Cry Me A River. Offensive Republican Ads

Today at his press conference President Bush attacked MoveOn.org over their placement of an in the New York Times concerning Gen. David Petraeus. How many times have Republican candidates ran ads that truly were offensive.

Max Cleland is a former United States Senator from Georgia and Vietnam veteran who was elected to the U.S. Senate upon the retirement of Sam Nunn in 1996. Mr. Cleland ran for reelection in 2002 and was opposed by Saxby Chambliss the Republican nominee.  Here is the subject of the add used against Cleland.

In 2002, Cleland was defeated in his bid for a second Senate term by Representative Saxby Chambliss. Voters were perhaps influenced by Chambliss ads that featured Cleland’s likeness on the same screen as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, ads that Cleland’s supporters claim questioned his commitment to homeland security.[6] (The ads were removed after protest from some prominent politicians including John McCain.

During the 2004 Presidential campaign there was the group known as Swift Boat Veterans For Peace which ran television ads accusing Democratic nominee Senator John Kerry of lying about the medals he received while serving with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. 

First television advertisement

SBVT first went public with a May 4, 2004, press conference declaring opposition to Kerry. When the press conference garnered little attention, the organization decided to produce television advertisements. On August 5, 2004, SBVT began airing a one-minute television spot[21][22] in three hotly contested states in the ongoing presidential election. The advertisement, entitled “Any Questions?”, was a collage of short clips of 13 SBVT members, many who stated they “served with John Kerry” or had direct contact with Kerry during his service in Vietnam. The veterans appearing in the ad said Kerry was dishonest, unreliable, unfit to lead, and had dishonored his country and fellow veterans. Only one of the men in the advertisement (Steve Gardner) served under Kerry, but some sailed alongside Kerry’s Swift boat on multi-boat patrols.

Where were all those Patriotic Republicans while this was going on?

Then there is Jesse Helms the former Senator from North Carolina who made a career out of being a racist. Like this add used against Harvey Gantt  his opponent in 1990.

Helms used racial issues in many elections; for instance, in 1990, he ran the famous “Hands” television ad in a tough re-election race. The ad has become legendary in Southern political circles as the most direct appeal to white backlash in modern American politics. The ad played upon white voters’ fears that affirmative action policies might prevent them from getting a job that would go to a “less-qualified” black person

From the 2006 Midterm Election

Michael J. Fox who suffers from Parkinson’s disease produced an add for Democrat Clair McCaskill who was running for the U.S. Senate from Missouri concerning his support for embryonic stem cell research. What was the reaction of the Right Wing:

Possibly worse than making fun of someone’s disability is saying that it’s imaginary. That is not to mock someone’s body, but to challenge a person’s guts, integrity, sanity.

To Rush Limbaugh on Monday, Michael J. Fox looked like a faker. The actor, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has done a series of political ads supporting candidates who favor stem cell research, including Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, who is running against Republican Michael Steele for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes.

Was Rush Limbaugh condemned by those on the right? No. If say Al Franken had made the same judgment on a Republican seeking elective office he would have been condemned by all sides and most likely would have lost his job with Air America Radio. 

Republicans are tagging Democratic opponents across the country for wanting to “give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants.” But nobody’s proposing paying benefits to illegals, not until and unless they become US citizens or are granted legal status.

In all these cases the Republicans and there supporters paid a small price for these offensive adds. Double standard is a term which comes to mind when considering the amount of hypocrsy shown by the Right Wing and their enablers concerning these adds and the issues they involve.