Bush* out and out Lying in Campaign Ad

[Bandit]

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=143
Internet attack ad says Kerry got most “special interest money” of any senator. He didn't. And Bush got lots more.
Summary
The Bush campaign sent an e-mail Feb. 12 to six million supporters with a link to an Internet video <http://www.georgewbush.com/unprincipled/> attacking Kerry for being "unprincipled." The ad claims Kerry got "more special interest money than any other senator," which is false.
While it is true that Kerry got $640,000 over the past 15 years from individual lobbyists, that's only one type of special-interest money. And the Bush campaign itself has reported raising $960,000 from individual lobbyists in the past year alone.
The ad says Kerry got "millions from executives at HMO's, telecoms, drug companies," which is true -- for Kerry's entire political career. But so far Kerry's presidential campaign has received a small fraction of what the Bush campaign has received from those particular sources. By any definition, Bush's "special interest" money greatly exceeds Kerry's.
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Individual lobbyists are only one category of donor normally classified as "special interests," as the Bush ad itself indirectly acknowledges later on. And Kerry refuses to take any money at all from political action committees (PACs), which are often controlled by lobbyists and which give far more in total than the individual lobbyists themselves. So far, for example, Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist <http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2004&cid=N00003147> reported $1,022,063 in PAC donations for his 2004 campaign alone, according to online tallies available as of Feb. 13 at the Center for Responsive Politics <http://www.opensecrets.org/> . Sen. Mitch McConnell <http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2004&cid=N00003389>, the Republican whip, reported getting $1,316,670, Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle <http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2004&cid=N00004583> got $1,533,069 and Democratic Whip Harry Reid <http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2004&cid=N00009922> got $1,580,627. So the Bush ad's claim that Kerry got more special interest money than other senators is simply false.