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09-18-2005, 06:19 AM
Liberals linking disaster response, national security policies
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | September 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Liberal opponents of the Bush administration are moving quickly to link the Hurricane Katrina disaster with the White House's policies in the war on terrorism, seeking to exploit President Bush's concession this week that the national homeland security system he put in place after the 2001 attacks failed to live up to expectations.
The liberal group Moveon.org announced yesterday that it was launching a new campaign-style television ad attacking Bush's leadership, similar to its ''mis-leader" series from the 2004 election. The group said its goal was to undermine the very issue that the GOP used with success in the last two election cycles: its promise that Republican leadership would make America safer.
''We're trying to frame the debate," said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of Moveon.org. ''If Democrats and the progressive community start talking about protecting America, that will eat into a real historical strength of the Republicans, and hopefully . . . the country will change who's running Congress and the Democrats will come in with better policies."
The ad opens with a quote from Bush's speech Thursday from New Orleans: ''Four years after the frightening experience of September the 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency."
Then, a narrator says: ''Who said that? George Bush, after Hurricane Katrina. And 9/11 commissioners agree. . . . After all the promises, all the restructuring, all the money -- we're no safer today than we were four years ago. We're not being led. We're being misled."
Matzzie said the group bought about $100,000 worth of airtime to run the ad nationally on CNN for a week, starting next Tuesday. While Moveon.org has run issue ads about Iraq, Social Security, and bankruptcy legislation since the election, the new one is its first direct attack on Bush since 2004.
Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, responded to the ad by pointing to another passage from Bush's speech in New Orleans, in which he promised to make ''any necessary changes" after ''a comprehensive review" of the government's response to the hurricane.
''This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina," Bush said.
Katrina has clearly hurt Bush politically, at least in the short term. A Wall Street Journal/ NBC News poll this week indicated his approval ratings sank to 40 percent -- the lowest since he took office -- in the aftermath of the storm. Nearly 60 percent of those polled said they were unhappy with the administration's response to the hurricane. A poll released yesterday by The New York Times and CBS News indicated 48 percent disapproved of Bush's handling of Katrina.
After the president's speech in New Orleans, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, called the emergency-response problems ''inexcusable."
''Leadership isn't a speech or a toll-free number," Kerry said. ''Leadership is getting the job done."
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/17/liberals_linking_disaster_response_national_securi ty_policies/)
Well, it's only logical. Anything this Administration touches turns to shit.:)
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | September 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Liberal opponents of the Bush administration are moving quickly to link the Hurricane Katrina disaster with the White House's policies in the war on terrorism, seeking to exploit President Bush's concession this week that the national homeland security system he put in place after the 2001 attacks failed to live up to expectations.
The liberal group Moveon.org announced yesterday that it was launching a new campaign-style television ad attacking Bush's leadership, similar to its ''mis-leader" series from the 2004 election. The group said its goal was to undermine the very issue that the GOP used with success in the last two election cycles: its promise that Republican leadership would make America safer.
''We're trying to frame the debate," said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of Moveon.org. ''If Democrats and the progressive community start talking about protecting America, that will eat into a real historical strength of the Republicans, and hopefully . . . the country will change who's running Congress and the Democrats will come in with better policies."
The ad opens with a quote from Bush's speech Thursday from New Orleans: ''Four years after the frightening experience of September the 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency."
Then, a narrator says: ''Who said that? George Bush, after Hurricane Katrina. And 9/11 commissioners agree. . . . After all the promises, all the restructuring, all the money -- we're no safer today than we were four years ago. We're not being led. We're being misled."
Matzzie said the group bought about $100,000 worth of airtime to run the ad nationally on CNN for a week, starting next Tuesday. While Moveon.org has run issue ads about Iraq, Social Security, and bankruptcy legislation since the election, the new one is its first direct attack on Bush since 2004.
Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, responded to the ad by pointing to another passage from Bush's speech in New Orleans, in which he promised to make ''any necessary changes" after ''a comprehensive review" of the government's response to the hurricane.
''This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina," Bush said.
Katrina has clearly hurt Bush politically, at least in the short term. A Wall Street Journal/ NBC News poll this week indicated his approval ratings sank to 40 percent -- the lowest since he took office -- in the aftermath of the storm. Nearly 60 percent of those polled said they were unhappy with the administration's response to the hurricane. A poll released yesterday by The New York Times and CBS News indicated 48 percent disapproved of Bush's handling of Katrina.
After the president's speech in New Orleans, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, called the emergency-response problems ''inexcusable."
''Leadership isn't a speech or a toll-free number," Kerry said. ''Leadership is getting the job done."
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company. (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/17/liberals_linking_disaster_response_national_securi ty_policies/)
Well, it's only logical. Anything this Administration touches turns to shit.:)