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GOP Assails Democrats Over MoveOn Ad
By ANN SANNER
Associated Press
September 21, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans on Thursday tried to turn a controversial anti-war newspaper ad against Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama after neither voted to condemn it.
The Senate voted 72-25 to pass a resolution condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, as ''Gen. Betray Us.'' The liberal group's full-page ad appeared last week in The New York Times.
Clinton voted against the measure; Obama did not vote.
Among the presidential hopefuls, Republicans Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas voted for the resolution sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut voted against it.
Obama, Clinton and Dodd voted for an alternative resolution offered minutes earlier by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. That resolution condemned political attack ads, including those that questioned the patriotism of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., both Vietnam veterans. It failed 50-47.
McCain and Brownback did not support Boxer's measure. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., also a presidential candidate, did not vote on either resolution.
At a news conference Thursday, President Bush criticized Democrats for not immediately condemning the MoveOn.org ad, which he called ''disgusting.''
''And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org, or more afraid of irritating them, then they are of irritating the United States military,'' Bush said.
Mike Duncan, chairman of the RNC, criticized Clinton and Obama, contending that they failed to ''take a stand against a vicious attack.''
In an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, Clinton declined to address the ad, saying instead: ''I have been an admirer of General Petraeus for a number of years. I have said that on numerous occasions. I reiterated it, and I think my words speak for themselves.''
Obama, who appeared in Atlanta with R&B artist Usher and former NBA forward Dominique Wilkins, defended his decision not to vote, calling the resolution the ''kind of game-playing that the American people are tired of.''
He said it was wrong to waste time ''debating about a newspaper ad'' when young men and women are dying in Iraq and veterans are not receiving needed services.
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Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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