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Background Check | Criminal CheckSusan: And I think it's important that you read this again, carefully this
time... -- Lowell
From: "Josh Margulies"
Date: Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:36 am
Subject: Re: From Matt Bennett, Communications Director, Clark Campaign
To all of my old friends and "family" members, hi!
I haven't posted to this site since the Draft movement I cofounded
met with success on September 17, 2003, with General Clark's
announcement that he would accept the challenge posed by all of us --
you, me and, by most account, approximately 500,000 other
Americans, more than 10% of whom wrote letters urging the General to
run for office.
But I need to reply now.
Yes, Matt Bennett was one of the multiple Director of Communications
who came and went throughout the official Clark For President
campaign. I know his work well, because I was Deputy Director of
Communications for the campaign.
In fact, I was hired as Deputy Director before Matt was hired as
Director, which makes some sense, given that I had been (as had all
of you on here, I think) a Clark supporter and driver long before
Matt became a Clark Hessian, a hired gun.
Matt is probably a good man; he is probably a good husband and
father, and, from what I've heard from the people under whom he
served for years in team Gore, Matt was an effective Trip Director.
(That's right, folks; our Communications Director came from a
background of trip directing.) But he did not serve this campaign
well, and he owes us all far more than an apology for his
preposterously, almost unbelievably stupid comment made in the New
York Times.
As Matt is fond of saying, I greet his New York Times
statement "more in sadness than in anger," but that statement is not
an isolated incident, and his "apology" (Talk about an empty
vessel!) is not sincere.
Make no mistake, there: his "apology" is an attempt to cover himself
for blame.
And that, my friends, is what this campaign has been about: from
beginning to end, an effort by Matt Bennett and other "Matt
Bennetts" (Chris Lehane is a "Matt Bennett"; Jason Furman, who
posted Matt's apology to this group because Matt could not be
bothered to treat us with the respect of creating his own profile on
here -- is another "Matt Bennett") to craft -- make that "warp" --
Wesley Clark into a candidate who walked and talked as they wished.
In the early days of the formal campaign, Donnie Fowler left his
position as Campaign Manager because the campaign chair would not
give what Donnie believed to be due deference (not "credit," but
actual recognition of talent!) to the grassroots movement which
started and sustained the Clark candidacy.
Think about this for a moment. Imagine that you, in your 30s, have
just been put in charge of the campaign of the frontrunner among the
Democratic Presidential contenders. (Remember, and *never* let
anyone tell you otherwise: when you and I turned over to the "Matt
Bennetts" the keys to this campaign, we had given them a candidate
who was running 12 points in front of the nearest challenger, Howard
Dean, in every national poll! It took Bumplestiltskin -- The brother
of Rumplestiltskin -- to spin our gold into straw.) So, you're in
your 30s, and have achieved the pinnacle of success for someone in
your field. And now, you do what? You sacrifice it all because you
*believe* in something! That's what Donnie did, and it is
unimaginably hard. To be honest, I probably should have quit the
campaign in digust, at the point, as should many others of the
original Draft movement, but we (a) thought things would get better
and (b) just didn't have Donnie's guts.
Matt didn't have Donnie's guts, either. In his first day on the job,
Matt maligned Donnie. (Don't take my word for it; check the archives
of the New York Times.) And, for the remainder of the campaign, Matt
stuck so hard to Eli Segal (The campaign "Chair," whose fortunes
were made in Direct Marketing, and who doesn't know how to use
email. Really inspiring for an Internet-based campaign, no?) that I
believe NASA is currently working on a special solvent to remove
Matt's lips from Eli's rear.
Did Matt love every position taken by Wesley Clark? Doesn't matter.
Matt's job was not to try to create Wes Clark's positions; Matt's
job, given that he was Communication Director, was to *explain* the
General's positions.
To this day, Clark is asked whether he is a "real" Democrat. To this
day, Clark is asked whether he flip-flopped on Iraq. Guess what,
folks? Lay at Matt's feet the blame for the fact that these stories
did not die.
Isn't it interesting that Matt Bennett never posted to this site
during the campaign? Never solicited the opinion of the people who
lifted Clark upon their shoulders? Never had the courtesy to even
inform the grassroots of the formal campaign's plans?
Ask a grassroots Iowan when s/he learned that Clark would not be
competing there. Was it when Matt Bennett held a conference call to
get feedback from the Iowan organizers? No, that never happened.
Rather, Iowans who had worked for months and months to promote a
Clark candidacy -- who had given of their time and their money and
their incredibly hard work -- learned of the decision after Matt had
the decision leaked to the New York Times.
The list of slights to the grassroots and of stupid, inane efforts
to repackage a great man into an argyle sweater is longer than I can
put here.
But I will say this: had Wesley Clark won the Democratic nomination,
you *know* that Matt Bennett would have been the golden boy of
Presidential politics, and you *know* that he would have accepted
the credit.
And so, I say, as our General says: "Those who would take credit
must accept responsibility."
Matt owes us more than an apology posted in a Yahoo group under
someone's else's handle.
Matt robbed us of the "President we were promised as kids," as John
and I described Wes Clark for months before Matt Bennett was a
twinkle in this campaign's eye.
I'm sure I'll get flamed by Matt and his cronies for my posting,
here, so I'll tell all of you to feel free to email me directly
(josh@d..., as in "I came from the Draft movement,
Matt; I didn't parachute in from a series of failed Presidential
campaigns, ready to make the same mistakes again and again.).
And for Matt and his friends, who *will* bring the attack, as they
did against Donnie Fowler, I will quote Matt's true Democratic
candidate, who himself quotes the Bush we're trying to replace:
"Bring it on."
The grassroots deserve the truth.
----- Original Message -----
From: susanaltrui
To: clarkactionteam@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 2/13/04 3:23:53 PM
Subject: [clarkactionteam] Matt Bennett responds to NY Times article
I think it's important for everyone to see Matt's response. Please
read below:
"All: This is a note that I'm posting on a few of the blogs. Hope
you'll
take a look:
As some of you know, I was the Clark Campaign's Director of
Communications. I was enormously proud to serve General Clark in this
capacity, and I was proud to work alongside a group of incredibly
dedicated people in Little Rock and around the country – staff
members,
volunteers, Draft Movement veterans, Clark Action Team members, and
all
of
the others who gave of their time, their money and their hearts to
help
Wes Clark run for president.
In a story in Thursday's New York Times, I was quoted as saying that
General Clark was, at the start, "an empty vessel" into which his
supporters put their hopes, dreams and desires. Many of you reacted
angrily to this quote, thinking that I was maligning General Clark.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
My choice of words was indeed poor – many thought I meant that General
Clark was "an empty suit." That notion is, as we all know, absurd.
Wes
Clark is one of the the brightest, most creative, most accomplished
and
talented people on earth.
What I should have said is that because he was not a politician, with
a
long line of deal-making and compromising in his wake, General Clark
began
this campaign as a blank slate for voters – a slate they could use to
fill
in any way they saw fit.
But once he joined the race and began to set out HIS views and HIS
agenda,
there were bound to be disappointed people, because even among
Democrats
there are profound differences in what voters want their presidential
candidates to be. He simply could not be all things to all people.
And he wouldn't want to try, because the bottom line is that Wes
Clark
is
a leader. Leaders make hard choices, and they stick by them. Take
one
example: General Clark is a staunch defender of the right of dissent,
but
he simply cannot abide the burning of the American flag. His
position
on
flag burning annoyed some of his supporters – that isn't on the slate
(or
in the "vessel") that many Democrats want in their candidates. A few
of
them abandoned our campaign. But leaders stick to their guns, and
that's
what he did. And I was proud to see him stand up for what he
believes
in.
In dozens of interviews over the last five months, it was my duty and
my
pleasure to stand up for this man, and that continued until my very
last
minutes in his service. I plead guilty to a badly phrased metaphor.
But
I would not – and I did not – intentionally slight, demean or distance
myself from the person whom I have come to know, to respect and to
believe, as sincerely today as I did when I began, that he should be
President of the United States."
_______________________________________________
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