The spot, entitled "One of the Few," highlights Capuano's opposition to the PATRIOT Act and other alleged civil liberties violations during the Bush-Cheney administration.
It features Capuano against a black background and American flag. He says:
"George Bush and Dick Cheney used fear to justify torture, and abuses of our most basic civil liberties. I was one of the few members of Congress to strongly oppose their PATRIOT Act, their torture, and their illegal wiretapping. Our leaders must have the courage to fight terrorism without surrendering the values and civil liberties that make us all proud to be Americans."The ad's great ironic twist then comes in the closing line:
"I'm Mike Capuano and I approved this message, because there will always be people like Dick Cheney, and the need to stand up to them."So Capuano begins by alleging that President Bush and Vice President Cheney used fear to justify their actions...and then concludes by using fear of Cheney to justify a vote for him.
Update: The Capuano campaign just sent out a press release on the ad. It ads context to the ad, noting that Capuano voted against the PATRIOT Act when it passed Congress in 2001, and voted gainst subsequent reauthorizations of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2005 and in 2006.
It also notes that he voted against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008, which granted retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies involved in the illegal wiretapping and contained loopholes for circumventing judicial review.
According to the release, Capuano "has been a consistent cosponsor of the American Anti-Torture Act, which would limit authorized interrogation techniques...[and] is also a cosponsor of H.R. 104 in this Congress, which would establish a national commission on presidential war powers and civil liberties.
"Mike's principled stands for our civil liberties and against the Bush Administration's abuses of power demonstrate the qualities Massachusetts residents expect from their US Senator," said Michael Shea, media consultant for the campaign and creator of the advertisement. "Mike Capuano has shown he has the courage to stand up for our rights and progressive values, even when they are not politically popular."
2 comments:
Your reductionist anlysis of Capuano's ad belittles some very real concerns that Bush and Cheney stood for AND IMPLEMENTED such as whether a president at a time of war is above the law, whether this country will torture its enemies, and whether the government can surveill citizens without a warrant. The issue are not fears, they are real issues.
It's entirely innacurate to say Capuano plays the fear card by citing Cheney as the kind of government offical who advoates these policies or that Capuano plays the fear card by stating that others do too. The FISA bill renewal not only gave telecomm companies retroactive immunity from violating US citizens rights, it codified warrantless wiretapping under the law.
Capuano is top-notch on civil and Constitutional rights, I'll cast my lot with him over any other candidate in the field.
I see the irony, but this ad can't be equated with the fear-mongering and manipulations of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzalez regime. The message is that Capuano stood up to these creeps when others cowered.
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.