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BORED BY BUSH BAMBOOZLES? Subscribe to "Inside Bush Watch" and you'll get the stuff we don't report at "Bush Watch." Breaking news and broken promises. Quotes, jokes, blokes, and tokes. For you? Free. Such a deal! (Click on "JoinList") RATS: BUSH'S SUBLIMINAL AD SMOKING PISTOLS: GEORGE "RAT AD" BUSH AND THE SUBLIMINAL KID "At first glance, the Republican television commercial on prescription drugs looks like a run-of-the-mill attack advertisement. The announcer starts by lauding George W. Bush's proposal for dealing with prescription drugs, and criticizes the plan being offered by Vice President Al Gore. Fragments of the phrase "bureaucrats decide" — deriding Mr. Gore's proposal — then dance around the screen. Then, if the viewer watches very closely, something else happens. The word "rats," a fragment of the word "bureaucrats," pops up in one frame. And though the image lasts only one-thirtieth of a second, it is in huge white capital letters, larger than any other word on the commercial. The advertisement then declares, "The Gore prescription plan: bureaucrats decide."... "Almost every advertising professional interviewed said that given the technology by which commercials are assembled frame by frame, it was virtually impossible for a producer not to know the word was there. "There is no way that anything Alex Castellanos does is an accident," said Greg Stevens, a veteran Republican admaker here. Bobby Baker, chief of the office of political programming at the Federal Communications Commission, said that if the word had been deliberately inserted in the commercial that would be "an extraordinary development" and reflect "reckless" behavior. While he said the commission did not prohibit subliminal advertising, Mr. Baker explained that "we have policy statements and public notices that indicate they are inherently intended to be deceptive and might be contrary to the public interest."" (NYT, 9/12/00) This morning the AP reported that as Bush landed in Florida he said, "``I am convinced this is not intentional, You don't need to play, you know, cute politics....To put people's minds at ease, this kind of practice is not acceptable.....Conspiracy theories abound in American politics....I don't think we need to be subliminal about prescription drugs." Yet, a portion of the ad works as a subliminal appeal, an image or a word inserted in an ad so briefly that it is only preceived unconsciously by the average viewer. In spite of what Bush told the reporters, today the ad was removed from circulation. It was killed. The only question, then, is was the subliminal appeal created on purpose? There are smoking guns on the Bush campaign team, primarily, Bush, himself, and his sidekick political guru Karl Rove. It's generally agreed that Bush backers blitzed South Carolina with deceptive advertising and dirty tricks against John McCain, angering the Arizona Senator to this day, and Bush never specifically separated himself from those ads. In fact, he was overheard by a reporter telling a backer that while he can't "get" McCain on TV, the attack will be "under the radar," and it was, with racist radio ads, pointing out that Mac had adopted a little girl "of color." One was reminded of similar ads by Bush backers during his first gubernaorial campaign, when Governor Ann Richards was criticized for "appointing avowed homosexual advocates" to state jobs. Other than Bush, the connection, of course, between the two campaigns of bigotry was political strategist Karl Rove. "Chuck McDonald, who as Ms. Richards' spokesman blamed the Bush campaign [for smear tactics] in 1994, said that he sees some parallels with the McCain episode. Mr. McDonald said Bush political operatives have a history in which supporters spread stories while the candidate stays above the fray. "The Bush campaign in 1994 effectively used surrogates to spread any campaign message the campaign thought needed to be carried," said Mr. McDonald, now a political and business consultant in Austin. Political scientists and consultants say hardball tactics are common as candidates seek to win an advantage over opponents. But Mr. Bush has sought to set his campaign apart, saying he won't engage in that. Mr. McDonald said the architect of Mr. Bush's political campaigns is Karl Rove, a longtime strategist with an aggressive style. "Clearly, Karl Rove has a formula, and everything in 1994, in 1998 [Mr. Bush's re-election] and this year fits within that formula," said Mr. McDonald. Mr. Rove, a colleague of the late GOP consultant Lee Atwater [who is considered the father of political smears and directed the Poppy Bush campaign featuring the Willie Horton ad], got his start in Republican politics while a student in college. In 1973, Mr. Rove organized conferences that instructed young Republicans on campaign dirty tricks, such as going through a rival's garbage to obtain inside memos and contributor lists. As a Republican consultant in Texas over the last two decades, Mr. Rove has worked for most major GOP candidates seeking statewide office. [For example,] as consultant to Gov. Bill Clements in his 1982 re-election bid, Mr. Rove distributed a mock newspaper suggesting that Democratic challenger Mark White was drinking while driving when he had a wreck as a college student." (DMN, 12/2/99) With the Bush presidential campaign presently in disarray, similar to its circumstances at the start of the South Carolina primary campaign, we can logically anticipate a growning range of smears, below the belt tactics, and, in the words of the Federal Election Commission, "deccptive" and "reckless" behavior by the Bush campaign that is "contrary to the public interest." --Politex, 9/13/00 for previous bush headlines, go to...