Fact Check

McSally campaign whiffs again with her latest attack ad

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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.

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A sham hearing and a denial of due process

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This is what GOP authoritarianism looks like: a sham hearing and a denial of due process to a victim of sexual abuse.

I explained yesterday, The Senate needs to get this right, and right now it is failing: for judicial background checks, the client is not the Senate but the White House. And the White House Hasn’t Asked FBI to Vet Kavanaugh Allegations, Sources Say.

The FBI background is the legally correct thing to do in fairness to both the accuser and the accused. Due process demands it. As Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told the Washington Post, “If there’s a hearing before that investigation, the committee is going to be shooting in the dark with questions.” “As a former prosecutor and state attorney general, there’s no way I would put a crime survivor on the stand in front of a jury, let alone the American people, without a full investigation so that I know what the facts are before I start asking questions.”

On Tuesday, Christine Blasey Ford Requested That the F.B.I. to Investigate Kavanaugh Before She Testifies, a reasonable request, as is her right:

Speaking through lawyers, Christine Blasey Ford said she would cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee and left open the possibility of testifying later about her allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. But echoing Senate Democrats, she said an investigation should be “the first step” before she is put “on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.”

Republicans signaled Tuesday night that they would not negotiate an alternative date and would go ahead with the hearing without her or declare it unnecessary if she refuses to appear, then possibly move to a vote. They have repeatedly stressed that Monday would be Dr. Blasey’s opportunity to testify, either privately or publicly, and that they planned to move forward with the confirmation process afterward.

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Martha McSally is a creature of the military-industrial-congressional complex

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Rep. Martha McSally (R-Raytheon) epitomizes what President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned this nation against in his farewell address in 1961:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Eisenhower’s orignal draft of the speech referred to the military-industrial-congressional complex.

In a series of negative campaign ads attacking her opponent, McSally presents a hyper-militarism. She always portrays herself in uniform for the persona of a  “woman warrior” to contrast with an old photo of Kyrsten Sinema in a pink tutu, as a girlie-girl “lefty-looney.”

The primary focus of McSally’s negative attack ads is to assert that Kyrsten Sinema “denigrated the service” of those in the military in protesting the Iraq war. Politifact rates this claim false, unsupported by any evidence. Did Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema protest troops in a pink tutu and denigrated their service?”

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NRSC attack ad against Rep. Sinema mocks the constitutional right to counsel and the rule of law

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In an ironic twist, American revolutionary and lawyer John Adams took on the job of defending the King’s soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre trials while royal prosecutor, Samuel Quincy, was charged with proving them guilty. John Adams strongly believed that all men were entitled to a fair trial and that they deserved equal justice, and put the rule of law above his personal beliefs.

These principles of justice were later enshrined in the Sixth Amendment in the Bill of Rights:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

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DefendArizona super PAC’s maliciously false attack ad against Rep. Kyrsten Sinema

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Arizona’s Republican establishment of wealthy businessmen formed a single-candidate super PAC, DefendArizona, to support Rep. Martha McSally’s senate bid. More about these assholes later.

The DefendArizona super PAC is out with a new attack ad against Rep. Kyrsten Sinema which crosses the line in maliciously false attack ads. There is no depths to which these scurrilous assholes will sink to smear Rep. Sinema and to support Rep. McSally.

Given the maliciously false nature of this campaign smear, Rep. McSally should publicly condemn this false attack ad and insist that DefendArizona pull it from the airwaves as not representative of the kind of campaign she wants to run – or is it?

Manu Raju, Senior Congressional Correspondent for CNN reports, Attack ad hits Arizona Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema for past comments on underage prostitution:

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema raised concerns 11 years ago about imposing tougher penalties against individuals who solicit underage prostitutes because they may appear older than their ages, according to video of her remarks reviewed by CNN.

In a February 2007 state House hearing when she was an Arizona legislator, Sinema raised concerns about a bill that toughened penalties against individuals soliciting prostitutes, saying, “I don’t think that’s fair.”

As a former social worker at an elementary school, she said there were “children at my school who were 12, 13 years old and some of these children looked older than me.”

Sinema added that she had “real concern” for individuals who solicited child prostitution and could face a class 2 felony for “unknowingly soliciting sex from a 12-year-old who appeared to be a 20-year-old.”

According to video of her remarks reviewed by CNN, Sinema did speak out against child trafficking in that hearing, and she eventually voted for an amended version of the bill after raising concerns about the measure.

Sinema’s campaign called the ad deeply misleading and said it obscured her record combating child trafficking. Campaign aides argued that Sinema has a history of seeking to stop child trafficking, pointing to several bills she worked to pass to address the matter while serving in the state Legislature.

“Kyrsten voted for this legislation to toughen penalties for child trafficking and in the same remarks this latest false attack ad misleadingly edited, she spoke out forcefully against sex trafficking,” said campaign spokeswoman Helen Hare. “Kyrsten’s first job was as a rape crisis counselor and she has dedicated her career to defending women and children from abuse and assault.”

Hare called the ad a “false attack on Kyrsten’s clear record of standing up for women and children.”

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