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SESSIONS KEEPS BAD COMPANY...AGAIN
Politician in trouble uses taxpayer funds to promote controversial
Washington lobbyist and partisan hatchet man
'Bipartisanship is another name for date rape,' [Grover Norquist, Pete
Sessions friend and supporter]
DALLAS, TX- After refusing to denounce the widely discredited hate ads
sponsored by a white supremacist group polluting North Texas airwaves in an
effort to bolster his troubled campaign, Pete Sessions has again used
questionable tactics to mislead voters and save his political hide. This
time, Sessions has used an expensive taxpayer-funded mailing to promote a
Washington DC special interest lobbyist who has become famous for his
ruthless partisanship, his ideological extremism and his controversial and
insensitive remarks.
The slick six-page colored mailing from Pete Sessions recently hit North
Texas mailboxes. At first glance it looks like any other political
advertising. However, at closer inspection this campaign style advertisement
is actually a taxpayer funded mailing sent under the cover of Pete Sessions'
Congressional office. That type mailing could typically cost as much as
$50,000 in taxpayer money. Even worse, the mailing prominently shows a
picture of controversial Washington lobbyist Grover Norquist posing with
Pete Sessions.
Grover Norquist is best known for trivializing the heinous crime of rape and
for comparing the Holocaust with taxes.
* "'We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals -
and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship,' said Grover
Norquist, a leading Republican strategist, who heads a group called
Americans for Tax Reform. 'Bipartisanship is another name for date rape,'
Norquist, a onetime adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said..."
[Denver Post May, 26 2003]
* "[George H.W.] Bush raised taxes, increased spending more
than even Jimmy Carter, added 20,000 new regulators to the public payroll,
and cut secret deals with House speaker Tom Foley and Senate majority leader
George Mitchell -- whom he called his "friends" after each date-rape."
[Grover Norquist, The American Spectator, February 1993]
* "Norquist compared the estate tax to the Holocaust. This
remark, so bizarre and tasteless that I felt it deserved checking, sent me
to the transcript of the show, where, sure enough, it was confirmed.
[Richard Cohen, Washington Post January 6, 2004]
"I am very concerned about the insensitive manner in which Pete Sessions
chooses to define himself. First Pete Sessions refuses to denounce a white
supremacist funded outside group running inaccurate and inflammatory ads on
his behalf. Now he is wasting taxpayer dollars mugging for the camera with a
man who routinely trivializes abuse towards women and belittles the
Holocaust," said Marc Stanley, Congressman Frost's campaign chair and local
Jewish leader. "Pete Sessions has a serious character problem and owes the
taxpayers of the 32nd Congressional district an apology and a refund."
Sally Garcia, a local Womens' advocate added, "The fact that Sessions would
proudly appear with a guy who said, 'Bipartisanship is another name for date
rape' just confirms in my mind that Pete either doesn't understand violent
crime against women and may not care. Clearly he doesn't understand that
trivializing rape is offensive and inexcusable to most women."
His campaign website is here.