[Article first appeared at Red County.]

With her recent approval numbers diving to sub-50 percent among voters, incumbent Democratic Senator Patty Murray (WA) has traded in her trademark tennis shoes for steel-toed combat boots and a set of brass knuckles.

In the absence of any intraparty challenger to her bid for re-election, the hit squad at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been engaging in an intimidation campaign not against any of the declared Republican candidates in the race but against highly-popular former GOP candidate for governor, Dino Rossi.

Important point of fact: Rossi has publicly affirmed that he is not a candidate in the race to unseat Sen. Murray. Yet his decision thus far to remain a private citizen and entrepreneur has not deterred the Democratic political machine from engaging in a drive-by campaign to smear his reputation.

Most readers are already aware of the DSCC’s fake Dirty Deals Dino website, a poorly researched and hastily assembled collection of half-truths and misrepresentations such as the allegation that Rossi is a “close business associate” of alleged real estate swindler Mike Mastro. Although persons close to the U.S Attorney’s investigation of Mastro, and who have no allegiance to Rossi, have declared that no evidence exists to back up the malicious claim, the charge still remains in bold type for all to see.

This week a new two-pronged campaign emerged to smear the Washington Policy Center, a nonpartisan policy group, and fuse Rossi to what the DSCC hope will be a radioactive organization when they are through. The DSCC’s unilateral designation of the whole of society as a political free-fire zone has begun to raise eyebrows.

Sen. Murray has yet to own or disavow the vicious nature of her party’s maneuvers, perhaps to preserve the theoretical defense of plausible deniability. Any politician would expeditiously choose to sustain an image of being out-of-touch and on the leash of the political machine before being seen as vicious and Machiavellian as the DSCC’s smear campaign make Sen. Murray appear. But even political neophytes know that because Sen. Murray knows that she holds the kill switch on party-level campaign ops in her state and these activities continue, it is reasonable to hold her accountable.

Sen. Murray’s silence on the issue could be self-defensive in nature. Her own associations with convicted felon Jack Abramoff are well-documented in sharp contrast to the ancillary connections Rossi has to the shady characters the DSCC has tried to put him in bed with.

Despite being void of any newsworthy attributes, Glenn Thrush at Politico and the National Journal online quickly picked up the raw meat tossed out by the DSCC about the WPC’s recommendations for Washington State’s economic policies and Rossi’s support for the group’s work. Thrush, in particular, on April 15 wrote under the poorly-written and misleading headline “Rossi-backed group would cut unemployment benefits,” characterized the WPC as an “anti-tax group advocated slashing unemployment benefits — and suggested scrapping paid family leave programs to save money.”

In fact, the WPC is an organization that has received a lot of support from politicians and government leaders on both sides of the aisle. To my knowledge the group has never advocated that there shouldl be no taxes and my research into their policy recommendation about eliminating a proposed paid family leave entitlement was due to the fact that the costs had not been funded by the state. Under a controlling Democratic majority in the State Legislature, the plan was mothballed, signalling to me that the WPC’s position wasn’t extreme or partisan, just rational. That’s hardly something to be ashamed of, and perhaps should give Rossi reason to hug the WPC like a long-lost sibling instead of running for the hills like the DSCC desires.

Sadly, the current Democratic distortion strategy is one that has produced results. Current King County Executive Dow Constantine’s 2008 campaign was marginally effective in its attempt to redefine nonpartisan research groups like the WPC and the ideologically-eccentric Discovery Institute as married to conservative interests. Before those misleading claims could be countered, Constantine operatives and left-wing blogs and media were busily fusing his opponent, Susan Hutchison, to them with McCarthyesque vigor.

In the current climate of growing disinterest in tax-and-spend answers to economic problems that plague the people of Washington state, it is possible this tack will backfire on Sen. Murray. As her approval numbers fall in poll after poll, Rossi’s standing as a potential candidate climbs possibly due to buyer’s remorse for those who voted for Washington Governor Christine Gregoire in the 2008 race. Gov. Gregoire’s broken promises on taxes and her ineffectiveness in dealing with spending-crazed Democrats controlling the state Legislature have driven her approval among voters to record lows.

Note: The DSCC has also been conducting keyword searches for “washington policy candidate endorsements” perhaps in a misguided attempt to paint the nonpartisan research and education organization as (gasp) a laboratory for the conservative policy agenda. Although high-school level skills in research would have shown the DSCC that the WPC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and thus required to refrain from endorsing candidates or lobbying on particular issues, their search for dirt gives every reason to believe their window-breaking campaign will continue.

Popularity: 8% [?]