Posted on 01/17/2010 9:45:06 AM PST by dano1
Representatives of Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown say Democratic candidate Martha Coakley has until Tuesday to retract an incendiary campaign mailing or Brown will take legal action. At issue is a Coakley flier charging that Brown would have Massachusetts hospitals turn away all rape victims, a claim which a Brown spokeswoman called "a lie," "patently false," and "atrocious." "The campaign is calling on Martha Coakley and [Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman] John Walsh to retract the false statement," says Tarah Donoghue, a spokeswoman for the state Republican party who is speaking on behalf of the Brown campaign. "We're going to give them until Tuesday morning to do the right thing."
The flier, sent recently to voters by the Massachusetts Democratic Party, says: 1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.
The inner pages of the flier claim Brown will "take us backwards on women's health and rights." While Brown objects to the entire content of the ad, his lawyer argues that the front page is such an outrageous falsehood that it violates Massachusetts law governing false statements in political campaigns.
"The lie is on the front page, which is what the voter sees when they open up their mail," says Dan Winslow, counsel for the Brown campaign. "There is a lot of room in a political campaign for rough and tumble and sharp elbows and advocacy. But the bottom line is, you can't lie. You cannot lie to try to win an election, particularly at the 11th hour when it may be too late to change the lie. That in itself corrupts the democratic process."
Winslow cites a state law which says "No person shall make or publish, or cause to be made or published, any false statement in relation to any candidate for nomination or election to public office, which is designed or tends to aid or to injure or defeat such candidate."
The controversy stems from a 2005 Massachusetts law which requires hospitals to make emergency contraceptives available to rape victims. During debate on the law, state senator Brown offered an amendment that would have exempted medical professionals with "sincerely held religious beliefs," particularly at a number of Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, from the law's requirement to provide emergency contraception. If no one at a given hospital could provide the contraception, Brown's amendment required that hospital to transfer the rape victim to another facility where she could receive emergency contraception, at no cost to the victim. Brown's amendment failed, but he voted in favor of the final bill.
Coakley's campaign has hit Brown on the issue at several points in the campaign, running ads that said, "Brown even favors letting hospitals deny emergency contraception to rape victims." But the new flier takes Coakley's accusations to a new level, charging that Brown would have hospitals turn away all rape victims. While Brown objected to the earlier ads, saying they distorted his record, he did not threaten legal action until the new flier was sent out.
Not only did Brown vote in favor of the final emergency contraception bill, his campaign says he also made it very clear during the debate that he supported emergency contraception for rape victims. To bolster his case, the Brown campaign provided the Washington Examiner a copy of Brown's talking points from June 2005, from which he made his remarks to the Senate. "First and foremost, I fully support this legislation and recognize the importance of access to EC [emergency contraception] for rape victims," reads the first talking point.
"This amendment will not hinder the distribution of emergency contraception throughout the Commonwealth," the talking points continue (emphasis in the original). "I am offering this amendment because I feel that it is wrong to mandate an individual to do something that is against their 'sincerely held religious beliefs.'" In addition to the talking points, the Brown campaign also provided what it called "a contemporaneous (but not verbatim) narrative of [Brown's] remarks made on the Senate floor by State House News Service." That narrative supports Brown's version of events.
Nevertheless, the Coakley ad has been sent out, and its timing presents a particularly difficult situation for Brown. The Brown campaign issued the threat of legal action on Saturday, but given that local courts will be closed on Sunday and also on Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Brown's lawyers could not take any action until Tuesday at the earliest. And Tuesday, of course, just happens to be Election Day.
Still, Brown appears determined to act, even if the final resolution of the controversy is irrelevant to the outcome of the election. "The law creates a forum after the election for the facts to come out," Winslow says. "Scott Brown cannot have this lie stand."
Sad but true... they used to be a bunch of slave owning, uneducated, red-necked hicks until the communists got a hold of them. Now, they's really something!
As Sarah Palin would say, “Sue, Baby, Sue” and do it NOW.
Let them sweat a lawsuit that has been filed.
Take no prisoners, esp. in Massachusetts. You’ll be doing the country a great favor.
I live there, the most left wing moonbat Congressional district in the country. Barney Frank will again coast to victory. Barney isn’t even the worst representative of New Bedford. George Rogers would hold that title. He’s a convicted felon school teacher, who invited one of his students over to do some work and just happened to have gay porn playing on his tv. What a freak. The guy just keep getting elected. So Barney is safe.
Remember, they control the state's apparatus. They have picked who gets to count the votes.
Don't get to cocky until after the votes have been counted, the legal challenges issued and overcome, and the winner accepted by the Senate.
New Democrat tactic: sue if you don’t win because you have a right to win!!
If you live in Massachusetts, be an election official in your precinct or one that needs one. Make sure you can get your vote in if your going to work in another precinct and haven’t voted already. You should also be calling Scott Brown’s list.
Outside of Massachusetts, donate http://www.brownforussenate.com or help campaign GOTV to the polls. Also make calls. Work it up to the polls close on Tuesday!!
Hopefully we will have another shot heard round the world Tuesday night!!!
Nice to see a GOPer with a pair. It’s one thing to make an assertion about your opponent during a campaign; it’s another thing entirely to cross that threshold to outright slander. I hope he toasts her.
“A Republican that fights back. Doesn’t he know that Pubs are supposed to always bend over and take it, so that they’ll be loved on the Sunday news shows?”
Exactly. That is why I like this guy, and it is why he deserves our help.
Republicans take note. Fight back and you look like a leader!
I'm ready for that. :-)
The news reports are leaving out the last paragraph of MGL56.42:
Whoever knowingly violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months.
It's a criminal offense, not merely grounds for a lawsuit. A criminal jury decides which version is true and which isn't, regardless of who wins on Tuesday.
It will be sweet once Brown wins the race AND THEN continues to pursue legal action against Coakley!
Well, I know of nine hospitals that might have to turn them away because Martha had all the Catholics removed from the ER’s.
St. Vincent’s
St. Anne’s
St. Luke’s
St. Elizabeth’s
Caritas Carney
Caritas Holy Family
Caritas Good Samaritan
Caritas Norwood
Saint’s Hospital
Both sides look to turn out voters in Senate race
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