CNN: RNC tells TV stations not to run MoveOn.org ads

I wouldn't have any problem with GWB touting his record after 9/11, but to actually use images from GZ and of coffins of firefighters being removed from wreckage is execrable. I understand that GWBs HANDLING of 9/11 is a campaign issue, but neither party should use imagery from that horrific day (or the aftermath) in campaign ads.

 

Can the DNC tell Citizens United not to run their ads? This campaign season is going to be brutal.

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Conservatives Run Ad Parody Against Kerry

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A conservative group headed by one of former President Clinton's harshest critics is airing an ad that pokes fun at presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry's haircut, designer clothing and property holdings.

Citizens United, headed by former Republican congressional aide David Bossie, began airing the ad — a parody of MasterCard's "priceless" commercials — on cable and broadcast channels Sunday in select presidential battleground states.

The ad shows Kerry, boats at a marina and oceanfront property as an announcers says: "Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Hairstyle by Christophe's $75. Designer shirts: $250. Forty-two foot luxury yacht: $1 million. Four lavish mansions and beachfront estate: Over $30 million."

Another shot is of Kerry and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., with the words: "Another rich, liberal elitist from Massachusetts who claims he's a man of the people. Priceless."

It's the start of what the group says will be a months long advertising effort leading to November that's designed to counter ads critical of President Bush.

"The vitriol that's being used by the left in their hatred of the president — and the man himself — seems to come through in their ads," Bossie said. "We wanted to counter that."

 

Why, I do believe it can! Citizens United claims to be a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) organization, opening itself up to the same charges of soft-money ban ciircumventing as the Republicans are leveling at moveon.org.

Somehow though, I dooubt that since the democrats don't control the FCC, the FEC, Clear Channel, or News Corp., as the republicans do, that such a claim woud have the same effect, do you?

 

More strong arming by the RNC. Now they're after The Media Fund.

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Bush Campaign Seeks Investigation of Election Ads
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 3:26 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's re-election campaign says it will ask the Federal Election Commission to investigate a Democratic-leaning group that will air $4.5 million worth of TV ads against Bush, beginning Wednesday.

The Media Fund's initial two-week ad run in 17 competitive states will include commercials that criticize Bush's policies and priorities, and mention the president by name.

Financed in part by billionaire George Soros and headed by former Clinton administration adviser Harold Ickes, the group expects to raise tens of millions of dollars to run ads this election year. It bought at least $1 million worth of airtime on Monday and expects to buy more this week for its initial ad run.

Bush's re-election campaign, which began its own $10 million initial ad blitz last week, called the group's activity illegal. The campaign said it would file a complaint with the FEC accusing the Media Fund of violating a broad, new ban on the use of ``soft money'' -- corporate, union and unlimited contributions -- for federal election activity.

``This is the blatant soft-money circumvention of the recently passed campaign finance laws that all the Democrats, from Senator Kerry and Senator Daschle to Nancy Pelosi, were so sanctimonious about,'' said Tom Josefiak, general counsel of the Bush-Cheney campaign.

``It is an attempt to blow up the ban on the newly passed campaign finance reform bill to use soft money to win a federal election,'' he said in a statement.

Bush's campaign contends the Media Fund is trying to influence the presidential election and should have to register with the FEC as a political committee, which would limit it to accepting only donations of up to $5,000 from individuals and other political committees, and require it to disclose its fund raising and spending to the commission.

Several campaign finance watchdog groups filed a similar complaint with the FEC against the Media Fund and other political soft-money groups in January.

Media Fund spokesman James Jordan called the Bush campaign's allegations ``simply, a lie, a deliberate misrepresentation of the law.''

``This is nothing more than a cynical and transparent attempt to intimidate our donors and silence dissenting voices,'' Jordan said.

The Media Fund is the second outside group to go on the air in as many weeks to counter Bush's multimillion-dollar ad campaign and ensure a Democratic presence on the airwaves. The liberal MoveOn.org Voter Fund also is running ads in swing states. The groups have emerged as ``shadow parties'' and are nicknamed ``527s'' for the section of the tax code under which they operate.

The Bush campaign suggests that Media Fund donors may have broken the law by giving to the group, and it wants the FEC to find out whether contributors gave thinking their donations would be used to influence a federal election.

Soros spokesman Michael Vachon accused the Bush campaign of trying to intimidate donors with a ``completely bogus'' complaint. Asked if Soros would keep writing checks to the Media Fund and other soft-money groups, Vachon said, ``Absolutely.''

The Media Fund argues that it is legal to spend soft money on anti-Bush ads as long as they stop short of calling for his election or defeat. The donations must also be kept separate from any corporate or union contributions.

Bush-Cheney officials said they won't ask for the ads to be pulled off the air because the FEC doesn't have that authority, and because a court is unlikely to act before the FEC finishes its review of the new campaign finance laws. The object of the complaint is to highlight what Bush campaign officials say are Democratic hypocrisies and to prod the FEC to act more quickly than it has in the past, the officials said.

The FEC is currently considering how the new campaign finance law affects soft-money groups, like the Media Fund, that aren't registered with the commission as political committees, including whether they should face new limits on their fund raising and spending. The agency is expected to decide the question by May.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Campaign-Ads.html

 

They probably were before Bush.

And bama, there is no pleasing people when it comes to Bush bc Bush has in no way pleased the people. At the very least he's a disgrace to a majority of the Republican party. They'd have a better shot in November just getting a new candidate.

 

I didn't realize they put a new commercial on moveon.org...

This is my favorite...

http://www.bushin30seconds.org/view/06_large.shtml

The "Bushism."