Feighan's group pulls TV ads

[AnAmerican]

"As criticism from its donors mounts, a controversial political group led by former Democratic congressman Ed Feighan of Cleveland will end its attack-ad campaign aimed at Howard Dean, a front-runner in early Democratic presidential primary races.

<snip>


The most controversial commercial shows a magazine cover with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. It questions the abilities of Dean, a former Vermont governor with no military and foreign policy experience. That ad, shown for two weeks in New Hampshire and South Carolina, will end today, said Robert Gibbs, spokesman for Americans for Jobs.

<snip>


"The ads are not intended to help the Gephardt campaign," Feighan said yesterday. "The ads are intended to assist in finding and electing the strongest Democrat going into a general election."

<snip>


Feighan won't release donors' names, noting that he isn't required to by law until the end of January. But Feighan, a congressman from 1982 through 1992, said labor unions "probably" provided the broadest base of his group's support."


Full story at http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1071743608180770.xml


The ad was tasteless and, IMHO, should never have been run. That being said, I don't agree with linking the ad to either Kerry or Gephardt. To infer they knew of, and supported, this ad is damaging to the party in general as well.

[diamondsoul]

1. Exactly.

Ads like that should NOT be run by self-proclaimed Democrats, it's just a crappy thing to do to the party and the people.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. This whole ad campaign was damaging to the party

When I heard it on NPR last night, my first thought was that it was created by the Republicans to undermine the morale of Democrats. Any Democrat who was intentionally involved with this ad should be ashamed of himself. What was Feighan's game, anyway? To destroy Dean, Kerry, AND Gephardt? Is he really working for Lieberman, who has used the ad as a platform from which to pontificate his views?

[dusty64]

3. Does anyone know

exactly which candidate had a hand in this ad? What little I can find out about feighan indicates that he has become a big insurance ho, am I wrong?

[AnAmerican]

4. Why assume a candidate,

any candidate, is even involved?? Political ads are run quite often without candidate involvement.