Oh, doctor!

Posted at 12:45 PM on April 19, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage is out with a bunch of ads, looking for some contributions and lambasting senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted against the same-sex marriage ban. The thing is, though, they've doctored the photos of the senators to show them sticking their tongue out and making what some might consider an obscene (OK, it was obscene by the standards when I was growing up and my mother-in-law, two infallible yardsticks. Although one of the Disney characters gave me the same gesture at Disneyworld once) gesture.

Here's one.

Update: DFL has called a news conference. I'm betting they'll be shocked -- shocked -- that someone would do this to a politician's image.

Comments (3)

Humor and satire have always had a place at the table of political discourse. Anyone who doesn't appreciate that must have a pretty sad life--Republican or Democrat. It's not as if these people don't provide enough material to work with, though.

Posted by Karl | April 20, 2006 8:22 AM

Bob, I'm sure you know very well that the photoshopping of John Kline was an isolated event on the part of the Rowley campaign. Coleen Rowley acknowledged that she used poor judgement in allowing the Col. Klink photo to be posted on her campaign site, she took it down, and she apologized. And she took plenty of heat for it from DFLers as well as Republicans.

Here, on the other hand, we have a group who have used similar poor judgement, but they refuse to acknowledge it as such and they certainly aren't going to apologize. Furthermore, since the DFL never condoned the Col. Klink photo, there's no hypocrisy in DFL criticism of these ads.

And in any case, "she did it first" isn't an excuse for bad behavior.

Posted by David Bailey | April 20, 2006 10:23 AM

I'm not saying it is an excuse. But I disagree with you on hypocrisy. It isn't a question of condoning, it's a question of equal reaction.

Take the GOP's response to the incident today, "it doesn't involve us so we have no comment" the flak said. Really? It has to actually INVOLVE you?

I think if you're in the political world and you think something crosses the line, you should say it. And you should say it everytime; not just when it's your candidate that is getting "victimized."

The GOP stance on this case is, to be fair, the same stance the DFL took on the Rowley-Kline thing.

At some point, GOPers whining about some tactic against the DFL and DFLers whining about some tactic against GOPers no longer becomes a news story worth covering.

Heck, let people figure it out for themselves. If the tactic bothers them, then don't vote for 'em. If it doesn't. It doesn't. Does having the flaks for the parties weigh in on it really bring any more light to the subject?

Posted by Bob Collins | April 20, 2006 10:35 AM

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