Fox News political analyst and columnist Dick Morris has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and is now trying to defect criticism that he is nothing more than a paid shill for the Republican Party. Nice try, Dick.
Media Matters for America reports the National Republican Trust political action committee website, GOPTrust.com, has shelled out thousands in advertising dollars for DickMorris.com, the home of Morris’ screeds against all things Clinton.
Meanwhile, Media Matters found that Morris from Oct. 27 to Nov. 17 plugged and urged donations to GOPTrust.com 13 times during Fox News appearances. He also mentioned GOPTrust in columns published by the New York Post, The Hill and Newsmax. Fair and balanced, indeed.
Morris takes unbridled umbrage at critics who even suggest that he may be in bed with the GOP. “Now, in the last couple of days, some of the liberals have lashed back at me, claiming that somehow I’m getting paid by this group, but the fact that all they’ve done is buy ads on my website,” he told "Hannity & Colmes" on Nov. 24. Somehow getting paid? Where does the ad money spent at DickMorris.com wind up? Bet in your pocket, Dick.
Morris went on to say that buying ads on his site is like a candidate buying ads in the New York Times. The Great Triangulator feels he is “no more in cahoots with them than the New York Times is.” Another note to Dick, the Times may support a candidate on its editorial page, but it does not shamelessly promote that politico day in and day out or pitch him like a special on the Home Shopping Network.
Morris is now up to his neck in the GOP’s all-out effort to save its Georgia Senate seat that faces a serious challenge by one-time long-shot Jim Martin. In a “Letter to America,” headlined “Stop Obama in Georgia,” the GOPTrust says if Saxby Chambliss falls, the Democrats may get the 60 votes in the Senate to “end filibuster and pass Obama’s radical legislation.” They warn of the specter of “total liberal control.”
In a display of unmitigated gall, the Trust says “Democrats will do whatever it takes to destroy Sen. Chambliss” in the Dec. 2 run-off. That line is from the GOP team who swift-boated VietNam hero and triple-amputee Max Cleland. That Democrat was ousted by Chambliss six years ago in a vicious political campaign. The lowlight: a Chambliss ad showing images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and charging Cleland with being soft on security. Cleland is a guy who served as admininistrator of the Veterans Administration under President Carter and earned high praise from former President Clinton for losing half his body in service to his country.
Morris urged viewers of H&C to “give Chambliss the money he needs to win. Your whole future depends on it.” The GOPTrust site carries an endorsement from Morris, who called it a “very effective organization that can make a huge difference on Election Day.” Morris sure got that wrong on Nov. 4, when Obama, whom Morris called a “dangerous pick,” became the 44th President.
