Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Cornyn Reneges on Non-Campaign Deal – Airs Ads on KVUE

Saying that continued campaigning in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike’s assault on southeast Texas didn’t “seem appropriate,” John Cornyn’s campaign claimed that they pulled the political ads that were set to begin airing on Friday, as Ike bore down on Galveston.

And it would especially look iniquitous to run those ads while his Democratic opponent Lt. Col. Rick Noriega, cancelled all campaign activities as he is on duty to assist in recovery logistics at Fort Mabry, the headquarters for all Texas military services.

It would just look bad, don’t you agree?

So why, then, are we hearing reports of John Cornyn’s political ads appearing in non-Houston media markets?

“It’s just a glitch,” claimed Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin. The Cornyn people are trying to claim that they tried to get the ads pulled but that the TV stations already had their schedule of commercials set for the day.

“Just a glitch.”

Is this guy kidding? We had millions of people watching Hurricane Ike as it turned north and tracked to hit somewhere between Freeport and Galveston. We knew to just within a couple of hours when landfall of the eye would be.

We knew this, days in advance of the storm.

But no, like their buddies and cronies at FEMA, they dropped the ball.

Like FEMA whose response to this federally declared disaster area can be termed anywhere from glacial to criminal neglect, the Cornyn campaign failed to take the steps necessary to ensure that Texans aren’t hit with a media blitz as fellow Texans are pulling trees off of their houses. As their Democratic opponent is serving to work through the problem.

Either way, it looks bad.

Either you have a campaign that callously disregards a campaign “time out” and decides to air ads in media markets far from the reach of Houston TV sets, or you have a campaign that cannot think beyond tomorrow, where millions of Texans did just that to prepare for Ike.

And so you have two things appearing on Austin’s KVUE TV channel today. Footage of John Cornyn meeting Bush at his jet as it landed at Ellington Field, and accompanying him on his tour of the disaster area, and footage of John Cornyn’s campaign ads set against Rick Noriega, as he serves in the recovery effort.

Nice job, Big Bad John.

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