The 9/11 families group "Peaceful Tomorrows" (
their website) will hold a press conference today, where they will voice their extreme displeasure with the Bush-Cheney ads and ask that all parties hereby refrain from using the 9/11 images for political purposes. The WaPo has the story on the front page of Friday's paper:
Bush Ads Using 9/11 Images Stir Anger.
Some excerpts:
Kelly Campbell, co-director of a nonpartisan group called Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, acknowledged that some victims' relatives found the ads appropriate. "There's no consensus around this, but for the most part 9/11 families are very sensitive to someone using images of our loved one's death for their own ends," she said. "And that's what's pretty blatantly happening here."
Campbell's group will hold a news conference today on the grounds of the World Trade Center to call for Bush to withdraw the two ads that include images of the tragedy.
The obligatory tin ear response:
Officials in both the Bush administration and his reelection campaign stood by the ads, saying the Sept. 11 images are justified by the president's record. "Sept. 11 changed the equation in our public policy," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The president's steady leadership is vital to how we wage war on terrorism."
In an appearance on CBS's "The Early Show" yesterday, Bush strategist Karen Hughes said, "With all due respect, I just completely disagree [with the families], and I believe the vast majority of the American people will as well."
And the obligatory horde-of-orcs assault:
Attempting to regain the initiative, the Bush-Cheney campaign went on the offensive yesterday, booking former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on two networks; former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik on three networks; Deena Burnett, the widow of United Flight 93 victim Tom Burnett, on five networks, including Spanish-language Univision; and Rep. Vito Fossella, a Republican from Staten Island, on three cable shows. GOP officials said the interviews were booked only because of the controversy, and they said they believe their representatives would be viewed by most voters as having more stature than the critics.
It sounds like they're going to try to brass it out over the protests of the group. It'll be interesting to see how much airplay their press conference gets in tomorrow's news.