The Martha McSally campaign has an unhealthy fixation on pink tutus. It is all the campaign and its allied Super PACs wants to talk about. It is insipid and stupid.
The only other point that the McSally and its allied Super PACs want to make is that Rep. Kyrsten Sinema “denigrated the service” of members of the military in protesting the Iraq War after 9/11.
In an earlier post, McSally ad lies to denigrate the First Amendment rights of Americans, I pointed out that a Politifact Fact Check rated the claim “mostly false” — Sinema did wear a pink tutu, but she did not “denigrated the service” of members of the military in protesting the Iraq War after 9/11.
The GOP Super PAC Senate Leadership Fund took exception to Politifact, based upon a subsequent report in CNN and sent a demand to PolitiFact to “Immediately Correct Your Patently False Rating on Martha McSally.”
CNN K File reported, Arizona Senate: Kyrsten Sinema’s anti-war group blasted ‘U.S. terror,’ depicted soldier as skeleton in 2003 flyers:
As an anti-war activist in the early 2000s, Arizona Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema led a group that distributed flyers depicting an American soldier as a skeleton inflicting “U.S. terror” in Iraq and the Middle East.
Sinema campaign spokeswoman Helen Hare that Sinema did not approve or design the flyers at the time. So once again, this is yet another guilt by association accusation.
If the GOP had any video, audio or written statements by Kyrsten Sinema actually “denigrated the service” of members of the military, you can be certain that it would be airing it every minute of every day from now to November. They’ve got nothing.
So what are these pearl clutchers at the Senate Leadership Fund all in a tizzy over? This poster, which is now appearing in ads running on television.
So what looks like it could be Grateful Dead album art is what the GOP wants everyone to get upset about?
What the CNN K Files reporters overlook and the Senate Leadership Fund ignores is that this a caricature of the military-industrial-congressional complex, the very thing that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation against in his farewell address. Martha McSally is a creature of the military-industrial-congressional complex.
I know that the GOP would like the Iraq War to disappear down the memory hole, but let’s not forget that this was an unnecessary and illegal war of aggression — there was no imminent threat of war against the U.S. from Iraq nor “weapons of mass destruction” to be found — all of this was fabricated by the Bush administration to take the nation to war. The Bush administration always wanted to invade Iraq in a Neocon war of aggression to reorder the Middle East.
This poster is hardly offensive when viewed in the proper context. And by the way, political satire is protected First Amendment free speech. Does McSally have a problem with that?
I showed this poster to my brother, the Marine, and … well I cannot repeat what he had to say about these pearl clutchers at the Senate Leadership Fund who want everyone to be upset about this poster (did I mention he was a Marine?) I come from a family with a long history of military service, and I cannot imagine any of my relatives giving a second thought to such an innocuous poster. This is just a sad attempt at manufactured outrage by the Senate Leadership Fund.
So what happened with the Senate Leadership Fund’s demand to “PolitiFact to Immediately Correct Your Patently False Rating on Martha McSally”? Politifact added this editor’s note to its original Fact Check:
Editor’s note, Sept. 18, 2018: The Senate Leadership Fund and Defend Arizona contacted us after publication to point out that CNN published a story on Sept. 15 saying that a group led by Sinema in the early 2000s distributed anti-war flyers, including one that depicted a soldier as a skeleton. Text in that flyer said, “You can help us push back U.S. terror in Iraq and the Middle East.” The Senate Leadership Fund said this was evidence showing the accuracy of McSally’s claim. Sinema’s campaign told CNN, however, that Sinema did not approve or design the flyers. The flyers were not used in McSally’s ad claiming that Sinema denigrated troops. McSally’s campaign did not send PolitiFact the flyers — or any other material — as evidence for the claim. McSally’s ad focused on Sinema wearing a tutu. Contemporaneous reporting of the event in which Sinema wore a tutu did not say that Sinema denigrated troops. Given that the flyer is not evidence that Sinema denigrated troops herself, our rating remains the same.
In short, “Suck it!” (An ad using the poster above is now running on television).
Of course, the pearl clutchers at the Senate Leadership Fund are still whining about it:
Washington, DC – Senate Leadership Fund today once again called on PolitiFact to correct its ad rating erroneously concluding that Rep. Kyrsten Sinema never denigrated American troops serving in Iraq. While the group updated its story with an “Editor’s Note,” it continued defending Sinema by regurgitating claims from the Sinema campaign that she did not approve or design the rally flyers likening American troops to terrorists—even though e-mail correspondence from Sinema shows she personally sent out an anti-war flyer and hosted a “sign making party” the day before the rally.
“PolitiFact keeps clinging to demonstrably false statements from the Sinema campaign to defend its false ad rating, instead of admitting it made a mistake and failed to do its homework,” said Senate Leadership Fund Spokesman Chris Pack. “Reporters who cover campaigns should take note of what appears to be either stubbornness or a partisan axe to grind.”
Sooo, their “proof” is that Kyrsten Sinema emailed a copy of this poster to someone? That is some stretch. Chris Peck is going to pull a hammy with this one. This Dude actually gets paid for this?
As I said, if the GOP had any video, audio or written statements by Kyrsten Sinema actually “denigrated the service” of members of the military, you can be certain that it would be airing it every minute of every day from now to November. They’ve got nothing.
It is sadly clear that Martha McSally intends to run an entire campaign in which she never discusses the issues that Arizonans care about and want to hear from the candidates where they stand. It’s all pink tutus, all the time. McSally has disqualified herself from consideration as a serious candidate.
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