Daily Dolt: WATB Bill Pascoe
The tactics used against Oberweiss, a successful investment banker and dairyman who has lost two primary bids for U.S. Senator and one for governor, were “outrageous,” according to Oberweiss campaign spokesman and strategist Bill Pascoe. Recalling his past as campaign manager for Republican Bret Schundler for governor of New Jersey and in earlier Illinois campaigns, Pascoe told me today: “Even for a guy who took his hits in the politics of New Jersey and Chicago, this was too much.”
He was referring to the leaflets that blanketed the 14th District days before the balloting claiming that Oberweis’ strong stand on border security in past campaigns is directly related to the increase in hate crimes “by 35% nationally.” The brochure by the “Latino Neighbors Against Hate Crimes” also pointed out that according to Justice Department statistics, more than 58% of hate crimes are committed against Latinos.
“For someone to claim that Jim Oberweis’s strong position on securing the border in his past campaigns has contributed to hate crimes is sick,” said Pascoe, whom I spoke to as he headed home from the headquarters of his candidate, “Try doing a search for this ‘Latino Neighbors Against Hate Crimes’ — it doesn’t come up on Google and is not registered with the Federal Election Commission or the state of Illinois. Go figure.”
Yes, it’s an illegal flyer. However, it’s also something that happens in most major Congressional races so the crocodile tears are silly. Especially for a guy who brags about his experience under Lee Atwater in 1988.
Let’s see some of Pascoe’s previous work though to show how much bullshit he’s shovelling:
“John Murtha still doesn’t get it. If he had had his way, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would still be alive this afternoon, plotting to murder more innocent Americans, Iraqis, Jordanians, and Kurds – and anyone else who got in the way of his
During the gubernatorial primary, Pascoe sometimes showed some Atwaterish aggression. In one news release, he called Schundler’s opponent, former Rep. Bob Franks, a “milquetoast homunculus,” (translation: a “timid dwarf”). Franks is now Schundler’s co-campaign chairman.
Bill Pascoe: early adherent to Truthiness:
First, understand why your opponent has problems with significant elements of his base, and drive wedges where you can, to the maximum extent possible; second, recognize that it is not your campaign’s job to tell the objective truth, it’s your campaign’s job to tell the version of the truth that puts your opponent in the worst light possible (it’s his campaign’s job, after all, to do the same to you); third, don’t get suckered into the trap of only talking about issues the media says are important – instead, choose the issue matrix over which you want to wage war, and stick to it no matter what; and fourth, if need be, if you can’t make a legitimate argument against your opponent on a key issue, use your opponent’s party’s position on the issue as the battleground, and wrap it around his neck. Make him pay for the sins of his party. Guilt by association still works, so don’t be shy in exploiting it.
Additionally, the Oberweis camp was critical of Kane County Republican Chairman Dennis Wiggins for accepting a paid position with Lauzen’s campaign. Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe called for Wiggins’ resignation from the Kane Republicans, but Wiggins declined, choosing instead to take a leave of absence until after the primary election.
Pascoe accused Wiggins of “(selling) himself to the highest bidder,” a statement which upset both Lauzen and Wiggins.
Pascoe messed with the one guy no one in Illinois would ever mess with, Abraham Lincoln:
Should Murtha be Hanged?
A recent example is an appearance by Diana Irey, the Republican candidate running against Rep. Murtha, a leading critic of Bush’s war policy. She said at a news conference May 24, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, that Murtha’s comments and actions “are not that of a patriot” but “serve to aid and comfort our enemy.” And as if those words weren’t strong enough, she added:
Diana Irey: Our 16th President once said, and I quote: ‘Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.’
After savoring the applause of her partisan audience, Irey went on to make clear that she wasn’t actually advocating hanging Murtha, saying that “Lincoln’s remedy” was too extreme for him.
A Bogus Quote
But in fact it isn’t “Lincoln’s remedy” at all. The sentence she attributed to Lincoln is the brainchild of J. Michael Waller, a conservative scholar who wrote an article for Insight magazine that appeared Dec. 23, 2003 under the headline, “Democrats Usher in An Age of Treason.” He started his article with the quote, adding, “that’s what President Abraham Lincoln said during the War Between the States.”
The blogosphere has a description for people like Pascoe who cannot take it, but dish it out just fine:
March 10th, 2008 at
[...] No other way to describe out-of-touch campaign managers from the Land of Bizzaro… Arch has the vintage whine, and all the direct rebuttals one needs to know about a certain Mr. Bill Pascoe, the losing manager [...]
March 10th, 2008 at
If Oberweis wants to win in November, before the end of the day we should hear that Pascoe has resigned from the campaign.
June 10th, 2008 at
Regarding your last bit about Lincoln:
Pascoe is an mildly amusing anklebiter. He and all other principles involved in Diana Irey’s campaign in 2004 were repeatedly told that Irey’s Lincoln quote was a fake. For three weeks during which he was repeatedly advised of this he milked this fraudulent quote until he could not squeeze one more penny in campaign donations from it.
I’m quite familiar with Pascoe’s personality flaws. I’m the one who repeatedly explained to him this Lincoln quote was fraudulent, and repeatedly offered him my proof which he refused … before I took my evidence to Brooks Jackson Factcheck.org. He wrote the article you reference above.
Cliff Hancuff
June 10th, 2008 at
Addendum:
The sole reason Pascoe was able to respond to Brooks Jackson’s “Misquoting Lincoln” article so quickly is because he already knew this quote from Lincoln was fake and had prepared a response in advance of its publication.
June 10th, 2008 at
one more post, then I’ll be quiet.
Might I remind readers here that Bill Pascoe was the wit and wisdom behind the “political strategy” of having Barack Obama harassed by a impressionable young videographer who pointed his camera in Obama’s face everywhere he went, 24/7, during the 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois. Quite literally, the only places this poor approval seeking teenager was told not to go was inside Barack’s home and inside public bathrooms. To Pascoe’s publicly displayed frustration, Mr. Obama tolerated this sleazy harassment with grace and dignity.
Pascoe was part of Jack Ryan’s campaign staff, defended this teenager’s rights of a free press, while paying him to do so. This was before Ryan’s wife filed for divorce because Ryan required her to go with him to sex clubs. Remarkably, Pascoe was able to keep Ryan’s campaign alive for weeks after his candidate’s moral corruption became common knowledge.
When Ryan sensibly dropped out of the race it cut off Pascoe’s income. Pascoe, clever fellow that he is, single-handedly convinced Alan Keyes to move from New York, replace Ryan, so that Pascoe could run his campaign for Senate against Obama in Illinois. In doing so, Pascoe recreated his income stream.
Pascoe has quite a distinguished career as someone who will do anything to stuff his pockets full of fees for serving as a “political consultant”.
It makes me chuckle to think that the National Republican Party ever picked Pascoe to be their national spokesman.