Julie, look at our topic today! Perfect! Coming on the heels of those democrat jerks in Florida who called for his death, it couldn't be sweeter. :)
Did you ping any of the DOSErs to this thread because there are a LOT of Rummy fans over at the "A Day in the life of Pres. Bush" thread! :O)
Thanks for the ping......The Finest must have ESP.....what perfect timing of this thread. As usual the Freepers were right on this story......making among the first calls to the 'Gabber' and alerting the Media & FL GOP!
Here's the latest on the Ad & the publisher of the newspaper:
Ad Draws Big Notice To Little Newspaper
By WILLIAM MARCH
wmarch@tampatrib.com GULFPORT - It's not often that The Gabber, a free, weekly, 13,000-circulation paper big on boccie tournaments and city council dispatches, makes national news. When it published Tuesday, however, the shock waves reverberated nationwide.
The Gabber carried an advertisement from the St. Petersburg Democratic Club, a small group of local Democrats, suggesting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld be killed.
By noon it was on the Drudge Report. ``Campaign Rage: Florida Democrats Place Newspaper Ad Calling For Rumsfeld Hit,'' the Drudge Web site screamed in what newspaper editors call ``Second Coming type.''
By 1:20 p.m., The Gabber had 120 calls from reporters, ``everybody from CNN to The New York Times,'' Publisher Ken Reichart said ruefully.
The Florida Republican Party issued an outraged response, and the Defense Department was ``very familiar with it,'' a Pentagon spokesman said.
``We don't discuss security arrangements for the secretary,'' said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, when asked whether the matter was taken seriously or might be investigated.
The ad was a strenuous denunciation of President Bush over the war in Iraq.
``Bush doesn't even know who in the hell we're fighting,'' it states. ``How many more have to be killed before the Bush Bunch is satisfied?
``And then there's Rumsfeld, who said of Iraq, `We have our good days and our bad days.' We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say, `This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger.''
The ad sought contributions to the campaign of presidential challenger John Kerry, offering phone numbers for club President Ken Steinke and Vice President Edna McCall.
There may have been more response than expected. Neither number was being answered Tuesday afternoon.
Kevin Jensen, the Pinellas County Democratic Party chairman, said he was trying to reach Steinke or McCall to find out who wrote and placed the ad.
``We don't stand by this type of mischief. It's a bad thing,'' Jensen said.
McCall, 88, is a member of the Democratic Executive Committee, the county's official party organization, Jensen said, but Steinke, 75, was removed from the committee two or three years ago.
Their club is a group of about 40 Democrats with a charter from the party as a social organization, Jensen said.
He predicted the party would retract the club charter.
``We realize the seriousness of this,'' he said. ``A person can have their own opinion but not attach it to the club.''
State Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan said the ad was ``a direct reflection'' of criticism of Bush by Democratic leaders, including Kerry. ``Despicable,'' Jordan declared in a statement headlined: ``The Democrats Have Finally Gone Too Far.''
State Democratic Chairman Scott Maddox issued a statement calling the ad ``reprehensible and in poor taste,'' saying it was the work of a ``misguided individual.''
Reichart said he regretted publishing the ad.
``It was about halfway between accidental and bad judgment,'' he said, meaning he read the ad but didn't think carefully enough about impact before publishing it.
``Tonight I'm going to take a deep breath and figure out how to handle this,'' he said when asked whether he intended to print a retraction or other statement. ``We're going to have to do something.''
Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.
This story can be found at:
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGALA0QS0TD.html