Posted on 02/17/2012 10:12:40 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Newt Gingrich’s campaign is threatening to sue TV stations in upcoming primary states that are airing or plan to broadcast an ad from a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC accusing the former House Speaker of supporting the “one-child” Chinese policy that has been criticized as inhumane.
The ad in question, which is the work of the Restore Our Future super PAC and is already airing in the former House Speaker’s home state of Georgia, asserts Gingrich “co-sponsored a bill with Nancy Pelosi that would have given $60 million a year to a U.N. program supporting China’s brutal one-child policy.”
A letter from a Gingrich campaign lawyer sent to every TV station in the states with upcoming contests in the GOP presidential primary calls the ad “fundamentally NOT TRUE, or as PolitiFACT.org put it – a “Pants on Fire” lie.
If the stations air the ad “it will be a knowing publication of a false statement. As such, it represents a defamatory communication, which exposes this station to potential civil liability,” the letter asserts, demanding stations “immediately REFUSE, ad if started, CEASE airing any such advertisements and refrain from broadcasting their content until such time as the libelous statements have been removed.”
The ad refers to a 1989 bill for which Gingrich was among the co-sponsors (in all, 144 members attached their name to the bill). While the bill, House Resolution 1078, directed money to the U.N. Population Fund, which President Ronald Reagan opposed because it supported Chinese family planning efforts deemed inhumane, a provision in the measure explicitly prohibited funding for “the performance of involuntary sterilization or abortion or to coerce any person to accept family planning.”
The ad is a slight variation of one that Restore Our Future has been running heavily in multiple states since December, and the Gingrich campaign did not respond when asked why they were launching the official challenge now.
A well-connected Washington, D.C., campaign finance lawyer suggested the timing may be related to the fact that McKenna Long & Aldridge, the law firm of Gingrich’s top outside campaign counsel Stefan Passantino, represents TV stations in Georgia.
In fact, the Gingrich campaign paid another law firm, the Atlanta-based Hall Booth Smith & Slover, to send the letter to TV stations “to ensure there are no conflicts,” said Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond.
The Gingrich campaign said some of the stations that received the letter intended to report on it, but did not answer when asked if any planned to remove the ad.
This is not the first time that the Gingrich’s campaign has written TV stations to complain about a Restore Our Future ad. Last month, the campaign demanded more than 50 TV stations remove an ad from the super PAC that asserted Gingrich had been “fined” $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee in the 1990s for violations.
Restore Our Future pushed back in its own letter to the stations and none appear to have removed the ad. The super PAC did not respond to a request for comment on Gingrich’s latest demand.
I'm pretty disappointed that Santorum pulled out of the debate as well.
The handwriting on the wall about Santorum is getting to be pretty plain.
This from a guy who was strongly pro abortion for the first 56 years of his life?*
*of course even his supporters still don’t believe he is pro life, that’s why they’re willing to vote for him.
to you and I and others but some still cannot see it.
Pulling out of that debate proves that they fear Newt and if they fear him how on earth can they expect to debate obama.
Saying that it seems Newt wants to be President, while it seems some just want the nomination and thinks the south the base , conservatives will get in line as per usual, the north east beltway establishment might even throw a bone like 2008 and put a decent person on the VP ticket and we’re too stupid to see what they are doing, or so they think as some of us are pissed off with all of this and their backroom deals.
Romney is a disgusting pig. He is no different that Hussein and his Axelrod clan.
I think all that is missing from the article is was any of the money given to China and used for the one child policy? If we gave money to the UN, do we know how it was spent? Why did we send money to a UN Population control group?
In general, I dont like candidates suing because of misleading commercials, and it will be very tough to prove libel or slander (not sure which one is covered on tv) against a politician.
LOLOL!
That is great :D
Thanks much for a good belly laugh!
“In general, I dont like candidates suing because of misleading commercials, and it will be very tough to prove libel or slander (not sure which one is covered on tv) against a politician.”
I consider this “Threat” by Gingrich a “Protest”. Think what would be said if he did not.
Romney is afraid of Newt. He [and his PAC] put out ads that lie or twist the truth ($2million/day of ads in FL for 10 days leading up to the vote].
Newt said he was blind-sided by Mitt’s flat out lies during the FL debate but will be prepared to deal with him doing that in the coming debates. So Mitt pulls out of the GA debate (Newt’s turf), packs the AZ debate with his people (like FL); the Reagan Library debate is pulled.
I expect Newt will be ignored for much of the AZ debate and if he zings Mitt, his supporter packed auditorium will boo. And when grinning, stuttering Mitt makes a funny, they will all laugh and cheer.
Well I don’t like politicians lying. What is Gingrich supposed to do, just let them make stuff up and run filthy ads like Romney did in Florida. The dastardly duo have decided not to debate again so when would you like Newt to confront them? He isn’t allowed to defend himself because that means he is going negative. I have never seen such rot gut political tactics in my lifetime. I hope newt sues them to hell and back, at least he has the balls to do so.
On the other, it's the United Way argument. Placing a prohibition on the use of the fund, still helps and enables the agency that is performing the prohibited activity. It does this by freeing up other funds that would have been used for the non-prohibited activity to be used on the prohibited activity.
On the third hand, the misleading spin on legislative votes is really getting out of hand. Like some of the "Santorum is a big government liberal" lists, the vote on legislation is misrepresented to be something it's not.
A large fraction of the left works in government. Their paychecks depend upon winning.
Newt will win Georgia. Santorum knows it.
He'd rather spend his time on winning in Michigan or Arizona.
The handwriting on the wall about Santorum is getting to be pretty plain.
It is for those willing to read what it actually says.
Romney is such a scumbag liar.
A bill in 1989 included provisions to fund the UN Population Fund. He never voted for this legislation and this never became law. This bill would not have overturned the Mexico City policy, and this funding would never have gone through. Gingrich was assured that Ronald Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy,” which prohibits any American tax dollars from funding or promoting abortions overseas, was in effect, so no funds from this bill would go toward supporting China’s barbaric “One Child” policy or any other programs that used abortion as means for “population control.”
Newt supported a very limited aspect of the 1989 bill that promoted hydrogen energy research. This is consistent with his long support of aggressively developing American sources of energy, including American oil, natural gas, coal, and alternatives. The same week he supported these aspects, he voted against the Kostmayer Amendment, legislation seeking to nullify the entire Mexico City Policy.
Gingrich has always supported the Mexico City policy, and on day one of his presidency, he will reinstate Ronald Reagan’s policy to assure that no tax dollars fund non-governmental agencies or charities that perform or promote abortions in foreign countries.
http://www.newt.org/answers#OneChild
Yeah, Romney is one of the biggest liars I have ever seen. He has no shame. No doubt he is the enemy of conservatives. He will never go after Obama like this, but is just fine doing it to a conservative Republican. This is vicious.
I don’t see how Newt supports him if he is the nominee, Romney’s campaign wants to “destroy Newt.”. Therefore, Romney is working to detroy a brilliant voice of conservatism, individual freedom, and limited, small government policy. It is a damn shame. We need voices like Newt’s right now.
That is a sad conclusion. But that is how they gained control in the first place. They got together, infiltrated the system and then took over with each others help.
And getting control back from them is not going to be easy. Especially when they control the media.
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