The Merck Salesman: A Modern Day MLK
The Merck Salesman: A Modern Day MLK
At the House Government Reform Committee’s hearing on Merck’s attempt to bury relevant safety data about its signature painkiller, Vioxx, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) read from a Merck training manual that directed instructors to play a recording of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech and then say to the sales force: “King was someone with goal-focus — he kept getting shut down but kept going. . . Just as with a physician, you must keep repeating the compelling message and at some point, the physician will be ‘free at last’ when he or she prescribes the Merck drug, if that is most appropriate for the patient.”
Indeed, the remarkable correspondence between spearheading the Civil Rights movement in America and selling dangerous drugs to unusupecting arthritic consumers needs little elaboration. But it gets better. Also included in the documents made public Thursday was an excerpt from Merck’s 2002 booklet, “Champion Selling: Milestone Leader’s Guide,” which deals with the problem that some doctors might not have time to talk about a Merck product (for instance, maybe they’re attending to patients). The guide cautions that field staff need to understand, “it’s those defining moments that distinguish all champions.” For instance:
— Helen Keller could have felt sorry for herself when she went blind and deaf.
– Martin Luther King could have laid low when his home was firebombed.
– Tiger Woods could have avoided the pressure by not turning pro as young as he did.
– George Washington could have finished his years with a comfortable life without the challenges of taking on the presidency.
Wow…almost makes you want to go out and sell overpriced drugs that give people heart attacks to as many doctors as possible!
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Not Covering The Uninsured, By The Numbers
Not Covering The Uninsured, By The Numbers
In honor of Cover the Uninsured Week:
Number of currently uninsured Americans: 45 million
Number of working Americans with no health insurance: 20 million
Percent of uninsured Americans unable to see a doctor when they needed to in 12 month period: 41
Average cost of visit to hospital for Americans with no health insurance: $1,000
Amount the U.S. loses per year on “uncompensated” care for people with no insurance: $41 billion
Cuts in Medicaid passed by Congress last week, over five years: $10 billion
Percent of uninsured Americans who would benefit from President Bush’s proposed Health Savings Accounts: 0.3
Percent of U.S. adults who cite lowering health care costs and health insurance as a top priority for the president and Congress: 63
Percent of Americans who say health care is the “single most important issue” for Congress to address in 2005: 10
Percent who say Social Security is the “single most important issue”: 2
Speeches President Bush and Vice President Cheney have given on health care this week: 0
Speeches they’ve given on Social Security: 4
Number of times the words “health care” or “uninsured” appear in transcripts of White House press gaggles this week: 0
Days since President Bush spoke about the issue of health care: 96
Pfizer Exec Calls Drug Industry Leaders “Dinosaurs”
Pfizer Exec Calls Drug Industry Leaders “Dinosaurs”
As reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, advocacy for drug importation and bulk purchasing came from an unlikely source during this year’s Cover the Uninsured Week. Dr. Peter Rost, vice president of sales for Pfizer Inc., called the leaders of pharmaceutical companies “dinosaurs who are committing financial suicide” for opposing low-cost drugs in the United States. 
Rost said, “Getting drugs to people who need them is about right and wrong…. When millions of uninsured older or poor Americans get sick because they can’t afford their medications, that is morally wrong.”
Rost went on to discuss bulk purchasing, the price-lowering provision his company successfully squelched from last year’s Medicare bill:
Most Americans pay prices similar to those in Europe, negotiated by insurers who buy in bulk, Rost said. “It’s the uninsured who pay the full price — twice what you’d pay in Europe. Everybody negotiates bulk prices for bulk deliveries, everybody but the United States.”
Rost has been speaking out against Bush administration health care policies backed by his employer since last September and twice testified before Congress in favor of legalizing drug imports, not only for moral reasons, but because it’s good for business. Rost claims he once doubled sales in Nordic countries for a pharmaceutical company he previously worked for after he lowered prescription drug prices.
The Star Tribune notes that Pfizer has written two letters to members of Congress urging them to ignore Rost’s opinions.
Pat Robertson Assaults Judges (Again)
Pat Robertson Assaults Judges (Again)
Religious right spokesman Pat Robertson alleged on ABC’s This Week that the federal judiciary constituted “the biggest threat to America in its history.” He said the “tyranny” of the federal judiciary was a bigger threat than World War II and communism and posed a “more serious [threat] than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” referring to the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed.
As for the threat posed by right-wing fanatics who threaten and slander judges that disagree with them, well, Robertson wasn’t asked about that. Below is an American Progress chart of five typical weeks in a calculated conservative campaign to discredit American judges and undermine the rule of law, all in order to clear the way for President Bush’s radical right-wing judicial nominees. As the chart demonstrates, the campaign has been carried out in an environment of steadily escalating hostilities, punctuated by a spate of real attacks on judges and threats to courthouses. Enjoy…
Democracy Hypocrisy: Our Man in Uzbekistan
Democracy Hypocrisy: Our Man in Uzbekistan
Over the weekend the New York Times reported on evidence that the United States has regularly sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan, an “authoritarian state” known for beating and asphyxiating prisoners, boiling body parts, using electroshock on genitals and “plucking off fingernails and toenails with pliers.” The State Department’s 2005 report on Uzbekistan states bluntly: “The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique.” But Uzbekistan’s role as a “surrogate jailer” for the United States has been “confirmed by a half-dozen current and former intelligence officials working in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.” The Uzbekistan renditions are the latest in a spate of troublesome allegations about U.S. treatment of detainees, just days after the one-year anniversary of Abu Ghraib.
Worse, the abuse isn’t limited to foreign regimes. Sgt. Erik Saar, a soldier who spent three months in the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo Bay, told CBS’ 60 Minutes this week that the approach of U.S. military interrogators is “ineffective” and “inconsistent with American values.” According to Saar and a series of FBI e-mails obtained by CBS, abusive methods and sexual humiliation are used routinely in Gitmo. Saar describes a female interrogator smearing fake menstrual blood on the face of a Saudi detainee, then depriving him of water so he could not ritually clean himself and pray that night. The FBI e-mails confirm Saar’s accounts.
Dr. Frist And Mr. Hyde: The Transformation Of A Senate Leader
Dr. Frist And Mr. Hyde: The Transformation Of A Senate Leader
It’s been a long, winding, morally manipulative journey these past few years for Senate leader Bill Frist (R-TN). Originally hailed as a moderate and conciliatory antidote to former leader Trent Lott (R-MS), Frist has morphed steadily into a divisive presidential hopeful bent on securing support from the GOP’s radical right-wing base. The transformation has not escaped the notice of Frist’s colleagues, some of whom wonder aloud whether Frist’s “presidential aspirations are getting in the way of his Senate leadership position.” Below, a trip down memory lane…
Part 1: The “conciliatory” Doctor Frist
12/16/02: Frist first mentioned as candidate to be Lott’s replacement, seen as “moderate voice”: “Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.), who helped engineer the Republican takeover of the Senate in the November elections and enjoys close relations with the White House, has some strong backers among Republicans who want a fresh face and moderate voice in the job to help the party recover from damage flowing out of racially charged remarks by Lott 11 days ago.” [WP]
12/21/02: Frist becomes frontrunner, praised as “compassionate” party savior: “Frist fits neatly into the melodramatic script of Trent Lott’s fall from power, cast as the new majority leader called on to rescue the party in a moment of peril. ‘He really shows the true compassionate conservatism,’ says Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).” [WP]
12/24/02: Frist inducted as House leader, dedicates self to “healing wounds”: “In his acceptance speech yesterday, Mr. Frist told his GOP colleagues, ‘We must dedicate ourselves to healing those wounds of division that have been reopened so prominently in the past few weeks.’…In contrast [to Trent Lott], Bill Frist comes to the leadership with a reputation as one who knows how to bring people together. It is a skill sorely needed in both the Republican caucus and the Senate as a whole.” [WP]
3/13/03: Frist lauded as “inclusive” leader, “deferential” to peers: “Many Republican senators spoke approvingly of what they described as a more inclusive leadership style than they had seen from a Republican leader. Even as the leader steers the Senate’s agenda rightward, moderate Republican senators say he meets far more often with them, soliciting their views and making them feel valued, than did Mr. Lott… Other senators say he is unusually deferential to colleagues, frequently insisting that they take the microphone at news conferences.” [NYT]
Part 2: The combustible Mr. Hyde
3/19/04: Frist crafts party platform pandering to social conservatives: “Republicans approved a platform yesterday that puts the party firmly on the record against legalized abortion, gay marriage and other forms of legal recognition for same-sex couples, reflecting the political clout of social conservatives … Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader and chairman of the Republican platform committee, hailed the platform, titled, ‘A Safer World, A More Hopeful America,’ as a tribute to Mr. Bush when he presented it to the convention yesterday.” [NYT]
3/19/04: “Doctor” Frist diagnosis Terri Schiavo from House floor, argues for divisive Senate interference: “Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a ‘persistent vegetative state.’
“His comments raised eyebrows in medical and political circles alike. It is not every day that a high-profile physician relies on family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person.” [WP]
4/15/05: Frist says he’ll push for “nuclear option”: “Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is all but certain to press for a rule change that would ban filibusters of judicial nominations in the next few weeks, despite misgivings by some of his fellow Republicans and a possible Democratic backlash that could paralyze the chamber, close associates said yesterday.” [WP]
4/15/05: Frist joins religious right telecast questioning faith of Democrats who oppose Bush judicial nominees: “As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as ‘against people of faith’ for blocking President Bush’s nominees.” [NYT]
4/27/05: Frist rejects compromise on judicial nominees: “[Frist] rejected a Democratic offer to resolve an impasse over judicial nominees yesterday, as members of both parties said they are under strong pressure from interest groups to hold their ground…Frist told reporters, ‘Are we going to shift from that principle? The answer to that is no.’” [WP]
Fuzzy Math In Galveston
Fuzzy Math In Galveston
President Bush in Galveston County today, where workers voted to privatize their retirement accounts in 1981:
Just — let me just give you a sense for the difference between what a worker gets here in Galveston and then a worker would get out of Social Security. If you get a 3.75 percent return, like they guarantee here in Galveston, on your money, and you’re a person working 37 years, making about $25,000 a year, you’d receive $1,250 a month from the alternate plan now available for workers here — as opposed to $669 from Social Security. Think about that. That’s a difference between a better rate of return on your money over a 37-year period.
In fact, the Social Security Administration did an analysis of the Galveston plan in 1999. The report showed well-paid workers with no kids did slightly better in the short run under the plan. As for everyone else:
Social Security tends to offer higher initial benefits than the Galveston Plan to workers with lower earnings and/or families with dependents who qualify for Social Security benefits. Although many of Galveston’s initial benefits are higher than Social Security’s, they are not indexed to inflation and lose value relative to Social Security’s over time.
The same year, the Government Accountability Office compared the two plans, coming to a similar conclusion:
In general, low-wage workers and, to a lesser extent, median-wage workers would fare better under Social Security. High-wage earners can generally expect to do better under the Alternate Plans, although if spousal benefits are included, even the high-wage workers could eventually receive higher benefits from Social Security.
Hmmmm, makes you wonder which report President Bush was quoting.
If Brit Hume Were President…
If Brit Hume Were President…
Fox anchor Brit Hume took a creative approach this weekend to defending President Bush’s embattled U.N. nominee John Bolton. Here he is responding to the news that 59 former U.S. diplomats, including many conservatives, signed a letter condemning Bolton:
WILLIAMS: What about the 60 diplomats, including many Republicans, who have sent a letter to the Senate committee, saying we think it’s a mistake to approve John Bolton. That was based entirely on his views on the U.N.
HUME: I would hope that they would be — frankly, if I were the president and I was trying to get my foreign policy accepted, adopted, or imposed, if necessary, on the State Department, and I had someone for the U.N., I would hope there would be at least 60 diplomats and maybe many more who would find him an unattractive candidate.
See, by Hume’s logic, all you have to do to be a good candidate for the Bush administration is be considered “unattractive” by at least 60 bipartisan well-qualified observers. You have to wonder, where was Brit when Bernie Kerik needed him?
Flying Over Average Americans
Flying Over Average Americans
Last week, Congress passed and President Bush signed legislation that will make it more difficult for average Americans suffering from financial misfortune to declare bankruptcy.
Today, the Wall Street Journal reports, “United Airlines and a federal pension insurer announced a settlement that would allow the airline to hand over its four underfunded pension plans to the government in the largest corporate-pension default in U.S. history.” The move, which still needs approval by a bankruptcy-court judge, would allow United Airlines to shed $9.8 billion of retirement applications, saving the company $645 million a year for the next five years.
As for United’s employees, they will “receive less than they had expected from the company” as a result of the settlement. The Association of Flight Attendants, representing 15,500 active workers and 5,100 retirees, said it is “morally criminal” for United to abandon its pension promises. It is planning a strike if the bankruptcy judge abrogates the contract.
The point isn’t so much that United Airlines should or should not be able to declare bankruptcy and slough off promised benefits – maybe that really is what’s necessary for the company to become a “competitive enterprise for the long term.” The bankruptcy judge will decide.
The point is UAL is dumping $9.8 billion in retirement obligations on the federal government – in other words, on taxpayers – so it can get on stable financial footing. Besides hurting taxpayers, UAL’s failure to meet its commitements will adversely affect UAL workers. And last week, President Bush signed legislation that will make it more difficult for those same workers to file for bankruptcy and receive the same privilege as United Airlines – that is, of being able to start over when faced with an unforeseen financial crisis.
In General, the legislation will make it harder and more expensive for millions of average Americans to be forgiven trifling sums – most of which would barely make a mark on the $30 million per year credit card industry profits.
During the debate over the bill, Americans were repeatedly accused – despite directly contradictory evidence – of “abusing bankruptcy laws.” We’ll see who speaks up about UAL’s “abuse.”
Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day!
Now:
“It’s great to be back in the state of Tennessee. I’m proud to be traveling with…Lamar Alexander.” – President Bush on Earth Day, Promoting his “Clear Skies” Initiative
Then:
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, told Senate colleagues Monday that he will not support the Bush administration’s air pollution plan – known as “Clear Skies” – because it does not “go far enough, fast enough” to solve his state’s air pollution problems. – ENS, 7/15/03
Brown’s Extremist Record
Brown’s Extremist Record
On a party-line 10-8 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee today approved California Judge Janice Rogers Brown for a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Conservative congressional leaders cannot fathom why progressives (and many independent observers) think Brown is “out of the mainstream.” Here is a clue:
Janice Rogers Brown Equates Social Security With Cannibalism: “Today’s senior citizens blithely cannibalize their grandchildren because they have a right to get as much ‘free’ stuff as the political system will permit them to extract.”
Janice Rogers Brown Supports Age Discrimination: “Discrimination based on age does not mark its victim with a stigma of inferiority and second class citizenship…it is the unavoidable consequence of that universal leveler: time.”
Janice Rogers Opposes Everything About the New Deal: “The New Deal…inoculated the federal Constitution with a kind of underground collectivist mentality. 1937…marks the triumph of our own socialist revolution.”
Janice Rogers Brown Opposes Government: “Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies….The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible.”
Janice Rogers Brown Supports Discriminatory Speech: Ignoring Supreme Court precedent, Brown has argued that racially discriminatory speech in the workplace is protected by the First Amendment.
An Education In Common Sense
An Education In Common Sense
Very quietly, a national revolt may be brewing over President Bush’s refusal to fully fund his signature education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act. Today, the Washington Post reports the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, joined school districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont in filing a federal lawsuit against the Department of Education for failing to provide adequate funding for the No Child Left Behind initiative.
That news comes just one day after the ultra conservative Utah State Legislature passed a measure giving state education standards priority over federal ones imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Legislators from both houses voted in favor of the law despite warnings from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings “that they ran the risk of losing $76 million in federal funding.” “I’d just as soon they take the stinking money and go back to Washington with it,” said Republican house member Steve Mascaro.
These are far from isolated problems. While the Bush administration meekly repeats the claim it has raised funding for education, a study completed in March by the Center on Education Policy found “only 11 states felt NCLB allocations were adequate for them to provide technical assistance to all schools identified for improvement”:
Around 80 percent of local districts surveyed, said they had costs associated with implementing NCLB that were not covered by federal funds, such as the costs of training teachers to meet NCLB qualifications, providing remedial services to students performing below grade level, and carrying out mandatory data collection and analysis.
New Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has been promoting a new, “common sense” approach to No Child Left Behind. But the only “common sense” the states appear to be interested in is proper funding for the new requirements that the law has thrust upon them.
DeLay Memo: Abramoff Conspicuously Absent
DeLay Memo: Abramoff Conspicuously Absent
There were a lot of names thrown around in Tom DeLay’s More »: Texas D.A. Ronnie Early, Common Cause’s Mary Boyle, Public Citizen’s Craig Holman, former President Ronald Reagan, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Congressman Chris Bell, Congressman Nick Smith.
But amazingly, DeLay left out the name of “one of his closest and dearest friends,” Jack Abramoff. That DeLay fails to even mention Abramoff – who stands at the nexus of many of the most serious allegations surrounding the majority leader – is consistent with his refusal to clearly address the charges against him. Abramoff has more than a bit part in the drama, after all. To review:
1997 – Abramoff arranges junket to Saipan, gets DeLay to stand up against sweat shop reform: Abramoff, a lobbyist and former DeLay aide, arranges a lavish overseas trip to the American territory of Saipan for DeLay, his wife, his daughter and several aides. He writes in a memo obtained by ABC News that such trips are “one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill.” The Saipan junket is part of Abramoff’s effort “to stop legislation aimed at cracking down on sweatshops and sex shops” on the island. A prominent factory owner on the island says DeLay “promised to stop the reform laws.”
2000 – Abramoff helps finance European vacation, gets DeLay to kill anti-Internet-gambling provision: Abramoff serves as go-between for a deal where eLottery, an online gaming company, helps finance a European vacation for DeLay. Two months later, DeLay helps kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which “would have made it a federal crime to place certain bets over the Internet and was opposed by eLottery and the Choctaws.” More »
Frist’s Attack On Civil Rights
Frist’s Attack On Civil Rights
The flier for the Bill Frist endorsed telethon reads: “The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith.”
Speaking of racial bias…
One of the nominees the filibuster could be used against is Terrence Boyle, opposed by nearly every conceivable minority group for his abominable record on civil rights. During the redistricting of North Carolina in the 1990s, the state created a congressional district to reflect the strong African-American population of the area. Boyle tried to block the district’s creation and declared it unconstitutional, a decision reversed twice by the Supreme Court and called “clearly erroneous” by Justice Clarence Thomas. Judge Boyle also has a record of siding with employers in cases of workplace discrimination.
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the National Bar Association questioned Boyle’s “professional competence,” “judicial temperament,” “commitment to equal justice under the law” and “cultural sensitivity.”
Caught On Tape: The Right-Wing’s Stalinist Solution
Caught On Tape: The Right-Wing’s Stalinist Solution
First reported in Dana Milbank’s column last Sunday, here’s the audio of laywer and author Edwin Vieira explaining how he would deal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Vieira’s words came at the “Confronting the Judicial War on Faith” conference last week. The conference hosted several GOP congressmen and was scheduled to include a speech by Tom DeLay (DeLay had to phone in comments because he was in Rome for the pope’s death).
In case you’re wondering, Vieira left off the first part of the useful “slogan,” which goes like this: “Death solves all problems: no man, no problem.”
Someone Please Educate Margaret Spellings
Someone Please Educate Margaret Spellings
Our new education secretary Margaret Spellings, talking up some of the“revolutionary principles” of No Child Left Behind:
The second principle: respect for local control. That’s nothing new–it’s from the United States Constitution. No Child Left Behind was designed not to dictate processes, but to promote innovation and improve results for kids.
Here’s what Virginia’s Republican controlled House of Delegates had to say about the bill. The language is from a resolution calling on Congress to exempt the state from No Child Left Behind last year:
[No Child Left Behind]represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States. [It will cost] literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have.”
The resolution passed 98-1.
Take Action: Tell American Airlines To Drop The Hammer
Take Action: Tell American Airlines To Drop The Hammer
American Airlines gave $5,000 to Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund, and, unlike some Congressional Republicans, the company has not yet dropped its support for the ethically challenged House leader.
Here’s how American Airlines’ Spokesman Tim Wagner explained the donation to NPR: “We were told that Mr. DeLay, a member of Congress from our headquarters state was facing substantial legal bills that he was unable to pay personally because of their size and his limited resources.”
There are millions of ordinary Americans that have bills to pay and limited resources. American Airlines should be helping those folks, not an ethically-challenged Congressman like Tom DeLay.
TODAY’S ACTION ITEM
Call senior American Airlines officials and ask why they gave money to defend Tom DeLay’s unethical behavior and demand that they ask for their money back:
Tim Wagner, Spokesman, Corporate Communications — (817) 967-1577
Dan Garton, Executive Vice President, Marketing — (817) 931-9351
Ralph Richardi, Senior Vice President, Customer Service — (817) 967-2000
Give them a call, then come back to Think Progress and comment on your experience.
Bolton’s Non Defense
Bolton’s Non Defense
The Wall Street Journal shills for John Bolton today in an editorial which dismisses as “political smoke” accusations that Bolton misused intelligence in a 2002 speech about Cuba. Here’s how the Journal defends him:
In May 2002, Mr. Bolton told an audience at the Heritage Foundation that he believed Havana had “a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort” and has “provided dual-use technology to other rogue states.” As is usual, the speech was cleared by intelligence authorities prior to delivery. If they had done their homework, the critics would know that Mr. Bolton wasn’t the first U.S. government official to use such language.
That’s all well and good; the problem is the Journal misstates the accusation. Nobody says the speech Bolton actually gave included bad intelligence. The accusation, stated in today’s Washington Post, is that Bolton wanted to use flawed intelligence in the speech, then threw a fit when intelligence officials told him he couldn’t:
In spring 2002…Using evidence described by three knowledgeable intelligence officials as ambiguous, Bolton planned to announce the existence of a secret bioweapons program in Cuba during a speech that May to the Heritage Foundation.
But he was blocked by Christian Westermann, the chief bioweapons analyst at the State Department, who refused to clear the speech unless the language more accurately reflected the intelligence assessments. Bolton summoned Westermann to his office and berated him, officials with knowledge of the encounter said, and then tried to have him fired….When [Carl] Ford backed up Westermann, Bolton refused to speak with him again.
Note: Bolton must have read the WSJ editorial – he just used the same argument in his hearing, claiming the Cuba speech was cleared by the intelligence community. Unfortunately, that is an answer to a charge no one has leveled. He then admitted he tried to have Westermann “removed from his portfolio” after the incident.
Martinez: An Impressive Record Of Passing The Buck
Martinez: An Impressive Record Of Passing The Buck
Today’s Miami Herald notes rookie Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) has made a bit of a habit out of hiding behind his staff when asked to take responsibility for unpopular actions. Indeed, Martinez has shown he is never afraid, no matter how grievous his mistakes, to pass the buck to a subordinate. Here are the greatest hits:
9/22/04: After a Martinez campaign ad referred to opponent Bill McCollum as being a tool of ”the radical homosexual lobby” (a phrase which also popped up in Martinez’s last-minute direct-mail fliers), Martinez tells the press:
‘We made mistakes…A couple of young turks in my campaign went further than they should have.
9/28/04: The Martinez campaign sends out a news release calling the federal agents who seized Elian Gonzalez “armed thugs.” Martinez once again blames his staff. From Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff:
MARTINEZ: No, no. I never said that. And it was something that was put out by someone in the office and immediately withdrawn, as we saw what had happened.
WOODRUFF: So it wasn’t your words.
MARTINEZ: Absolutely not my words and never would be my words.
WOODRUFF: How did this happen?
MARTINEZ: Well, it’s someone who was writing for the campaign. And it’s inappropriate that they should use those words. Those are inappropriate words. I would never have used them.
4/7/05: It is discovered that a controversial memo calling Terri Schiavo a “great political issue” for conservatives originated in Martinez’s office. Martinez personally handed the memo to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), explaining it contained “talking points.” Besides firing subordinate Brian Darling, Martinez releases this statement:
It is with profound disappointment and regret that I learned today that a senior member of my staff was unilaterally responsible for this document…Until this afternoon, I had never seen it and had no idea a copy of it had ever been in my possession.
Helping Out Poor Tom DeLay
Helping Out Poor Tom DeLay
In today’s Dallas Morning News, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explains his company’s $5,000 donation to Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund this way:
We were told that Mr. DeLay, a member of Congress from our headquarters state of Texas, was facing substantial legal bills that he was unable to pay personally because of their size and his limited resources.
DeLay’s “limited” resources? From Wednesday’s New York Times:
The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay’s political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay’s home state, Texas.
Maybe next time he needs cash to pay his legal bills – instead of relying on a private company involved in major pending legislation – DeLay should ask his wife for a loan.
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