Groups Target GOP Senators On Stimulus

[Purveyor]

Source: THE HILL

A coalition of Democratic-leaning organizations is spending millions of dollars on a campaign aimed at convincing five Republican senators to back the economic stimulus legislation.

The Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery, a group of labor and political organizations, is targeting GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) with a 30-second spot. The ad includes audio excerpts from President Obama’s Jan. 8 speech at George Mason University, when he made his case for the stimulus package that could exceed $900 billion.

"We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. That is why I have moved quickly on an American recovery and reinvestment plan," Obama said during the speech.

An ad mixes that clip with voiceovers imploring the Republicans to cross the aisle: "Tell Sens. Collins and Snowe to support the Obama plan for jobs, not the failed policies of the past," a voiceover intones in the ad running in Maine.

Collins and Snowe were among the five Republicans who have already supported the legislation at the committee level.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/groups-target-gop-senators-on-stimulus-2009-01-29.html

[calimary]

1. It's about time! I saw the ad against Harry Reid that the bad guys are running now

in Nevada.

And on TV ALL we see are whining republi-CONS trying nonstop to put their spin on this, and their ideas in this, and all they're selling is more of the same shit that got us into this mess in the first place. And the coverage seems to be all about limbaugh and how the republi-CONS feel about it and how they're reacting to it and how they're being affected by it - and NOTHING from or about the Democrats. Is our team just gonna roll over and go back to sleep now that they feel they've won the White House back? That - well, this is it? We're done? We won? So all's mellow?

Shit! We have to fight like tigers to KEEP what we've won. You can see already how hard the pushback is coming at our side from the LOSERS. The Sore Losermen.

WHY AREN'T WE POUNDING THEM? What happened? Did all the money get spent on the campaign and there's nothing left for now?

GEEZ - we should be on the air across the country with commercials supporting Obama and the stimulus plan. Heaven knows there's enough counter-weight from around-the-clock hate radio.

They're monopolizing the media. We can't let that continue!!!

[Jefferson23]

2. I agree 100% and they need to speak out loud and clear and as

often as it takes.

[calimary]

3. Truly.

We have to get as much on the air as we can - and IN the air, too.

They have a media monopoly. So we have to buy commercials. But OUR side of the issue HAS to get out there. Precious few in talk radio are on our side anyway, and we have a very small cable network on our side - but we've got a very small soap box by comparison to the Goliath on the CONservative/GOP side.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. I think Obama is letting the contrast in behaviors speak for itself.

Our President is acting calm, expectant of reasonable unified behavior, reaching out,
and the Repulic-Cons are throwing poo.
Which one looks better?

[calimary]

6. I just pointed that out in three calls I made to Capitol Hill (TOLL FREE numbers in my sig line)

I called kit bond's office (said I have a brother in Missouri - which is true - and so I therefore consider bond sort of my senator once-removed), darryl issa's office and that idiot camera hog mike pence's office.

I brought this up specifically. President Obama is bending over backwards to reach out to you guys - WAY more than bush EVER reached out to Democrat, and what do you do? You respond by giving him the backs of your hands. Did you NOT notice what happened in November?


I actually had the kid who picked up the phone in pence's office say - "yes, the congressman got reelected." To which I quickly responded - yeah - well, that's certainly true for him, but a lot of his friends didn't - the GOP doesn't have a majority anymore - and they're even farther back in the minority now than before. He's in THE MINORITY. The VAST MAJORITY of Americans voted in November for CHANGE, for OBAMA, and for working together and getting past this partisanship. We want you to cooperate with President Obama. That's your job now.

And in issa's office, I actually got an ardent young free-market trickle-down true believer who, when I reminded him that his team LOST last fall, said they did because they hadn't been conservative enough. Tax cuts! Tax cuts! To which I replied that - well, that fabulous tax cut you guys put through helped me cover ONE PHONE BILL. In ONE MONTH. Wow, what a bonanza. Some difference THAT made.

Yep, they're out there. They're mentally ill or brain damaged or poorly fed or lacking their kiddie vitamins when they were little. They really believe this stuff. You just can't let them get the last word. EVERY statement they make or platitude or talking point they bring up HAS TO BE BEATEN BACK. Because some of them just don't ever hear or have a full awareness of how WE feel on the other side. Haven't even considered it. They have this idea that the arts can just be dispensed with in a money crunch because sometimes you have to have priorities, and that seeding the grass in the Washington Mall is maybe a one-time-only "job." Hell, a yard that large has to be maintained fulltime - which means you have to have a bunch of people hired to stay on top of it. Has to be winterized, made ready for spring, maintained through summer, clipped, fertilized, de-littered, bald patches refreshed, tourists and locals are tromping on that grass by the thousands every day and it needs fulltime maintenance - HELLO! We're talking about a need to HIRE PEOPLE.

They're out there. Unfortunately. And because they demonstrably pay all their attention to rush limbaugh (because they sure have the talking points down) they don't have a clue what the other side thinks. Especially when limbaugh and other hate radio people are spinning the way we feel and the way we look at the issues in their own dismissive and completely deceitful ways.

It's gotta be done. Two out of three of the people I spoke with were uppity with me - combative, insistent that they were doing the correct thing and that they'd been cordial to Obama and had certainly done their share.

YEAH, MY ASS.

You know how Rachel Maddow has this "Talk Me Down" segment - where she asks to be talked down off some reaction or view she has? Well, THESE people need that, too. They just don't realize this. But they do.

[HopeHoops]

4. Wow - that sounds like a headline about a sex scandal.

[radfringe]

7. call WHINE-one-one for the WHAAAAAAAAAAAmbulance

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/more_republican_triangulating.php

House Republicans are reacting strongly to reports that the White House plans a political onslaught to pressure Republicans into supporting the stimulus package and to punish those who don't.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) will soon issue a statement contending that Obama's promise to "put an end to petty politics" is "threatened" as the White House and their allies "are making political threats rather than crafting a bipartisan economic stimulus plan."

He'll call on Obama to "immediately disavow" plans by liberal interest groups who have announced their intention to run attack ads against the Republicans. These groups, organized under the Americans United for Change umbrella, coordinate regularly with Congressional Democrats and are in touch with White House officials.

Earlier, an Obama aide said that the White House was not directly involved in these most recent efforts and had not encouraged its allies. The plans were reported in the Politico by its chief political reporter, Mike Allen.

"Let us be clear: attack ads will not create jobs or help struggling families but will only serve to undermine our nation's desire for bipartisanship. Instead of thinking about winning at any cost, we should all be thinking about creating the jobs Americans need," Cantor intends to say.

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call WHINE-one-one for the WHAAAAAAAAAAAmbulance