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Rachel Maddow rips into AFP's Tim Phillips
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Tim Phillips, President of Americans For Prosperity, a conservative, anti-health care, conservative campaign group was on the Rachel Maddow show on Thursday, and it was a compelling session of political jousting, as Rachel tried to get Phillips to reveal his “grassroots” funding sources which he resoundingly refused to do.
Rachel Maddow, known for her liberal viewpoints spoke honestly and did not “parse words” as accused by Phillips during a heated discussion over his part in a well-known, despicable piece of campaign advertising. Phillips, along with conservative Ralph Reed put together a television smear ad during the 2002 race for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. Supporters of candidate Saxby Chambliss, and Republican challenger to then incumbent Democratic Senator Max Cleland who also happened to be a harsh critic of the Bush Administration, Phillips and Reed ran a television ad that showed pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden and challenged Cleland’s courage.
Max Cleland, doesn't have “the courage to lead.”
Max Cleland had lost both legs and an arm in Viet Nam, and yet according to Phillips and Reed, Cleland lacked the courage to lead. The ad was considered so outrageous, they finally pulled it amid protests and criticism from members of Congress including prominent Republicans like John McCain and Chuck Hagel. But by then it was too late, the damage had been done, and Cleland lost his bid for reelection.
On that particular point near the end of the interview, Rachel wouldn’t let up on Phillips asking how he could compare Max Cleland to a coward, and they argued heatedly back and forth.
Phillips kept insisting that the context of the ad was to say that Max Cleland did not have the courage to lead the war on terror, and then stated that the Bush Administration “absolutely made the right decisions” to fight terror, and made the typical Republican sound-bite to sum up the Bush years, “We’ve been safe now throughout the Bush Administration.”
This logic falls way short, since the 911 attacks happened well into the Bush era. Bush and Cheney did not protect America from terrorist attacks, they allowed terrorists, during their watch, to attack the United States on our soil and kill thousands of people. What followed after 911 was a series of frightened militaristic moves deflecting their failure to catch Bin Laden by attacking Iraq.
Rachel at one point called Phillips “a parasite” as they took turns lambasting each other's work and character.
Watch the video and get ready for the fireworks
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