Bachmann Campaign Pressures Media to Pull Ads
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 6:46 pm
- 8 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann is asking media outlets to pull ads critical of her vote against the expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The requests come from the Bachmann campaign through the offices of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and assert that the ads misrepresent Bachmann’s record on Iraq War funding.
This weekend, Bachmann’s Congressional committee faxed a letter from the offices of the National Republican Congressional Committee signed by Bachmann’s chief of staff, Rich Dunn, (Bachmann_Letter.pdf) asking Robert Hubbard of Hubbard Broadcasting to pull ads by Americans United for Change. “Americans United is intentionally misleading your viewers through hyperbole and false statements. The exploitation of children and their health care needs by Democrats, simply to score cheap points, is shameless,” the letter said.
The ad in question says “Bush and Bachmann would rather send a half a trillion to Iraq than spend a fraction of that here at home to keep our kids healthy.”
“This is provably false,” the letter said. “Congresswoman Bachmann has not even been in Congress during the vast majority of the war as she was only just elected in November 2006. It is impossible for her to have chosen to send ‘half a trillion to Iraq.’ Thus, it is clearly false and deceptive.”
The efforts by Bachmann’s campaign mirror Bachmann’s statements to take on the ‘fight.” She told Jason Lewis on KLTK,, “They’re planning a big demonstration at my office in St. Cloud… to beat up on me. They’ll bring all the local media out… so that I’ll cave and… switch my vote on SCHIP, which is not going to happen,” she said. “And let’s go ahead and go forward with it because if they wanna take this fight on I say ‘Bring it on.’”
Donald McFarland, Minnesota Director of Americans United for Change, says the ads are fine the way they are. “We absolutely stand by our ad,” McFarland said Tuesday evening. “Nothing in them is factually inaccurate. Michele Bachmann has supported the President at every turn. She has voted for every dime the President has requested for Iraq.”
McFarland said, “Once again, Michele Bachmann is playing politics with SCHIP.” Instead of Bachmann’s congressional offices responding, it’s her “campaign spin doctors” once again politicizing SCHIP, McFarland said.
Thus far, no stations have dropped Americans United advertising according to McFarland.
Bachmann’s office did not return a request for comment on the Congresswoman’s support for Iraq funding prior to her election in 2006.
Related: Saving a Sinking SCHIP: Bush, Bachmann Targeted by Religious Groups on the Left and Right
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Comment posted October 16, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
One more question to ask when Bachmann returns your call (as if) How much more is she willing to spend in order to “win” in Iraq? $100 billion more? $200 billion? $300 billion? Half a trillion more? Or is there no credit limit on the Bush-Bachmann Iraq War Charge-It-to-Future-Generations Card?
The sad thing is, besides trying to divert attention away from her vote against kids’ health care with this Iraq funding ruse, Bachmann continues to get away with spreading lies and misinformation about SCHIP. The Strib gave her free editorial space to do it, even though she refused to respond to their news reporter on the issue. And the Pioneer Press was M.I.A. altogether on this one.
Comment posted October 16, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
St Cloud Times is much better than the Strib on 6th District Coverage This speaks volumes.
Comment posted October 17, 2007 @ 11:44 am
An Open Letter to Rich Dunn, Staffer for Michele Bachmann Dear Mr. Dunn:
Having just read your letter to KSTP, I want to thank you for making my day. You have filled my heart with the warmth of hope and joy. And let me tell you why.
For about the last twenty years, I have seen my country ravaged by neoconservatives. Successive Republican administrations have combined collaboration with third-world dictators with staggering financial irresponsibility and spectacular neglect of the needs of ordinary Americans. The current administration has been all this to the greatest degree, and more. I have been in deep fear for the future of my country under the rapacious destruction of civil liberties and our financial stability, under the tender ministrations of George W. Bush, and those who serve his will, like Michele Bachmann.
What has made the situation tremendously worse is the political incompetence and selective blindness of the Democratic Party. While your barbarians have been sacking the treasury, our Neros have sat around making deals with corporate fat cats, neglecting the basics of voter education and constituent service. The Democratic Party has pretended to oppose neoconservative goals, but I long ago ceased to believe that elected officials of the Democratic stripe shared my view of the importance of things like, say, balancing the budget, or habeas corpus. Their words were agreeable, but their actions have never matched.
Between hunter and willing prey, where could a person of political integrity turn? And here is where we get to what, exactly, I liked about your letter: Suddenly, the Republican hunter has begun to complain that his toes are cold, his socks have become wet, and the gun is heavy. It seems you have lost your taste for the game your superiors started. If you haven’t noticed that television stations have broad leeway in publishing unpleasant opinions sheathed as fact, you haven’t been watching any of the FOX stations. Your slimy implied threat about FCC regulations just emphasizes that you have run out of options, and you are reduced to whining. I love to hear your whining.
Which turns my attention to Americans United for Change. I won’t pretend that I hadn’t heard of them before your helpless squeaking for mercy reached my ears, but the effectiveness of their approach could not receive a higher compliment than your incompetent response and attempt at content-based censorship. How sad that you and your Congresswoman have sunk to such a pathetic and fundamentally anti-American position. But I do want to thank you for exposing the fact that this was the best option you had left. It appears you Republicans have used up whatever else you had.
The other day I crushed a cockroach in my office under my shoe. He too had run out of options, and I listened to the sound of his carapace shattering with a certain warm glow, knowing that at least one small problem was being permanently solved. I showed him all the compassion that Senator Max Cleland received from your kind. You and Ms. Bachmann, Republicans by choice even in 2006 when the worst was already known, deserve the same treatment Max Cleland got. It seems you are feeling the pressure that AUC meant to exert. As I said, I couldn’t be happier, and I wish you more of the same. Given the mess your letter foolishly created, I expect you’ll get it.
Please, keep writing. I would love to hear more.
Very Truly Yours,
Thomas J. Westgard
Chicago, Illinois
http://morosehellhol…
Comment posted October 17, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
Bachman She has got to be kidding! Where does she get this nerve of hers? Is she just stupid or unstable or both?
US Children vs. Iraq
Comment posted October 16, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
One more question to ask when Bachmann returns your call (as if) How much more is she willing to spend in order to “win” in Iraq? $100 billion more? $200 billion? $300 billion? Half a trillion more? Or is there no credit limit on the Bush-Bachmann Iraq War Charge-It-to-Future-Generations Card?
The sad thing is, besides trying to divert attention away from her vote against kids' health care with this Iraq funding ruse, Bachmann continues to get away with spreading lies and misinformation about SCHIP. The Strib gave her free editorial space to do it, even though she refused to respond to their news reporter on the issue. And the Pioneer Press was M.I.A. altogether on this one.
Comment posted October 16, 2007 @ 6:48 pm
St Cloud Times is much better than the Strib on 6th District Coverage This speaks volumes.
Comment posted October 17, 2007 @ 6:44 am
An Open Letter to Rich Dunn, Staffer for Michele Bachmann Dear Mr. Dunn:
Having just read your letter to KSTP, I want to thank you for making my day. You have filled my heart with the warmth of hope and joy. And let me tell you why.
For about the last twenty years, I have seen my country ravaged by neoconservatives. Successive Republican administrations have combined collaboration with third-world dictators with staggering financial irresponsibility and spectacular neglect of the needs of ordinary Americans. The current administration has been all this to the greatest degree, and more. I have been in deep fear for the future of my country under the rapacious destruction of civil liberties and our financial stability, under the tender ministrations of George W. Bush, and those who serve his will, like Michele Bachmann.
What has made the situation tremendously worse is the political incompetence and selective blindness of the Democratic Party. While your barbarians have been sacking the treasury, our Neros have sat around making deals with corporate fat cats, neglecting the basics of voter education and constituent service. The Democratic Party has pretended to oppose neoconservative goals, but I long ago ceased to believe that elected officials of the Democratic stripe shared my view of the importance of things like, say, balancing the budget, or habeas corpus. Their words were agreeable, but their actions have never matched.
Between hunter and willing prey, where could a person of political integrity turn? And here is where we get to what, exactly, I liked about your letter: Suddenly, the Republican hunter has begun to complain that his toes are cold, his socks have become wet, and the gun is heavy. It seems you have lost your taste for the game your superiors started. If you haven't noticed that television stations have broad leeway in publishing unpleasant opinions sheathed as fact, you haven't been watching any of the FOX stations. Your slimy implied threat about FCC regulations just emphasizes that you have run out of options, and you are reduced to whining. I love to hear your whining.
Which turns my attention to Americans United for Change. I won't pretend that I hadn't heard of them before your helpless squeaking for mercy reached my ears, but the effectiveness of their approach could not receive a higher compliment than your incompetent response and attempt at content-based censorship. How sad that you and your Congresswoman have sunk to such a pathetic and fundamentally anti-American position. But I do want to thank you for exposing the fact that this was the best option you had left. It appears you Republicans have used up whatever else you had.
The other day I crushed a cockroach in my office under my shoe. He too had run out of options, and I listened to the sound of his carapace shattering with a certain warm glow, knowing that at least one small problem was being permanently solved. I showed him all the compassion that Senator Max Cleland received from your kind. You and Ms. Bachmann, Republicans by choice even in 2006 when the worst was already known, deserve the same treatment Max Cleland got. It seems you are feeling the pressure that AUC meant to exert. As I said, I couldn't be happier, and I wish you more of the same. Given the mess your letter foolishly created, I expect you'll get it.
Please, keep writing. I would love to hear more.
Very Truly Yours,
Thomas J. Westgard
Chicago, Illinois
Comment posted October 17, 2007 @ 11:40 am
Bachman She has got to be kidding! Where does she get this nerve of hers? Is she just stupid or unstable or both?
US Children vs. Iraq
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