Puke Politics (from California, not Missouri)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   From California, of course.  No relation to Missouri ("the Puke State").
   It's made today's headlines.


(YAHOO NEWS)
L.A. Times Faces Anger for Schwarzenegger Coverage
Sun Oct 5, 1:02 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times has had about 1,000 readers
cancel subscriptions and been "flooded" with angry letters, calls and e-mail
protesting its coverage of Arnold Schwarzenegger's alleged sexual harassment of
women, it reported on Sunday.

The newspaper has detailed allegations by a total of 15 women in three
front-page stories since Thursday against Schwarzenegger, touching off a controversy
that has consumed the final days of Tuesday's recall election in which the
actor and former Mr. Universe remains the front-runner.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has apologized in a general way for his
behavior toward women, while denying the most recent allegations carried by the
newspaper in stories on Saturday and Sunday.

He has also accused the Los Angeles Times of working with embattled incumbent
Gov. Gray Davis in a concerted campaign of "puke politics" aimed at derailing
his candidacy.
(...)



(GOOGLE GROUPS)
From: <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=author:rcman777%40excite.com+">RCMan</A> (<A HREF="mailto:rcman777%40excite.com">rcman777 at excite.com</A>)
Subject: #Fellow Dem Tells Grey-Out Davis: Stop the Dirty Campaigning!
Newsgroups: <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=alt.society.liberalism">alt.society.liberalism</A>, <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=ba.politics">ba.politics</A>
Date: 2003-08-03 09:41:25 PST

Davis is told: No trash talk
By Gary Delsohn -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Friday, August 1, 2003
<A HREF="http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/recall/story/7141249p-8088520c.html">http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/recall/story/7141249p-8088520c.html</A>

Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued a stern warning to fellow Democrat Gov.
Gray Davis on Thursday: Run the kind of "trashy ...puke" campaign you did last
year and a lot of prominent Democrats willvote to recall you and give the job
to Republican Richard Riordan.Lockyer acknowledged in a 90-minute breakfast
interview with The Bee Capitol Bureau that Riordan has not yet declared his
candidacy.

But he said he expects the former Los Angeles mayor to run and thathe's been
"counseling" and "warning" Democratic campaign consultants that they'd better
steer clear of the type of personal attacks Davis has made in past campaigns.

"If they do the trashy campaign on Dick Riordan ... I think there are going
to be prominent Democrats that will defect and just say, 'We'retired of that
puke politics. Don't you dare do it again or we're just going to help pull the
plug.'

"There is a growing list of prominent Democrats that, if that's how
itevolves, are going to jump ship."

Asked if he'd be one of them, Lockyer, who has also come out againstthe
recall, calling it "unfair to Gray Davis and bad for the state,"said: "I don't
know."

Lockyer's comments infuriated Davis' longtime political consultant,"startled"
the Republican strategist who would likely manage Riordan's campaign and gave
rise to the notion that Democratic unity behind Davis may be crumbling.

About the same time Lockyer was making his comments, U.S. Rep.
LorettaSanchez, D-Garden Grove, who has been urging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to put her
name on the ballot, suggested she might enter therace.

"I would never rule anything out," Sanchez said in an interview with KCBS
television in Los Angeles. "It depends on how we are doing, andit depends on what
choices we have."

The attorney general and other statewide Democratic officeholders said weeks
ago they would not run in the recall election as potential successors to
Davis.

Lockyer talked in general terms about what he characterized as Davis' history
of running negative campaigns attacking his opponents'character and record.

But the attorney general zeroed in most specifically on Davis' role inthe
2002 Republican primary between Riordan and businessman BillSimon.

Simon was given little chance of winning when that contest began, so Davis
and Garry South, who ran Davis' last campaign for governor, put millions of
dollars into about a half-dozen television attack ads on Riordan, whom they
expected to be a tough adversary in the general election. The Davis ads accused
Riordan of changing his views onabortion and the death penalty. They also
portrayed him as someone voters couldn't trust.

Ahead of Simon 3-1 when the primary began, Riordan began a free-fallafter the
ads hit and never recovered.

Davis and Simon then engaged in an attack-mode fight of their own, with Davis
characterizing Simon as a naive millionaire determined to shield his business
record from the public and Simon hammering away at Davis as bought and owned
by special interests."

It was a puke campaign and I didn't like it," Lockyer said. "I think it's a
disservice to voters and the profession. I'm just tired of that stuff."
(...)