January 17, 2006 5:59 AM

How long can you hold back the truth?

3 Local TV Stations Decline To Air Ads Critical Of DeLay

Troubles erode support for DeLay in 22nd District

Watchdog group: Nothing ‘strictly false’ in DeLay ad. Review cites some ambiguities in spot rejected by TV stations.

Tom DeLay Bullies…

WASHINGTON - A nonpartisan organization that reviews political ads for accuracy said Friday that a controversial commercial rejected by Houston TV stations after being labeled false by Rep. Tom DeLay’s campaign is vaguely worded but contains nothing definitively false.

On top of being corrupt, venal, and a disciple of Machiavellian politics, Tom DeLay is a bully of the first order. Of course, DeLay didn’t become known as “The Hammer” because of his shy, retiring nature. No, he became the most powerful man in Washington because he is the meanest SOB on Capitol Hill and he knows where the bodies are buried. Combine all of that with the ability to attracts untold millions in political donations for the GOP, and what you have is a politician who for almost 22 years has been virtually bulletproof.

The biggest problem with living by the sword is that eventually you’re going to die by the sword. Such is the nature of politics. The willingness to play fast and loose with the rules, and the attitude that you are above accountability in the waythe laws that bind mere mortals is not exactly a recipe for sainthood. Playing the game of politics in the way Tom DeLay has means that you are going to collect a lot of enemies along the way. Those of us who detest the man and everything he stands for can barely contain our glee at watching DeLay struggle for his political life. This has been a long time coming, but my God is it sweet.

Those of us who oppose DeLay are certainly not naive enough to expect that the man will go down without a fight. Though the denizens of political Washington are well aware of what DeLay has been up to since first coming to town in 1984, there are still those here in southeast Texas who frankly haven’t paid all that much attention. After all, DeLay rules the roost in Washington; his constituents are merely an inconvenient necessity for him to maintain his political empire. And Tom DeLay is certainly not about to countenance anyone coming into town and providing the locals with information that might make them wonder just what he’s been up to on their dime.

“We find that DeLay’s lawyer mischaracterized what the ad said, and that the ad contains nothing that is strictly false,” said Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. “The worst we can say of the ad is that its ambiguous wording” could mislead viewers about the details of DeLay’s interactions with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with a federal investigation of lawmakers and their aides.

The review came after a lawyer for DeLay’s re-election campaign, Don McGahn, this week contacted four Houston television stations that had sold airtime for the ad. McGahn called the spot “reckless, malicious and false” and hinted that the stations could face legal trouble if they ran it. They didn’t.

Which only goes to prove that those who run television stations in Houston have no balls. They will gladly run ads put out by Conservatives groups that smear Liberals from here to next week, but a commercial put out by Liberal groups that draws attention to the perfidy and mean-spirited corruption of Tom DeLay are somehow a threat to a good, God-fearing public servant merely doing his job of representing Texas’ 22nd Congressional District. What a load of crap….

The 30-second ad, designed to raise doubts about the Sugar Land Republican’s ethics, was created by the liberal groups Public Campaign Action Fund and Campaign for America’s Future. It was scheduled to air Wednesday and run for a week.

The ad calls for DeLay to resign from Congress. He has denied wrongdoing.

With Factcheck.org’s analysis in hand, the sponsoring groups are now encouraging Houston residents to contact the stations ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ KTRK (Channel 13), KRIV (Channel 26), KHOU (Channel 11) and KPRC (Channel 2) ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ and demand that they air the ad, which has appeared on cable stations in Houston and on the Internet.

The spot “contains important information about what Tom DeLay does in Washington and we think people in Houston need to know,” said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund.

Just as Tom DeLay endeavors to get his message out, so do those whose oppose DeLay and everything he stands for. As long as these ads are factually correct and do not slander DeLay, then “The Hammer” and his lawyers have no reason and no right to bully Houston media outlets into refusing to run them. Since DeLay cannot refute the information contained in the ads, his attack dogs lawyers have had to resort to bullying and intimidation. It’s reprehensible, it’s undemocratic, and it’s just plain wrong…and let’s not forget that DeLay is running for re-election this year. Is this the type of representation those of us unfortunate enough to live in the 22nd District deserve? I think not.

The most contentious item in the ad is the suggestion that DeLay took “$1 million from Russian tycoons to allegedly influence his vote.”

McGahn said the Washington Post article that touched on the issue reported “that a charity called the U.S. Family Network received $1,000,000 from a now-defunct London law firm. In fact, the Post article makes clear that ‘there is no evidence DeLay received a direct financial benefit. … ’ But remarkably, the ad says the exact opposite of what the proffered Post article reported.”

The U.S. Family Network was established by a former DeLay chief of staff, Edwin Buckham, who hired DeLay’s wife, Christine, for his lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group.

Factcheck.org said, “The ad’s wording was ambiguous … The ad didn’t say DeLay got the money directly, only that it ‘allegedly’ was to influence his vote. And the Post did in fact state just such an allegation.”

The reference to Russian tycoons “could certainly give viewers the impression that DeLay is being accused of worse things than the Post actually reported. But the words are hardly ‘the opposite’ of the Post’s reporting, as DeLay’s lawyer claimed.”

The groups who put together these ads are certainly well aware that they will be held to a higher standard of proof than pro-DeLay groups, who in Texas will generally be allowed to do whatever they want, short of accusing those who oppose DeLay of being godless pedophiles.

Isn’t it about time that the people DeLay represents are allowed to hear the truth about what their Congressman has been up to all these years?

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 17, 2006 5:59 AM.

Well, that would explain all of the child-size brown shirts in your office, eh? was the previous entry in this blog.

Evil is still evil, even if Democrats condone it by their silence is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12