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Thursday, July 13, 2006

GOP Criticizes Dem Campaign Ad - Ignores Similar '04 Bush Ad

(keywords and tags: , , , s call foul on s - ignore that did the same thing)

Associated Press brings us the latest way that democrats have proven their hatred for America:

Republicans are howling over a Democratic political Web site ad that displays flag-draped coffins and a police mug shot of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, arguing that the ad politicizes war casualties and is an insult to the families of the troops killed in Iraq.

The 75-second ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee begins with a somber musical score and images of war, high gas prices, the coffins, pollution, breached levees, followed by pictures of Texas Republican DeLay, disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Washington Republicans have sold Americans out," a banner states. "American families are paying the price."


"Democrats will stoop to any low in trying to raise funds," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said in a statement. "This despicable video exploits the deaths of our nations heroes and belittles their sacrifice. It is a shameful display of the DCCCs lack of decency and respect for the incredible devotion and honor our troops carry everyday." For the GOP, acknowledging the sacrifice of the troops is disrespectful.

"Was it despicable when Republicans used 9/11 for political purposes? I think it's despicable that young people's lives are being lost ... over 2,500," AP reports House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as saying, "Republicans are in denial about that."

They're hip deep in hypocrisy, as well.

During Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, George W. Bush ran an ad, titled Stronger, Safer, which featured a flag covered corpse being carried out from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

This prompted A.R. Torres to write an open letter to George W. Bush, published in Salon. Here are the highlights, but please check out the full text.

March 5, 2004 | Dear President Bush:

My husband, Luis Eduardo Torres, was at his second day of work at Cantor Fitzgerald when he was killed on Sept. 11. He jumped from the 105th floor of the North Tower. Most of his upper body was recovered, identifiable only through dental records. I was seven months pregnant at the time.

It is with him in mind that I'm writing to you, to question your disturbing reelection ad campaign. Yesterday I saw the three ads you're now running all over the country, specifically on cable stations in the "swing states," where you feel you need to come out fighting strong. It was the "Safer, Stronger" ad that shocked me the most. At the commercial's midpoint, the words, "Then ... a day of tragedy" dramatically appear on the somber black screen. And the centerpiece: an image of ground zero, the hulking remains of a tower, alongside a human corpse, carried out by several firefighters. Both the tower and the human are draped in American flags.

The flags were intended to honor ground zero and the remains of the dead, but here they are merely props, used to add a powerful patriotic punch to your message. The tower and the corpse are two hideously broken and disfigured things behind and under the flag, and your image -- with your red tie, white shirt, and blue suit, standing in front of thick strong white columns -- serves as another, symbolic, flag.

[...]

I thought I'd finished dealing with the gruesome aspects of his dead body, but it came back to me during your commercial. I had a thought I'd never had before: Was every corpse draped in an American flag as it emerged from ground zero, or was it just an honor bestowed upon the uniformed workers? What if that was my husband's body, now serving as a "spokesman" for your campaign?

[...]

In effect, then, Mr. Bush, you've paraded all our 9/11 dead out as the official mascots of your reelection campaign. You use them to show our nation that you can protect us against what we should all fear the most -- being an anonymous corpse in another attack.

[...]

I didn't think that co-opting 9/11 with such disregard for those of us who have been affected by this tragedy would anger me so much. I hope that John Kerry doesn't use 9/11 to strengthen his own candidacy . But so many 9/11 families are sick at your use of our sadness ... I can't imagine it being any worse than where you have already led us.


Safer, Stronger (00:30)



What's fine when Bush does it is unforgivable when democrats do it.

--Wisco

1 comment:

benmerc said...

Hip deep? More like up to their eyeballs in it...