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Watchdog Interview at Center of Latest Anti-Kerrey Ad Fight

By   /   June 12, 2012  /   15 Comments

Team Kerrey is furious. Team Fischer is silent.

That’s the fall-out from the latest Super PAC TV ad attacking Democrat Bob Kerrey. The commercial is based on a recent Nebraska Watchdog interview with Kerrey.

In the ad when asked if he’s “ready to vote for a tax increase” Kerrey answers, “Oh yeah, it is going to take additional revenue.”

While that is what Kerrey said (see interview and ad below) his campaign insists the commercial by Americans for Prosperity “shamelessly edits” the news clip to suggest Kerrey supports raising taxes on the middle class.

In the full clip Kerrey also says “but the first step has got to be, how much can we cut? You’ve got to take the spending down.” Kerrey went on to say, “If you lock yourself into no tax increases under any circumstances, you are not part of the solution. You are part of the problem.”

“To edit those comments in a way that suggests Kerrey supports increasing taxes on the middle class is reprehensible,” said Kerrey Campaign Manager, Paul Johnson. 

State Sen. Deb Fischer opposes tax increases and has put her name on Grover Nordquist’s controversial anti-tax pledge.

“I have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promising not to raise taxes on individuals and businesses,” Fischer writes on her campaign website.

Asked by Nebraska Watchdog to comment on the ad— specifically should Americans for Prosperity pull the commercial—Fischer’s campaign responded, “No comment.”

Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org

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Joe Jordan

  • Not Fooled

    Unfair advertising … I don’t think so. The qualified sound bite repeats the same message, Kerry favors tax increases. “Kerrey went on to say, ‘If you lock yourself into no tax increases under any circumstances, you are not part of the solution. You are part of the problem.’” Thank goodness the voters are getting smart enough to discern political double speak!

  • Sally Spitzer-Melchidezek

    Should Kerrey be surprised? When I saw that clip when you first aired it, I was like, Hmmm, now that is fresh meat for the opposing side…. Wait til they start suggesting he is John Kerry, to fool those who can’t spell.

  • JR

    Fischer gets more government money annually than the average welfare recipient gets in 25 years, without which her family’s business would probably not be very profitable. But she’s really, really, I mean REALLY, committed to lowering the tax burden on all of us. Will Nebraska voters actually believe this load of bovine discharge of taxpayer-paid-for grass?

  • j from NE

    hmmmm….are you talking about GE and the fact that they don’t pay any taxes? Or maybe the ranchers of Nebraska that don’t have govt subsidies?

  • John

    Leave the commercial the way it is. He also was behind Cap and Trade and a lot of the Leftist/Environmentalist agenda that is ruining our economy.

    Besides, it’s a matter of free speech. It’s not like a news organization editing a 911 tape to push a Left Wing agenda.

  • What!?

    Farm subsidies for Deb, a bridge to nowhere for Bob. Potato, po-tah-toe!

  • Larry Mondello

    Little ole Bobby was, is, and will continue to be a “tax and spend” guy.

    His time as Governor and Senator only resulted in him bringing in a high profile “lady” who resided with him in the Governor’s mansion and his present to the Nebraska Tax payers was the Kerrey Bridge which will be costing tax payers in Omaha for generations for upkeep.

  • Jeff Poley

    Joe:

    I don’t think anyone should be surprised that Americans for Prosperity would air the kind on blatant distortion and misinformation included in the ad judging from the kinds of individuals that back that PAC. That’s just the kind of cheap political attack ad for which they’re famous. I’m surprised, though, at Senator Fischer’s “no comment” when asked about the ad. I thought she had more class. I’m no fan of paying increased taxes but one has to give Senator Kerrey credit of having the courage to leave that option open if it’s necessary to get the country’s fiscal house in order. I don’t trust any politician that trolls for votes by signing some kind of pledge to never consider possible solutions to a problem. I think it’s interesting that neither Presidents Reagan or Bush I could have signed that pledge.

    Jeff…

  • Truth-or-Dare

    “Fischer gets more government money annually than the average welfare recipient gets in 25 years, without which her family’s business would probably not be very profitable.” I read statements like this and keep wondering how all these “experts” know so much and then FAIL to disclose how much we are talking about here. Site your source if you are going to make remarks like that; otherwise they are useless! Did she receive $3 million like Bob received as a bonus when he left his last job to grace us with his presence here in Nebraska as a favor for the party???

    As for Bob, perhaps it would be to his advantage to just SHUT UP if he doesn’t want anyone to quote him!!!! He says these things and then expects the Republicans to give him a pass because he is dumber than a post!! He made it VERY CLEAR he will vote to raise taxes . . . the only question is how MUCH!! So why is he whining and calling on Deb to “tell the big boys to quit playing rough because I don’t like it!”

    Hey Bobby, if it is too hot in the kitchen you can ALWAYS return to the City . . . suck it up, buddy, and worry about your own campaign!!! I haven’t heard Deb whine one time about your tactics, and it can’t be because you are so squeaky clean!!!!

  • Dirt

    This is the difference, I think, between how politics was when Kerrey served before and how it is now. Though this taking of comments out of context and splicing them together to completely misrepresent a candidate’s point is an old political trick– a process that cuts both ways, mind you– these kind of “scorched earth” tactics are a lot more intense now than they were then. If you thought the presence of the 527s in 2004 and later was bad, just wait till you meet Mr. Super PAC.

    I predict this fall’s election season will be so ugly and nasty it will make your TV bleed. Can Bob adapt? That is the question.

  • Watching From Lincoln

    Seems like Deb Fischer’s camp’s policy is to just shut up because they don’t have a leg to stand on policy-wise and just let the Koch brothers do all their fighting for themwith their billions through their super Pac, and its legions of loyal, goose-stepping Fascist Brownshirts, Americans For Prosperity. Let the bovine effluence flow from the Fischer camp, the more that flows, the more moderates in this state will swing to the Kerrey camp. It may just be shock to all those cretin Neo-Con, Neo-Fascists come the first Wednesday in November when Deb Fischer next position will be behind one of her cows with a shovel in her hand.

  • Joe Sixpack

    This is just another case of big business owners trying to buy the election in Nebraska.

    How can the 99% be heard?

  • Thriftybob

    the 99 percent voted for Ben Nelson in 2006 and he then took the Cornhusker kickback, turned off the phones and then voted to pass legislation that hadn’t been written yet. Turned out to be a massive tax hike. Maybe we ought to let business owner have a say, can’t be any worse than the last 6 years with the Cornhusker kickback senator.

  • Curious

    Truth-Or-Dare: Sunny Slope Ranch which is the name of the ranching corporation that Legislator Deb Fischer manages with her family. This business received $122,000 in Farm Subsidies from 2002 – 2010. This data comes directly from the USDA public records. You can find the information on the EWR website. Here is the link: http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A11143459

    Hard to justify a no new taxes pledge to help those who hit a bad patch when her family benefited so much from government assistance. To put this in context the average welfare recipient receives $4,152 a year in direct payments for a family of four. You would have to be on welfare for 29 years to equal what the Fischer family received in 8 years.

    The difference between Senator Kerrey’s payment is that it came from a private university. No tax payers were affected in him receiving a bonus.

  • http://nebraskawatchdog resistwemuch

    WFL: Please grace us with some insight into your thought process. You often opine as if you are of superior intellect to the average poster at this site. In addition you often refer to all conservatives as “fascists” of one ilk or another.

    That particular word is bandied about loosely by marxists, socialists,communists, liberals and many democrats. This same group will also use words like “racist,” sexist,”and “homophobe,” to brand others of a different political persuasion as heretics that should be banned from political discussions or at least not to be taken seriously.

    So, my request is quite simple. Please define for us, the great unwashed, what your meaning of the word “fascist” is. Is it as defined by Ernst Nolte or

    Roger Eatwell or Roger Griffin or even Stanley G. Payne? Because you use the term so freely it shouldn’t take but a minute or so of your time to post your definition. This will allow all of us conservatives to further understand exactly what you are defining us as. Thanks.