Analysis: Who's afraid of the big bad truth?

09:24 PM CDT on Sunday, September 28, 2008

By John Mills
KMOV-TV

Stan Kostecki, KMOV-TV



Last Tuesday without any fanfare, the Barack Obama campaign announced Jennifer Joyce and Bob McCulloch, the top prosecutors in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, were joining something called an Obama truth squad.


They plan to respond immediately to any misleading advertisements and statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws.


"We want to keep this campaign focused on issues," Joyce told me. "Missourians don't want to be distracted by these divisive character attacks."


The truth squad's plan is to indentify false attacks and respond immediately with truthful information, Joyce and McCulloch say.


Truthful information like: Obama is a Christian who plans to cut taxes for anyone making under $250,000 a year.


The Obama campaign says prosecutors from the Kansas City area and some rural areas are also joining the truth squad, and Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer was also expected to be part of the team.


"Whether it is directly attributable to the campaign or one of the soft money operations," McCulloch told me, "if they're not going to tell the truth, then somebody's got to step up and say 'wait a minute, that's not true, this is the truth.'"


For reasons that are still not fully clear, prosecutors promising to tell the public the truth have sparked outrage among supporters of John McCain.


Three days later, I got a call from KMOX radio talk show host Mark Reardon. (I'll paraphrase.)


That story you did last night is really getting a lot of attention, Reardon said.


I was off yesterday. What story? I asked.


The one about the Obama truth squad, he said.


Oh, that story I did Tuesday at 6, I responded.


Well, Rush Limbaugh just talked about it, and the blogoshpere has it, and it's getting big. It's really going to get big, Reardon said.




Reardon was correct.


More than 90,000 people from across the country watched my report on KMOV.com. Click here to watch the report


When I returned to the office on Saturday, I spoke with callers from New York to Florida who had heard about Obama's truth squad and were outraged about it.


One caller said he was angry, because people were going to be "prosecuted" and "indicted" for stating their political views.


Another caller said Obama was planning to send police to the homes of elderly women because of their political statements.


A third caller said he wanted information about Obama's "storm troopers."


Members of law enforcement never said anyone would be prosecuted, indicted or punished for saying anything, only that they were prepared to tell the public the truth.


By Saturday afternoon, outgoing Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a McCain supporter, was also outraged and accused Obama of "police state tactics" that would "intimidate people and kill free debate."



In a written statement on the governor's official Web site, Blunt said the basis for his statement was prompted by "news reports."


"The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill open debate," Blunt said in the statement.


Prosecutor Jennifer Joyce said: "We're here to respond to any character attacks, to set the record straight."


"Barack Obama needs to grow up," Blunt continued. "Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations, because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them."


Isn't that what Joyce and McCulloch say they plan to do?


If we follow Blunt's argument, what does that say about his opinion of the John McCain Truth Squad and those responsible for it?


Yes, McCain has a truth squad, too.

http://www.kmov.com/localnews/stories/kmov_election_092808_truthsquad.bec69e89.html?npc=undefined&ocp=3#slcgm_comments_anchor

Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement


JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.


“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.


“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.


“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.


“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

http://governor.mo.gov/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EkkkVFulkpOzXqGMaj&style=Default+News+Style&tmpl=newsitem

I live in St. Louis. This is from our newspaper: St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

09.27.2008 5:49 pm
McCain-Obama battle over Missouri “Truth Squad”
By Jo Mannies



With the Missouri polls showing a dead heat between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, every campaign move is igniting scrutiny.

That’s the backdrop over a two-day dust-up that is attracting local TV coverage, and has even ignited a Web fight between the Drudge Report and the Daily Kos.

At issue is a new Obama “Truth Squad” formed in the state.

(As an aside, please note that both sides have “Truth Squads” in numerous states, under numerous titles. McCain’s campaign has an Honest and Open Election Committee, whose Missouri members include former Sen. John Danforth and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, and another state McCain group monitoring any Democratic jabs at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.)

Obama’s Missouri Truth Squad members include St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, among others.

The inclusion of such officials has led to Gov. Matt Blunt, among other Republicans, to accuse the Obama camp of planning “to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.”

That tack was repeated in a conference call Saturday, where Republican National Committee deputy chairman Frank Donatelli said that the issue was the inclusion of law-enforcement officials on Obama’s squad. He called for Joyce, McCulloch, et al to step down.

In a statement Saturday (issued from the governor’s office), Blunt went further and contended that the state Obama campaign and its allies, including U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill “have attached the stench of police state tactics…”

His assertion was that the squad might prosecute people deemed to have made inaccurate or inappropriate claims against Obama.

“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them,” Blunt said in the statement. “Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Obama’s national campaign manager David Plouffe said Saturday that Truth Squads simply monitor attacks and refute them.

Later, state communications director Debbie Mesloh issued a statement that called it “the height of absurdity” for the GOP to contend that the Obama squad planned to go to court or jail critics.

She contended that Blunt, Donatelli, et al are out “to deceive voters about the role of respected Missourians across the state who want to see this election be about the truth, not false attacks like the ones we’ve seen today.

“Barack Obama’s Truth Squad is comprised of members of the community who – on their own time – are dedicated to raising the level of discourse in this campaign…,” she added.

By the way, a quick surf of the Internet found a McCain Truth Squad in New Hampshire, formed last January, that included several public officials with prosecutorial powers, including the state attorney general.

However, state Republicans have sent out a list of dozens of officeholders — who are lawmakers, not law enforcers — who they said make up the bulk of McCain’s Truth Squads around the country.

FYI - Governor Blunt has screwed the people of Missouri every way possible.

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/168983

I think somethings stinky about all this.

The assertions that Obama truth squad folks are going to criminally prosecute seem to be coming from a supporter of McCain.

Rumor mongering and fear tactics coming from the right...why am I not surprised.

hahaha it's American politics

it doesn't have to be true. Just say it loud enough and long enough and enough people will believe it

(the Clintons were masters of that back in the 90's)

"One caller said he was angry, because people were going to be "prosecuted" and "indicted" for stating their political views."

"Another caller said Obama was planning to send police to the homes of elderly women because of their political statements."

Those comments alone, to me, destroy the credibility of the author.