“Loose Lips Sink Ships” was an American propaganda poster during World War II which morphed into an American idiom warning about unguarded or careless talk. Campaign workers for U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn ought to start wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan after embarrassing and cynical revelations were leaked in a consultant’s campaign document on what the Democrat should say,who she should mislead and who she should pitch for money in order to win the general election against her Republican opponent.
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd says the memo makes Nunn look like “everybody’s worst stereotype of what a politician looks like. I think it’s a very bad hit on her. It’s already an uphill battle to run as a Democrat in Georgia.”
The explosive 144-page document penned by her consultant, apparently mistakenly uploaded to the Internet by someone on Nunn’s staff before beingquickly removed, tells her how to handle criticism of her Points of Light Foundation (including the issue ofmoney flowing through her non-profit to Muslims described by the memo’s author as “terrorists”). It further advises on how to address her weaknesses inspeeches and with the media, who she should target for fund-raising and what minority groups should be“appealed to.” (The consultant optimistically hopes for 30 percent of the white vote).
What hadn’t been known before, thanks to the document, is that Points of Light — through a service called MissionFish– helped validate charities. One ofthem is Islamic Relief USA, which has been banned from working in Israel because of ties to the bloodyMuslim terrorist group Hamas. The memo says Islamic Relief USA received $33,000 from Points of Light donors through MissionFish.
While some Jews won’t appreciate her foundation’s tilt toward Israel’s enemies, the consultant’s memo blithely notes “Michelle’s position on Israel” (she has said virtually nothing on Mideast issues) “will largely determine the level of support here.” The consultantbelieves a pro-Israel pivot would help with a goal of raising $250,000 from the Jewish community.
Nunn is warned that she will have to defend herhuge foundation salary and grants, as well as fend off charges that she is “too liberal,” “not a real Georgian” and “a lightweight.” The memo even admits that her so-called “Peach State Pledge” not to use “outside big money” was nothing more than a publicity stunt. The record shows Nunn has always been soliciting large, out-of-state contributions.
Other problematic issues the campaign should be ready to spin, the document says, are Nunn’s support for Obamacare and same-sex marriage. The documentthen goes on to lay out strategy to engage blacks,Hispanics and Asian Americans as their targeted and malleable voting bloc. These groups should be“validators,” in the words of the consultant. (State Rep. B.J. Pak of Gwinnett County, by the way, fired off a statement that Asian-Americans should be insulted by the memo: “Her campaign messages of ‘just give us your money’ and ‘call me when you become a citizen’ show how out of touch she is.”)
Republicans really don’t need to say much at this point about the memo fallout. The Nunn campaign has been thrown into a defensive mode trying to explain and muddle through all of the various embarrassing comments and advice. Perhaps National Republican Senatorial Committee political director Ward Baker best summed up the GOP position: “Never before has a Senate campaign openly admitted that its number one objective is to deceive voters and hide a candidate’s true beliefs from public view.”
