According to the Huffington Post, the ad refers to a September fundraiser for Dole's opponent, Kay Hagan, that had 40 co-sponsors, one of whom was a representative of the PAC group Godless Americans, an atheist group. The thrust of the ad is to imply that Hagan herself is an atheist, which is not true. Hagan's campaign is reportedly seeking a "cease and desist" order.
Here's HuffPost's description of the ad. It's even worse when you see it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/29/dole-ad-fabricates-audio_n_138874.html
"A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan's honor," the ad begins, showing some ominously blurred footage, ostensibly of the event in question. The ad then quotes the group's Ellen Johnson making atheist claims on two cable news shows. Summing up, the spot asks: "Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras, took Godless money. What did Hagan promise in return?"
The end of the ad features a picture of Hagan with a female voice yelling "there is no God!" -- the clear implication is that the voice is Hagan's. In fact, the Democratic candidate is a Sunday School teacher and an elder at her Presbyterian church.This goes over the line of ordinary campaign sleeze. It's as bad, or maybe worse, than anything they've thrown at Obama. It's a total fabrication, using irrelevant footage of anti-God statements that were not even made in Hagan's presence and then has a fake voice-over screaming "There is no God," while her picture is on screen.
The cease and desist order should be granted. Libby Dole should be censured by the Senate Ethics Committee for conduct bringing shame to the Senate. And while they're at it, the same for McCain.
But, as Colin Powell said so eloquently in his endorsement of Obama: after giving his assurance that Obama is not a Muslim, he said, "But what if he were? What's wrong with that? Are you going to tell a young Muslim child that he/she cannot grow up to be President?"
So, I ask: What if Kay Hagan is an atheist (which she's not, I feel I have to put in the same sentence so some idiot won't take it out of context)? I would rather have an honest, humanistic atheist or Muslim be my senator than a corrupt, power-grabbing, take-from-the-poor-to-give-to-the rich, so-called Christian Republican.
We've already got plenty of those.
Ralph
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Reason #1001 that McCain/Palin/Dole must be defeated:
Echoing Bob Cesca, blogging today on HuffingtonPost: It would be just too terrible to contemplate waking up one week from today in an America that rewards their kind of poltics of fear, smear, lies, personal destructiveness, and stealing elections.
We must not let that happen. Not this time. Not now.
The brouhaha over Elizabeth Dole's ad slandering her opponent for attending a fund-raiser with an atheist as a sponsor gets worse.
When confronted with the fact that Hagan is a regular church-goer, Dole's spokesman said that made it even worse -- because it means she's putting money above her principles.
He went on to claim that Hagan's taking PAC money from atheists calls into question how she would vote on judicial appointments that could have an impact on church-state issues. "What did she promise them?" in exchange for the contribution.
I assume that Dole may have taken some campaign money from fundamentalist Christians. Doesn't that raise the same questions about her -- only from the opposite direction?
I never really liked Libby Dole, but I thought she was an improvement over Jesse Helms. Now I'm not so sure.
I hadn't seen it when you posted about it earlier. It wasn't just the content, which was horrible enough. The ad was cast with sinister lighting, and the illusion that her opponent was hiding from cameras as the voice over sounded its chant like something from a satanic ritual. Presumably this has the Dole people getting desperate: "Dole's ad comes as a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows Hagan with a slight advantage over Dole, 47 percent to 43 percent." But the ad is a shocker no matter what caused her to run it.
Frankly, it feels like a fatal mistake to me. The 'guilt by association' route is backfiring in all its pertubations. McCarthyism just isn't flying in 2008 like it did before. And we're profiting from the Republican's inability to break the inertia of their dirty trickster strategies. It had to happen sooner or later. They've played it this way for so long, I guess they've lost the ability to play it any other way.
So, as Joseph Welch said in 1954 to Senator Joseph McCarthy, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this race puts an end to this kind of dirty smear campaign!! And to the Republican policies of trickle-down economics, imperialist dictatorship instead of president, who favors the rich, panders to the bigots, and requires their brand of religious fervor.
And to race being a factor, ever again.
Campbell Brown gave a ringing denunciation of the Dole "godless" ad on CNN.
I suspect (and hope) that in the end this ad will hurt Elizabeth Dole more than her opponent.
Kay Hagan has announced that she is filing a defamation lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole for the ad "attacking my Christian faith." And she has a rebuttal ad up that is very effective.
Two separate polls show Dole losing by 6%. I hope it goes to 60%.
Let's show them that this kind of smear does not work anymore.
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