Vince Avedon – 10/4/04

This page was last updated on October 4, 2004.

GOP’s disgusting campaign; Vince Avedon; Beaver County Times; October 4, 2004.

This is Mr. Avedon’s sixth Bush bashing letter since September 5^th.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“On Sept. 22 Jimmy Swaggart said on TV: ‘I’m trying to find the correct name for it ... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. ... I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry.

“And I’m gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died.’ The remarks were met with applause from his Baptist congregation.

“Two days later, the Republican National Committee admitted that it was responsible for a mass mailing that claimed Democrats would permit gay marriage and ban the Bible.”

[RWC] What was there to admit? The RNC didn’t try to hide anything; its name and address were on the outside of the mailing.

Other than in Mr. Avedon’s mind, where’s the link between Swaggart’s idiotic ranting and the RNC? Does Mr. Avedon believe the RNC takes marching orders from Swaggart or vice versa? Of course, using that logic, we have proof of a conspiracy between CBS and the Democrat National Committee (DNC) because the DNC “just happened” to have their “fortunate son” campaign ready to go the morning after CBS ran its attempted smear of President Bush.

“The New York Times reported that in an e-mail message, Christine Iverson, a spokesperson for the RNC, confirmed that the party had sent the mailings.

“The literature shows a Bible with the word ‘BANNED’ across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word ‘ALLOWED.’ The mailing tells West Virginians to ‘vote Republican to protect our families’ and defeat the ‘liberal agenda.’”

[RWC] On a side note, Mr. Avedon should have put this last paragraph in quotes and cited the Associated Press; it is direct plagiarism from an AP story.

Mr. Avedon purposely didn’t tell you everything the mailing said, but I will.

The mailing went to both Arkansas and West Virginia and I was able to find a copy of the Arkansas version on the Internet. It’s my understanding the mailings were identical except one mentioned Arkansas and the other mentioned West Virginia. Let’s look at the entire text of the mailing.

Below the graphic Mr. Avedon described above, the outside of the mailing says:

This will be Arkansas if you don’t vote.

Our traditional values are under assault by Liberal politicians and their hand-picked activist judges. They are using the courts to get around the Constitution to impose their radical agenda.

The Liberal agenda includes:

· Removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

· Allowing teenagers to get abortions without parental consent.

· Overturning the ban on the hideous procedure known as Partial Birth Abortion.

· Allowing same-sex marriages.

Liberals want to impose their values on Arkansas.

The inside of the mailing has pictures of a family and a baby. The text says:

Register and vote Republican!

Republicans work to protect our families, including innocent unborn children. Republicans support the strong moral values that make our families strong:

· Passed laws to support life including: the Born Alive Infants Act, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, and Laci and Connor Peterson’s Law.

· Support defining marriage between a man and a woman.

· Placing conservative judges on the bench who will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.

· Tax relief for families including increasing the child tax deduction to $1000 per child and reduced the marriage penalty tax.

The liberals are pulling out all the stops to win this election. They are counting on you not to vote so they can impose their liberal agenda on us and pack the courts with their hand-picked activist judges.

Vote Republican to protect our families.

To keep our families strong, we need to make sure we have Republican leaders who put our families and values first.

Register to vote today.

Note the mailing refers to Liberals, not Democrats.

Now you know why Mr. Avedon withheld the bulk of the text from you. It was about a lot more than the Bible and homosexual “marriage” and Mr. Avedon didn’t want you to know that.

“Now, the Republican Party admits it is running a disgusting campaign of bigotry for George W. Bush.”

[RWC] No, the RNC admitted it sent mailings that covered legitimate campaign issues. There is nothing disgusting in the mailing.

Where’s the bigotry? Though it’s true liberals want to ban the Bible from certain contexts, I admit the “banning the Bible” part was over the top, but what else in the flyer was untrue? Is Mr. Avedon trying to tell us the liberal agenda doesn’t include the listed items?

“Instead of running on his failed record, Bush has launched a campaign of distortion in an effort to divide the country at the expense of gay and lesbian Americans.”

[RWC] President Bush is running on his successful record. It is Kerry who is running on a record of failure. If anyone is distorting, it is Mr. Avedon for not accurately describing the mailing to us.

Can we get the “gay” thing straight, no pun intended? Are lesbians “gay” or not? Why not just say homosexuals to be clear?

Getting back to the subject, did Mr. Avedon write a letter about the Democrat claim that Republicans are trying to keep black voters from voting? This hogwash is coming out of John Kerry’s own mouth, not some misguided underlings. Of course, the comeback will be something like, “but Republicans did it in Florida in 2000.” Not true. The Civil Rights Commission, headed by partisan Democrat Mary Frances Berry – herself black, conducted a six-month investigation in 2000/2001 and found no evidence that black voters had been discriminated against. Likewise, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department investigated and it too found no basis for the allegations.

President Bush isn’t dividing the country regarding marriage. In two recent state constitutional amendment votes, “man and woman only” marriages won with large majorities. The Louisiana amendment won with 78% of the vote while the Missouri amendment won with 71%. It sounds as if President Bush is in the mainstream on this issue.

“The president takes more or less the high road while his henchman and allies on the right have been let loose to conduct these ugly, divisive smear campaigns. It is wedge politics at its worst, and George W. Bush at his best.”

[RWC] Is Mr. Avedon trying to tell us division is not the core of liberal politics? Who is it that insists on putting people in groups so they can play old vs. young, black vs. white, poor vs. rich, et cetera?

Now that we all know there was nothing disgusting, divisive, or ugly in the mailing, let’s look at liberal tactics.

Who likened their opponent to Hitler? Who got caught using forged documents in an attempt to smear a sitting president? Who accused a sitting president of being AWOL, a deserter, and a draft dodger despite his National Guard service? Prior to the 2000 election, who said black churches would burn if Republicans were elected?