People For The American Way: Let's flag this for the "Desperate But Clueless" file Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) - who has been
October 5, 2006

People For The American Way:

Let's flag this for the "Desperate But Clueless" file

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) - who has been one of the most strident abortion opponents and who wrote in his book, "It Takes a Family," that "radical feminism" has led women to work outside the home and thus "undermin[e] the traditional family" and that education is the "wrong" way for "poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs [to] move up the economic ladder" - is facing a deficit among women in polls on his re-election bid. Now, reports the conservative New York Sun, an independent-expenditure ("527") group called Softer Voices is lending a hand with ads designed to soften the senator's image and help him appeal to women voters.

The founder of Softer Voices, Lisa Schiffren, may not have the best track record. According to the Sun, the former speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle is "best known" for writing Quayle's 1992 speech attacking the television character "Murphy Brown," an unmarried (and fictional) professional who, as the speech said, was "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone." The ads highlight Santorum's role in pushing welfare reform in the mid-1990s - which he saw as directed towards getting single mothers back to work. Read on...

Let's hope that Rick is smart enough to remind Lisa that "Desperate Housewives" is fictional and writing a speech railing against cat fights and affairs with your gardener/pool boy like that hussy, Gabrielle, won't win him any female votes. By the way, Santorum is trailing Casey by 8%.

Meanwhile, Ken "Action Figure" Mehlman is not even trying to pretty up ugly racial stereotypes in his campaign ads.

When Ken Mehlman, Chair of the Republican National Committee said "We will hold nothing back" in the fight to win seats in this November's election, apparently that even included using racist and offensive imagery in ads targeting Democratic incumbents even if they are "highly offensive" to the Hispanic community.

In a letter sent today to Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., asked for the removal of a new website, www.muchagraciasdebbie.com, which was unveiled this week by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The letter states that "the website of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (www.muchasgraciasdebbie.com) features Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow in a sombrero with a Muchas Gracias, Debbie banner. Clicking on the image takes you to a page featuring bilingual text which badly misrepresents some key policy debates to the tune of the "Mexican Hat Dance.'" Read on...

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