Matt Yglesias

Oct 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

Jeffrey Frederick

Jeffrey M. Frederick isn’t some random yahoo or blog commenter. He’s the Chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. And here’s Karen Tumulty’s report on his official campaign activities:

No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Virginia since 1964, and most election years both campaigns pretty much ignore the state. This time, however, McCain is running behind Barack Obama in statewide polls, thanks in large part to the head start he got on the ground there. “We haven’t seen a race like this in Virginia — ever,” said state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick. “The last time was 40 years ago, and they didn’t run races like this.”

Indeed, Frederick, a 33-year-old state legislator, hadn’t even been born yet. But earlier this year Frederick unseated a moderate 71-year-old former lieutenant governor (who also happens to be Jenna Bush’s father-in-law) to become head of the Virginia GOP, promising “bold new leadership” for a state party recently on the decline. [...]

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: “Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” he said. “That is scary.” It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama’s controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. “And he won’t salute the flag,” one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, “We don’t even know where Senator Obama was really born.” Actually, we do; it’s Hawaii.

That is pretty bold.

Meanwhile, Mark Salter enjoys a fine whine:

“I think there have been quite a few reporters recently,” said Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, Mark Salter, “who have sort of implied, or made more than implications, that somehow we’re responsible for the occasional nut who shows up and yells something about Barack Obama.”

Occasional nut, head of the state party, whatever.






40 Responses to “Jeffrey Frederick”

  1. El Cid Says:

    Is the head of the Virginia state Republican Party an occasional nut? Seems more like a full-time nut to me.

  2. Tom Says:

    Classy.

  3. otto Says:

    I think the Obama-as-terrorist meme may have been noticably assisted by the 28 million copies of the anti-Islamic DVD ‘Obsession’ mailed out in the past few weeks. The possible connection needs a little more consideration.

    http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n19/shtz01_.html

  4. 24AheadDotCom Says:

    There are several problems with the excerpt above, but MattY isn’t smart enough and intellectually honest enough to point them out.

    1. The Weathermen (”WM”) did indeed bomb the Pentagon (”P”). The only thing Tumulty can hang her hat on is whether Ayers himself was directly involved; as he was a WM leader, that’s a very fine point.

    2. We can probably assume that OBL was behind the plane crashing into the P.

    3. Therefore, the only thing “not entirely true” about that Frederick contention is a) the extent to which Ayers was personally involved in the P bombing, and b) the extent to which flying a jet into a building qualifies as a “bombing”.

    4. Tumulty then makes a magical leap, referring to “another myth” as if what she’d just discussed was a myth.

    5. Frederick was not the person who said the bit about the flag.

    6. Is there conclusive evidence that BHO was in fact born in HI? Not evidence you want to believe, or something at a site funded by a group that also funded a group linked to BHO, but actuall conclusive evidence? See, for instance, this very accessible video.

    If you enjoyed this take-down of MattY and Tumulty, consider adding my site to your feed reader.

  5. Andruw Says:

    And his Mom is from Kansas! Oh, never mind…

    Seriously, I use that on all the anti-Obama nutjobs I run into. And even living in MA and run into them all the time among white, somewhat well-off 40+ people. His Mom is from Kansas! How exotic!

  6. RaJ Says:

    the extent to which flying a jet into a building qualifies as a “bombing”

    Thank you, 24, for giving me the best laugh I’ve had all day.

  7. blackink Says:

    24AheadDotCom, you should try reading sometime. Honestly. Plenty of non-partisan groups have been able to produce Obama’s actual birth certificate from Hawaii.

    That point is so inane - we don’t know where Obama was born - that it almost completely disqualifies you from rational debate. That’s something someone from the Idiocracy would say, man. Come on. Get real.

  8. Daniel L. Says:

    And this is what they’ll say when there are reporters in the room. What do they say elsewhere?

  9. Andruw Says:

    It really does speak to the truly deranged worldview of people like “24aheadofthemoroncurve” that they doubt Obama’s place of birth.

    John McCain and Sarah Palin will run ads portraying Obama as a terrorist-sympathizer, but they won’t attack him for BEING INELIGIBLE FOR THE OFFICE??

    Trolls, feeding, I know.

  10. Trevor Says:

    Just on a whim - I told a McCain-Palin supporting cousin of mine and her husband that Michelle Obama’s first true love was NOT Obama, but Osama. A torrid love affair she had with him in London after her freshman year at Princeton before he cruelly dumped her for reasons known only to him. They believed it. And, another stupid, selfish, quasi-racist cousin of mine heard the story - and now he believes it too.

  11. wiley Says:

    If painting him as a terrorist is their main thrust, I consider that an endorsement. They feel like they have to scare the pants off people to keep them from voting for Obama.

    Nutz.

  12. 24AheadDotCom Says:

    RaJ: please explain.

    blackink: one group has printed pictures - with conflicting camera-added data which they later removed - with a supposedly state-supplied COLB rather than the “long-form” one. Aside from BHO’s site - which had the same COLB - that’s the only evidence so far provided. If you have more information, let us know.

    Once again, see this very accessible video.

    Why is BHO trying to block discovery? Why not just end all the rumors by complying with the court’s order? They’re willing to put pictures up on a website which might or might not be accurate, surely they’d be willing to just present the records and end all doubt, right?

  13. blackink Says:

    Does that work for you, 24A?

  14. El Cid Says:

    If Barack Obama has nothing to hide, why is he refusing to give me his birth certificate, Social Security number, his major credit card, his checkbook, his investment certificates, and a key to his car? Huh?

    But MattY won’t answer that, just like all the liberal cowards here who will soon wake up just in time to feel the Barack Obama boot of national health care stepping down on their better-off faces.

  15. Mo Says:

    Oh, of course it doesn’t. You just have facts and documents, blackink; 24 has The Truth.

    Of course, the truth is that McCain is a compulsive gambler. He has spent his life putting his education at risk, his career, his fellow sailors, his families, his integrity. (And of course Cindy’s money.) Now he has gambled his chance at the presidency on an Alexis Carrington wannabe and series of increasingly bizarre gambits. It is a slow, ugly downward spiral of his own doing. Pitiful.

    Jeff Frederick? Keep it up. Thanks for the Obama support. VA is looking bluer every day thanks to you.

  16. 24AheadDotCom Says:

    blackink: I’m afraid not. The HI spokeswoman says “I don’t know that it’s possible for us to even say beyond a doubt what the image on the site represents.” Then, politfact suddenly reaches the conclusion they wanted to reach by saying that BHO couldn’t have gotten this far. Which is a bit like trusting that ClarkRockefeller is who he says he is because someone else thinks he who he says he is.

    However, if politfact’s assumptions - which are all they are - are true, the BHO should have a real copy handy, and if he didn’t have a problem providing proof to those other institutions, then he shouldn’t have a problem providing proof to a court.

    So, once again, the question becomes why he won’t do something so simple.

    And, guess what: whether he was born in HI or not, he might still have lost his U.S. citizenship.

    You did watch the video, right?

  17. Jeffrey Davis Says:

    24AheadDotCom doesn’t really believe that crap.

  18. JonF Says:

    Re: 24AheadDotCom doesn’t really believe that crap.

    Actually he sounds like one of those guys who used to write for the Weekly World News. Maybe next he’s going to inform us that Obama is really some alien experiment gone wrong and the Smoking Man has unleashed him in a nefarious plot to weaken the USA before the invasion of the Elvis Clones.

    I hope the price of tin doesn’t go up. The guy is going to need lots of it for his hats over the next four to eight yaers.

  19. El Cid Says:

    You all keep denying my proof that the Earth is hollow and inhabited by a race of bat-winged super-beings, but yet you simply will not accept as proof the photocopied a** I found in the garbage of a local Kinko’s.

  20. Tyro Says:

    he might still have lost his U.S. citizenship.

    It is, in fact, nigh-impossible to lose one’s US citizenship.

  21. Andruw Says:

    The Earth is not hollow, El Cid, but ruined by Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter and their goddamned dirty apes.

  22. 24AheadDotCom Says:

    I know it’s asking too much, but would it be possible for MattY’s commenters to rise above the juvenile level of most of his posts?

    So, for instance, BHO being born in the U.S. has not been proven. Assertions from the party don’t count; assertions from sockpuppets don’t count; assertions from politfact - based on a long series of assumptions - don’t count. And, of course, it’s a bit difficult to trust FactCheck, a group that gets its money from the same source that funded BHO’s program.

    It’s still an open question; that’s why there’s a court case and the judge ordered BHO to turn over documents.

    For all I know, BHO is telling the truth (for once). However, there’s a lot more out there about him.

    Democratic leaders might want to decide whether they want that to come out now, or whether they want it to come out later. Because, you can’t keep so many things covered up for very long.

  23. grumpy realist Says:

    DotCom, but why should we do anything to take you seriously? You spout exactly the same sort of deranged spiel we hear from all the “it was a PLOT by the CIA!” nitwits who are convinced lizard men are secretly running the world from their flying saucers.

    I bet you believe that you don’t have to pay taxes, either, right? And that we never landed on the Moon and it was all a huge hoax by NASA, right? And that 9-11 was an inside plot funded by the Jewish Bavarian Illuminati? (Or maybe the Bavarian Christian Illuminati, I get my conspiracies mixed up….)

    If you don’t want to be mocked as an idiot, don’t sound like one….

  24. Sarah Says:

    24AheadDotCom,

    Enough with peddling your website and the video already!

  25. otto Says:

    Academia gives you enormous control over your own time, and in an ideal academic position you can probably teach, do a lot of research thinking and writing, and still find time to earn some extra money on the side or play golf on a Wednesday afternoon.

  26. otto Says:

    oops! wrong thread.

  27. JonF Says:

    Re: I know it’s asking too much, but would it be possible for MattY’s commenters to rise above the juvenile level of most of his posts?

    Sorry, but preposterous nonsense is going to be met with humor.
    If you want to be taken seriously them at a bare minimum discuss serious policy issues.

  28. Ernst Says:

    24AheadDotCom,

    Obama has a diplomatic passport that list him as been born in hawaii.

    Do check what kind of antecedents checks getting a diplomatic passports involve.

    Obama has been vetted by the government, which is currently in his opponents hands, and found to be Hawaiian born. It’s as simple as that.

    And you are a slanderous conspiracy toting idiot.

  29. James Says:

    When Jeffrey Frederick makes comments like this and says Barack Obama is like Osama bin Laden, he is a disgrace to his country and his party. John McCain is an honorable man and he never attacks with words like this. It’s amazing to me that the Republicans can’t see that once they began attacks like this, they began falling behind in the polls. Come on Republicans, tell Jeffrey Frederick the Republican party does not tolerate this behavior and let’s vote him out of office for someone that makes us proud.

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