Kerry Campaign Smears Local Dean Supporter


The Kerry campaign stoops to a new low by smearing
a local Dean supporter.

Below is a quote from the Chicago Tribune, which stood out for me today.

I know the woman in question, Fran. And I can hear Fran saying exactly what she is quoted as saying. What I can't believe is that the Kerry campaign would have the chutzpah to claim that Fran is lying.

Fran would do many things. Stop a moving train if it endangered her family tops the list. But lie about a negative Kerry call in order to bolster Dean's campaign? Nope. Not a Fran thing. This is not what Fran is all about.

I blog this here only because I happen to know the woman in question and feel I need to come to her defense in public. And bring the question:

Why would the Kerry campaign do this, other than to hide something they really did do? To make Fran, who supports Dean, look bad?

Fran is an open supporter of Dean. She gives interviews, she ran as a delegate -- she's good people, and she's on the front lines as a local volunteer.

By making a very visible local supporter look bad, are they trying to make Dean's locals all appear questionable? Take the wind out of anything a local supporter would say in the future? Dean has a hell of a lot of local supporters, a lot of volunteers. I would be scared by the numbers if I were Kerry.

I don't think this is a coincidence.

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From the Chicago Tribune today:
"We've witnessed tactics here that I think are going to make it really challenging to come together behind the eventual nominee," said one senior campaign official in the state.
Fran Gehling, a real estate investor in Londonderry, said she received a phone call Friday night from a woman who identified herself as a supporter of Sen. John Kerry.
"She said, `Aren't you disturbed by Dean's hypocrisy by saying he's going to learn to talk about Jesus when he's in the South?"' said Gehling, a Dean supporter who is Jewish.
When Gehling asked the woman what she meant, the caller replied: "I think it's hypocritical for someone who's married to a Jewish woman and raising their children Jewish to talk about Christian values."
Gehling said the woman quickly ended the conversation after Gehling accused her of anti-Semitism.
Kerry spokesman Mark Kornblau said there was "no way" the call came from his campaign, and suggested that the Dean campaign made up the incident to hurt Kerry.

Posted: Wed - January 21, 2004 at 10:48 PM        

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