Posted on 04/27/2006 5:34:13 AM PDT by wagglebee
VIRGINIA BEACH — First it was the big oil companies. Now it’s the big pharmaceutical companies.
MoveOn.org wants voters to believe that U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake is in the pocket of both.
On Wednesday, MoveOn.org – a Democratic-leaning political action committee – kicked off a new series of television ads.
It features Drake allegedly caught “red-handed” taking campaign contributions from drug companies while supporting the Bush administration’s prescription drug plan.
MoveOn contends that the plan helps drug companies but not senior citizens on Medicare.
“Seniors relied on her, but Thelma Drake got thousands from big drug companies,” the ad says.
Members of MoveOn played the ad at a news conference Wednesday at the Central Library.
The ad drew applause from MoveOn members wearing “Impeach Bush” T-shirts and displaying signs that said “Protect Seniors Not Drug Companies.”
MoveOn member Guy T. Sturino said the prescription drug plan bars Medicare from negotiating lower prices from drug companies and penalizes seniors if they do not sign up by May 15.
Drake did not vote for the plan, Sturino said, but does support it and continues to stump for it. She has received $5,000 from drug company political action committees, he said.
Reached at her office Wednesday, Drake called the ads “a flat-out lie” because they assert that she worked to pass the law and that she knows disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“I was not a member of Congress when the bill became law,” Drake said.
As to Abramoff, Drake said she has never met him. “I wouldn’t know him if he walked through the door.”
Drake acknowledged that she supports President Bush’s prescription drug plan and has tried to help educate senior citizens about how to take advantage of it.
“But I will not apologize for working for the seniors of the 2nd District,” she said.
The ad will be played throughout the 2nd District, which includes all of Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore, and parts of Norfolk and Hampton.
The ad is part of a MoveOn campaign targeting four Republican members of Congress whom it considers vulnerable, said Jennifer Lindenauer, MoveOn’s communication director.
The ads also will be played in the following districts: Indiana’s 2nd, represented by Chris Chocola; Ohio’s 15th, represented by Deborah Pryce; and Connecticut’s 5th, represented by Nancy Johnson.
Lindenauer said those district races are considered among the most competitive in the nation.
This is the second TV ad by MoveOn against Drake. Three weeks ago, MoveOn unveiled an ad targeting the same four members of Congress allegedly being caught taking contributions from oil companies.
After those ads aired, Lindenauer said, Drake’s support dropped 9 percentage points, putting her in a dead heat with the Democratic challenger, Philip J. Kellam , the Virginia Beach commissioner of the revenue.
What a lying POS. She didn't vote for it because she wasn't even a member of Congress. The left wanted this ridiculous new entitlement program, Bush and the GOP gave it to them, now the left uses it as a campaign issue against the GOP.
One day the GOP will learn it's lesson about appeasing the 'Rats.
"MoveOn.org – a Democratic-leaning political action committee."
"Democratic leaning"...... BWAAAAAAHAHAHA
Now THERE'S the least shocking thing I've read in quite some time.
Of course MoveOn.org is nothing but a Communist front.
Follow this link and you will see why: http://web.archive.org/web/20030407153812/http://cpusa.org/
If they lied, she can file a libel suit.
There are laws about lying about public officials, and essentially it's legal if they can claim there's some type of "grey area."
Why doesn't some republican PAC expose dems with their hand in the till? Wait, is it because we are too civilized? Or is it because there isn't enough time or space in the world to expose them all?
Hmmm...well, I don't know how the law works in that regard. It just seems to me that if they really wanted to, they could put some heat on people who boldfaced lied about them.
But the fact that public figures rarely, if ever, DO engage legal actions in that regard reinforces your point.
I heard Congresswoman Drake on the radio this morning talking about it and she is pissed.
It's funny because there is so much active and retired military here that the leftists know that their normal anti-war we hate America crap won't work here so they are trying this approach.
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