USA TODAY online continues the story of the St. Pete (FLA) Democratic Club's Local News advert calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assasination. The advert, in the free community newspaper Gabber contains the following 'call to action', if you will:
And then there's Rumsfeld who said of Iraq 'We have our good days and our bad days.' We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger," the ad read under a banner "St. Petersburg Democratic Club." ... "Do you want to salvage our country? Be a savior of our country? Then vote for John Kerry and get rid of the whole Bush Bunch!" The ad then directs financial donations to Kerry's campaign headquarters in Washington.
To its' credit, the Kerry campaign responded immediately to the local affiliate's faux pas:
Mark Kornblau, a Kerry campaign spokesman, said the club was not working for their campaign "in any official capacity" and called for an apology ... "It is outrageous and does not in any way reflect the position of our campaign. We hope that those responsible will retract the statement, apologize for it and move on to more productive pursuits," Kornblau said.
Ahh, the DNC caveat ... "move on". I'll not nitpick that last bit too much; I hate the phrasing, but support the idea that such ads distract from the campaign at-hand. I would, however, offer them the following piece of advice: The irrational fury present in the St. Pete club's advert represents a not entirely uncommon sentiment that has taken a solid hold within the ranks. DNC-funded websites like MoveOn.org and Democratic Underground underpin and spread messages of impotent rage and 'victory at any cost'. The DNC has continued to fuel the wholly-unrelated-to-fact (conspiracy) theory that "Bush stole the election" and the unquenchable lust for Bush's figurative head on a platter (with Dick Chaney's and Donald Rumsfeld's as accompaniments), and they shouldn't be shocked when the local parties feel unencumbered by decorum and place adverts like this.
Just my two cents, no need to hit the tip jar.
