Reply #18: GOP media machine chases Kerry/Fonda & Kerry "special interests" [View All]

[papau]

GOP media machine chases Kerry/Fonda & Kerry "special interests"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/13/politics/campaign/13VETS.html

Conservatives Shine Spotlight on Kerry's Antiwar Record
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: February 13, 2004


WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 — <snip> ...He is not the only one. With Mr. Bush answering questions about his National Guard service, conservatives are working hard to shine an unflattering spotlight on Mr. Kerry's antiwar activities and his record on military and intelligence matters in the Senate.

Commentators, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, have been talking up the Fonda photograph. National Review has a cover article entitled "The Senator's Other War Record." It says Mr. Kerry, who returned from Vietnam a highly decorated veteran and then led protests against the war, "helped to slander a generation of soldiers who had done their duty with honor and restraint." The Weekly Standard is highlighting a 1971 book co-written by Mr. Kerry, "The New Soldier," which commemorated a march on Washington by Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

And on Thursday, a new photograph of the senator and the actress began circulating via e-mail. Unlike the image Mr. Sampley bought, which shows Mr. Kerry seated several rows behind Ms. Fonda, this picture — its origins are unclear — shows them side by side, Ms. Fonda behind a microphone and Mr. Kerry, holding a notebook, to her right.(this turns out to be a photoshop fake- see snopes - but the NYT fails to note this)

<snip>

At the same time, Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been giving speeches around the country detailing Mr. Kerry's votes on military and intelligence programs, including his 1984 opposition to the missile defense program promoted by Ronald Reagan and his 1991 Senate vote opposing the use of force in Iraq.<snip>

But officials with the Kerry campaign provided documents showing that Mr. Kerry questioned the science behind the Reagan-era missile program, and quoting him as saying he believed the country needed more time in 1991 to build support for the war in the Persian Gulf.<snip>


http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/02/13/ad_c... /

(GOP internet video)Ad calls Kerry lobbyists' tool
By Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press, 2/13/2004

WASHINGTON -- In a new video message being sent to millions of people, President Bush's reelection campaign casts Senator John F. Kerry as a tool of the special interests he regularly denounces.

"Unprincipled," has the flavor of a campaign ad but is customized for the Internet users who were receiving it last night.

The one-minute spot depicts a woman surfing the Web. She finds a clip of Kerry railing against "the influence-peddlers and the special interests. We're coming, you're going!" Kerry declares.The woman narrates the piece as she digs further and finds online news and watchdog reports on Kerry's campaign fund-raising. An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington found that the Massachusetts Democrat accepted more campaign money from lobbyists over the past 15 years than anyone else in the Senate -- about $638,000."Whew!" the woman says. "For what?" The punchline: "Kerry -- brought to you by the special interests."<snip>



Kerry's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, responded: "If the Bush White House wants to raise special interests as an issue, then bring it on. "This White House has never met a special interest it didn't like . . . George Bush took more money from lobbyists in 2003 than John Kerry has in his entire career, and has managed to reward them handsomely for it too -- at the expense of the environment, our economy, and the middle class."