Tell media to pursue rumors of Bush extramarital affairs

[jackson]

I think the RNC is heavily involved with pressuring media outlets to run these rumors about an alleged affair involving Kerry, which have run on everything from Saturday Night Live to Meet the Press and Reuters. Democrats should be asking the media to question Bush about rumors of extramarital affairs involving him, if Kerry has to answer such queries.

Those include a Texas woman named Margie Schoedinger, who filed a sexual assault lawsuit against George W. Bush in December 2002. She wound up dead last September, listed as a suicide due to a gunshot wound.

Another rumor was publicized somewhat during the 2000 campaign involving another Texas woman named Tammy Phillips, who said she and Bush had an affair in the late 1990s when he was Texas governor.

The lawsuit filed by Schoedinger was admittedly wild, but it alleged, among other things, that Texas authorities found out that Schoedinger dated Bush when she was a minor. There are also reports that in his single days, Bush impregnated at least one woman and made her get an illegal abortion before Roe v. Wade.

If Kerry has to answer questions from the media about an alleged affair, then shouldn't Bush have to answer press inquiries about if he knew Schoedinger and dated her when she was a minor? And shouldn't Bush have to answer questions related to if he ever met and had an affair with Phillips, and if he - or his friends or family - ever paid for an illegal abortion caused by him?

If you do an Internet search on these women, you will find background on their cases. I have written several columns on the cases myself for various ezines.

We should be confronting Republicans more on their lies and their behind-the-scenes support for candidates like Al Sharpton and Nader. We should be clearly pointing out the lies and dirty tactics to mainstream journalists, calling them, emailing them, faxing them, writing them. Republicans call journalists to the point of harassment, and that does get in journalists' minds when they work on a story.

I've been a journalist for 20-something years, and I've been contacting everyone I know to tell them to pursue the Bush rumors as well as the Kerry ones. Some people even called into CNN today and mentioned the Schoedinger case on live shows. That's what we have to do.

We can't raise as much money as the fat-cat Republicans, but we can demand that the media does its job and reports accurately on the lies spewed by Republicans. Like it or not, this battle will be won in the media, especially on network TV. That's where most American voters get their news.

It's time to step it up a notch.

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