Who is "60 Plus", the org airing smear ads against Alan Grayson?

[Roland99]

per Alan's latest email:

Dear "Roland99",

It looks like the drug companies don't like me.

No, strike that. It looks like the drug companies really, really hate me. And they'll do everything within their power to get rid of me.

Which is why I need your help. Please contribute to our campaign, and show the drug companies that we're sick - sick of them!

This month, the "60 Plus Association" is pouring over $600,000 into negative ads against me. And who is the "60 Plus Association"? The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has "outed" "60 Plus" as a front for PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Holy Harry and Louise! We're being attacked by Big Pill!

Who should choose our elected officials - us, or the giant drug companies? It's time to give Big Pill a bad case of acid reflux.

Do you know what message Big Pill is using to numb, sedate, narcotize and stupefy the electorate? It's the shocking revelation that I voted for health care reform. Which Big Pill says will cut $500 billion from Medicare benefits - a total lie that FactCheck quickly exposed.

Next month, who knows what Big Pill will spend to defeat us? $1 million? That's the profit that Merck, a single drug company, makes every hour.

Every. Hour.

...

Truth,

Alan Grayson

60 Plus
http://www.60plus.org/about/

Who We Are

Founded in 1992, the 60 Plus Association is a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues. 60 Plus has set ending the federal estate tax and saving Social Security for the young as its top priorities. 60 Plus is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

...

Our Leadership

* Chairman: James L. Martin
* President: Amy Noone Frederick
* National Spokesman: Pat Boone

1992, eh? Wouldn't have been an attempt then to thwart Clinton's efforts toward national health care?


more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Plus_Association



I finally saw one of their ads on local TV this weekend. I was laughing my ass off at it. But yet I was shedding a tear for the frail-looking senior citizens who did their best at acting like the most bitter of any Terrorist Party members following their Beck and call.

[louis-t]

1. In one sentence, they're "non-partisan" and the next

they're "the conservative alternative of AARP".

[w8liftinglady]

2. info on james martin

http://60plus.org/about/jim/

Now Mr. Martin serves as the Chairman of the 60 Plus Association, which has been called an “increasingly influential lobbying group for the elderly–often viewed as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons.”

[monmouth]

3. Any group touting Pat Boone deserves to be ignored...n/t

[nashville_brook]

4. this is the fruit of the Citizens United ruling. anyone who can...pls send grayson $$!!

this is one seat we must hold on to.

[blondeatlast]

5. They are here in AZ, too. Just another TAX-EXEMPT 501(C)3--

an exempt status that should not be available to groups with a political agenda.

[Viking12]

6. Exact same commercial airing in WI -- except, obviously, the target is Steve Kagen

[lame54]

7. They're Bill O'Reilly's audience

[Roland99]

8. If I had had a grandparent like that.....

*shiver*

[LaPera]

9. Donate to Alan Grayson-He's in Florida where votes are easily stolen via electronic voting machines

by the republicans as well as the purging of minorities & democratic voters from the voting rolls and every other slimy republican dirty trick republicans will do to get rid of Democratic Grayson.

Democrats get everyone you know to get out and vote and make sure you haven't been wiped off the voting rolls yourself (that goes for everyone, everywhere in the country too).

http://www.actblue.com/

[jillan]

10. They are running nasty ads here too against our Dem candidates.

I'm in Az - maybe they are going after states that have high populations of retirees.

[Roland99]

12. Sounds like they're going after what they might consider states in play? (WI is one)

Check out this thread that presents an interesting hypothesis:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9167819

[starroute]

11. 60 Plus has quite a history

They're one of several fake seniors associations.

They were part of Bush's failed attempt in 2005 to privatize Social Security.

Before that, they were a central player in passing the Medicare Part D boondoggle and had become heavily tangled up with Tom DeLay, the corrupt Alexander Strategy Group, and even Jack Abramoff. According to a November 2006 article in Washington Monthly:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0611.dreyfuss.html

It’s well known that in his crusade to pass the bill, DeLay drew on more than 800 pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists, millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and the efforts of numerous business and healthcare groups. But this grossly flawed legislation could never have passed without the help of the same players who were central to Abramoff’s lobbying operation: Tony Rudy and Ed Buckham. Using a nest of nonprofits flush with corporate cash, the discredited lobbyists played a vital, albeit hidden, role in whittling down congressional opposition to the bill for more than a year before the final vote. In particular, Alexander Strategy made use of three senior nonprofit groups—the United Seniors Association, the Seniors Coalition and 60 Plus—and a Christian evangelical group, America 21, which were all funded heavily by the pharmaceutical industry. . . .

In 2001, 60 Plus received $275,000 from PhRMA, three drug companies, and another industry group; and in 2002 PhRMA acknowledged giving 60 Plus another “unrestricted grant.” 60 Plus shared other benefactors with Alexander Strategy: In 2001, they received $300,000 from a Korean explosives, chemical and insurance conglomerate called the Hanwha Group, whose CEO was a major Alexander Strategy client. Combined, the funds from Hanwha and the drug industry comprised nearly a third of 60 Plus’s revenue. And in an August 2001 email, Jack Abramoff directed the Louisiana Coushatta tribe to reissue a $25,000 check made out to DeLay’s ARMPAC, and redirect it to 60 Plus. Jimmy Faircloth, a Coushatta attorney, said that the Coushatta had no interest in 60 Plus, but were told that the donation—the largest contribution Abramoff asked them to give to a single recipient—would help them win clout with the congressional leadership.

[Roland99]

13. Oooo...nice one. Although, outside K.O. and Rachel, that "liberal" media won't touch this one.

[Dappleganger]

14. The Koch brothers are down here in full force.

They have made Grayson a target as he is a democrat who should be feared.

[2Design]

15. a bunch of old people saying crap and getting paid for it - idiots

horrible ad with lots of old actors saying crap - even whiny redneck granny - and people believe this crap