Posted on 03/04/2004 12:21:22 PM PST by The_Victor
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Families who lost relatives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks voiced outrage on Thursday at President Bush (news - web sites)'s first ads of his re-election campaign that use images of the devastated World Trade Center to portray him as the right leader for tumultuous times.
"Families are enraged," said Bill Doyle, 57, of New York, who is active in several Sept. 11 family groups. "What I think is distasteful is that the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his re-election."
"It's entirely wrong. He's had 3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq (news - web sites)," said Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph died at the trade center.
Long time Bush adviser Karen Hughes defended the four commercials -- which began running on Thursday in at least 16 important battleground states -- as "tastefully done."
"September 11 is not some distant event in the past," Hughes told ABC's "Good Morning America."
"It's a defining event for our future and important that we learn the lessons of that day. All of us feel deeply that tragedy but it's also important to recognize the impact it had on our national public policy," she said.
Two ads refer to the hijacked airliner attacks as the Bush campaign seeks to present him as a leader who rose to the challenge. One ad shows World Trade Center ruins behind an American flag. Another shows firefighters removing the flag-draped remains of a victim.
Ron Willett of Walnut Shade, Missouri, said he was disgusted when he saw the ads. Willett, who lost his 29-year-old son, John Charles, when planes hit the trade center, said he is now so upset, "I would vote for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) before I would vote for Bush."
"I think it is an atrocity," his wife, Lucy, added. "He should not be allowed to use those images at all."
STAY AWAY FROM GROUND ZERO
With Republicans holding their political convention in New York in late August, victims said they hope Bush does not make it worse by speaking at the site now known as Ground Zero, which many view as sacred.
"If he does, there will be a protest and it could get ugly," said Doyle.
Several family members said their annoyance at Bush's using the emotional images stems in part from his refusal to testify in open session before the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"There is really a hypocrisy here. The Bush administration will not cooperate fully with the 9/11 commission and at the same time they are trying to invoke and own 9/11 and use it for his re-election," said Stephen Push from the Washington office of "Families September 11th." His wife died on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites) that day.
The International Association of Fire Fighters, which endorsed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites), also denounced the campaign spots as "hypocrisy at its worst."
"I'm disappointed but not surprised that the president would try to trade on the heroism of those fire fighters," the union's general president, Harold Schaitberger, said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had not yet seen the ads but had no objections.
"I haven't a problem in reminding people in the country and the world of the sacrifices that the New York City fire department and police department and civilians made," Bloomberg said.
And not all relatives of victims were upset by the ads.
"I don't have a problem with his pointing to his leadership at that time. He helped us weather it. To me it was a tasteful ad," said Patricia Reilly, who sister Lorraine Lee died in the New York attacks. (additional reporting by Larry Fine)
Oooh, oooh, check this out: The 9-11 Visibility Project. It seems (check the right sidebar) that Bill Doyle is associated with this website. It's a conspiracy site. For example, they link to this:
Perhaps you are not personally responsible for the demands of the IAFF for President Bush's re-election team to pull television ads which show, in a dignified manner, a brief reference to the attack on the World Trade Center. But such frivolous statements demonstrate your willingness to become pawns in what the Democrats consider a game. Well, my friends, this is not a game, and you, most of all should realize that.
Your candidate, John Kerry, has said terrorism has been exaggerated. Perhaps he should tell that to the families of your brothers. Or the families that lost husbands, wives, brothers and sisters on 9/11. The Democrats and those who buy into their hyperbole would love to run away from the fact that Mr. Kerry believes terrorism is a law enforcement issue. Perhaps he'd like to serve papers to the rest of the gang that murdered your firefighters. John Kerry has said he'd go all over the world to apologize for what this country has done to defend itself. Maybe you'd like to go with him and make nice with the murderers and thugs who laugh as your brothers lay dying in New York.
The events of 9/11 changed the landscape of this country forever. It changed the vision and mission of President Bush. It is part of our collective psyche and should not be forgotten. If you choose not to support him, that is your prerogative. But to make demands of a President who is willing to deal with these animals rather than play nice with them is beneath a dignified profession such as yours.
Stand with John Kerry today, you, your brothers and this country will be brought to its knees if he becomes president.
Two days later, Christy Ferer, Bloomberg's liaison to the victims, declared in a Times op-ed piece: "I find my e-mail box holds mostly moderate messages from a silent majority who do not belong to organized groups. Many people do not ever want to see Ground Zero, much less participate in any of the ceremonial milestones." ("I question what people she represents," Bill Doyle, a leader of Give Your Voice, retorted in the Daily News a few weeks later.)
Ferer -- who lost her husband, Port Authority director Neil Levin, on September 11 . . .
This is what needs to be said in our ads. Heck, if the Rats and the media are going to criticize Bush for a mild ad like the one they're complainging about, we may as well go for the jugular, get the truth out and get some results.
I was listening to the ABC radio news today when they covered this story. They started out by saying many are outraged, quoted some guy and went on to say "at least one person" wasn't.
LOL. No bias there!
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