Lee Atwater Quotes
I will not respond to allegations made by someone who had been hooked up to jumper cables.
In a 1980 South Carolina congressional campaign Democratic candidate Tom Turnipseed accused Atwater of masterminding anonymous phone calls to voters revealing the fact that, as a teenager, Turnipseed had received electroshock therapy. Atwater told the press:
Lee Atwater, 1950-1991, Chairman, Republican National Committee, Presidential Campaign Manager, Remark, 1980, Quoted in New York Times Magazine, April 30, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Calumnaire fortiter, et aliquid adhaerebit. See Pierre Beaumarchais for a later version of this political tactic.
During the 1988 presidential campaign, Senator Gary Hart of Colorado was accused of womanizing. Reporters from The Miami Herald staked out Hart's Washington DC townhouse and determined that a young woman spent Friday night and Saturday with him while his wife was in Denver. Confronted with the story, Hart's campaign manager said:. Shortly after this statement was made, Hart withdrew from the race. The story was true.
A critical difference between English and American law is that truth is an absolute defense in the U. S. but is not in Great Britain. In the case of public figures, "the great," even truth is not required in U. S. law. It is not against American law to slander public figures as long as it is not malicious.
Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater was an American political consultant and strategist for the Republican Party. He was an adviser to US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman of the Republican National Committee. Atwater aroused controversy through his aggressive campaign tactics, especially the Southern strategy.
