Six-state radio ad campaign targeting "Roadblock Republicans" is launched

[ralbertson]

If you think that this is an example of highly unusual politics in action -- a PAC that supports a particular sitting Senator launching an extended initiative against several other sitting Senators, and not just calling for their defeat in the next election cycle but also soliciting donations on behalf of whichever Democratic opponents end up running against those Senators in their home states after their local primaries -- then you're right.

This is unusual politics in action. But these are unusual times.

And in unusual times like these -- when a lot of very critical policies and principles are at stake, and when a small cadre of belligerent, recalcitrant, retro-obstructionist politicians keeps taking advantage of razor-thin voting margins in the Senate to block any attempt to correct the myriad missteps of the Bush administration and its failed neocon minions -- then politics-as-usual just won't get the job done anymore.

So it's time to take the gloves off, put the workboots on, and kick the roadblocks out of the way so we can get this country moving forward again.



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Keeping America's Promise Launches Six State Radio Campaign Targeting "Roadblock Republicans" in Senate

Senators' rubberstamp support for Bush's Iraq policy, refusal to change course will be issue in '08 election


WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Keeping America's Promise (KAP) launched a set of "user-generated" radio commercials to help defeat Republican Senators who have been roadblocks to changing course in Iraq, continuing their rubberstamp support of the Bush Iraq policy. All six Senators are up for re-election in 2008.

The commercials are running in Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas on local radio stations in the hometowns of the sitting senators or in the state capital.

The commercial is a result of a contest run by KAP that asked hundreds of thousands of people across the country to submit radio scripts to convince these Senators to change their position on Bush's Iraq policy. Over ten thousands scripts were submitted in just a few days and the winner was chosen through public voting online.

The winner of the contest and the voice in the commercials is retired Army veteran Edwin Walker. Currently an attorney in Nashville, TN, Walker volunteered for the ROTC program at Notre Dame, graduated in 1968 and was stationed in Turkey. He worked as the commanding officer of a small communications unit on the Black Sea during his time in service. He volunteered, he said, because he didn't want someone else to have to take his place.

"Mr. Walker's script is emotionally powerful and tells the true impact that war has on the lives of our families and loved ones," said Theo Yedinsky, senior advisor to John Kerry. "Clearly, the American people have had enough of these Roadblock Republicans’ refusal to break with George Bush's Iraq policy, while this war continues without end. It is simply not acceptable that we stand by and let this happen. If these Senators won't change course and remove the roadblocks, then we as citizens need to take action at the ballot box in 2008.”

The full script of the commercial is below:


Walker: "I volunteered for the Army in 1968. Now, when I'm in Washington, I go to the Vietnam Wall, and look for the names of my friends, and try not to weep. Someday they will build an Iraq Wall. Some of those names will be there because these Senators put Party above country. I won't sit by while the number of names on that Wall grows -- will you?"


(The radio campaign is a continuation of the two-year program by the JohnKerry.com community to build a majority in the Senate committed to changing the Bush policy in Iraq. So far, the JohnKerry.com community has raised over $100,000 in the general election funds to support prospective challengers in these races.)

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The six Roadblock Republican Senators mentioned in the above press release from KAP are:


(1) ... the Senate Republican Majority Leader, the Head Roadblock himself, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Senator Susan Collins of Maine; Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire; Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina; and Senator John Cornyn of Texas (not necessarily in that order, ahem);


(2) ... listed individually on the ActBlue page at http://actblue.com/page/radio -- where true-blue citizens can chip in a few bucks to help air the ads and to help finance the anti-RR campaigns of the Democratic challengers who win the primaries and then run against the Roadblock Republicans in their home states;


(3) ... just the tip of the iceberg, the first dirty half-dozen to make the list -- but by no means the only six Roadblock Republican Senators (and Representatives) who will be targeted for defeat when their terms are up in 2008 as a direct result of their obstructionist-elephant voting patterns;


(4) ... the very epitome of the anti-Democrat and anti-democratic legislators that John Kerry was talking about in the Roadblock Republicans speech that he made on the floor of the Senate back on July 26 of this year -- which speech you can read for yourselves on Senator Kerry's eponymous website here:

http://www.johnkerry.com/2007/7/26/floor-speech-110th-congress-and-republican-obstructionism



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You can hear the new Roadblock Republicans radio ad for yourselves, and download it in mp3 format, from the KAP website here:

http://www.keepingamericaspromise.com/roadblock