates will be slapping opponents in the face and challenging them to a duel at ten paces. The remarkable thing about Mandel's outburst is the image that he has created of himself as an instrument of privileged special interests by accepting loads of cash from the very people and organizations that have long used their political access to enrich themselves and their allies, often at the expense of the middle-and working classes
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