Subscribers to the Denver Post found this half-page ad waiting for them on page A8 today:
As you can see, this ad is thanking Sen. Cory Gardner for “protecting seniors from additional Medicare funding cuts.” Now, given Gardner’s long history of votes to cut and/or privatize Medicare (see: Ryan budget), this might come as a bit of a surprise to you–and frankly, it did to us as well. It’s possible that this is a reference to the Senate GOP’s latest budget proposal out this week, which doesn’t cut Medicare quite as much as the competing budget proposal from the Republican-controlled House. The ad does say additional Medicare cuts, after all, so we’re probably not talking about the money saved from Medicare’s smaller future growth as a result of the Affordable Care Act–frequently misrepresented by the GOP as “Medicare cuts.” Perhaps this is about thanking the Republican Senate to spite the Republican House? We invite additional theories.
Most likely, however, is that this thank-you ad from the “Alliance for Patient Access” is meaningless partisan pablum. That likelihood is probably most evident reading the bio of the director of the organization, Brian Kennedy. The Alliance for Patient Access’ address is the same as Kennedy’s GOP-aligned Washington D.C. PR firm, Woodberry Associates. “Woodberry Associates designs, implements and manages grassroots advocacy campaigns” on behalf of “corporate and non-profit clients.”
Over the course of his career, Mr. Kennedy has served as the organizer, manager and/or a strategic consultant to over a dozen coalitions and associations and presently serves as Director of the Alliance for Patient Access. He has served on the national political staff of two Republican presidential campaigns and is a past Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association. Mr. Kennedy served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, as a member of the Republican National Committee and as Co-Chairman of the 1996 Republican National Platform Committee. He has also served as a campaign manager to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, and political advisor to United States Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, United States Senators Lamar Alexander, John McCain and Elizabeth Dole and Governor Mitt Romney.
Clearly, this is a man who runs expensive newspaper thank-you ads without any partisan considerations! And what exactly is a “grassroots campaign” operated “on behalf of corporate clients?” Because that seems like an oxymoron.
And with that, we realize we’ve spent way too much time analyzing this rather obvious sham.
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Say my name.
A lie by any other name.
bullshit! does not believe this stuff.
Andrew Carnegie and Moderatus would likely nominate Gardner for a Polk Award.
Mr. Gardner or his supporters or both are playing a dangerous game. Their underlying assumption is voters will never figure out the truth. Mr. Gardner wants us to believe he is enhancing Medicare benefits while he is simultaneously supporting cuts in the those benefits. He will be able to fool most people for awhile but not for six years. Voters don’t pay attention until an election rolls around but they have a funny way of finding out who is telling the truth. Mr. Gardner got away with deceiving the voters about his support for wind energy during the campaign and then of course voted to terminate the wind energy credits in January but he won’t be able to explain his two step – side step dance on an issue like Medicare. There are simply too many people involved and too much at stake. He should realize people are paying attention and they will make him pay in the next election.
Voters are smarter than this, AND Gardner’s next election will not be a midterm. One and done. I won’t forget.
What we need is for voters to understand that all Republicans at every level are playing the same games.
Exactly. At this juncture any one outside of the top .1% who votes for any Republican ever is a suicidal fool. As for the top.1%, if you’re not top .01%, you’re a sucker too.