With strategic editing, GOP tries to enlist Dingell
1st half of remark appears critical of Kerry proposal
Sunday, August 1, 2004
BY ART AISNER
News Staff Reporter
The Michigan Republican Party has enlisted the help of some unlikely sources in its most recent attack against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry - the senior members of Michigan's Democratic congressional delegation.
According to a GOP press release issued Thursday, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., have said that increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, a measure Kerry supports, will hurt Michigan jobs.
Both Dingell and Levin have endorsed Kerry and attacked President Bush's administration for policies that have helped deplete Michigan's manufacturing base of good jobs.
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Levin's comments, according to the release, were printed in a Detroit newspaper in 2002. Dingell, who has a long history of support from the auto industry and unions during his 24-term tenure in Congress, reportedly made critical remarks about CAFE standards during an Internet chat Thursday sponsored by The Washington Post, the GOP news release said.
When asked how receptive the Big Three would be to increasing fuel economy standards and Republican claims that increases would put further jobs at risk, Dingell responded:
"Of course, unwise CAFE requirements can cause loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and competitiveness in the American auto industry," the release states.
Omitted from the release, according to the on-line chat, was Dingell's very next two sentences, which read:
"John Kerry and John Edwards understand this. I'll be working with them to carry out their commitment to preserving and protecting the competitiveness of the American manufacturing industry, including and especially the auto industry."
"The duplicitous team of Republican spinmeisters edited that part of the quote out," Dingell said Friday upon returning from the Democratic National Convention. "We've seen other examples of this kind of desperation - these are the same Republicans that worked for 48,000 signatures for Ralph Nader to get on Michigan's ballot and have openly discussed suppressing the Detroit vote. The only surprise is how early the Republicans have revealed their hand."
Still, the Republicans say they plan to use their remarks in their future criticism of Kerry and their effort to push CAFE standards off the national agenda.
"Rep. Dingell joins the long list of both Democrats and Republicans who realize that John Kerry's plan will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs," said Michigan GOP Executive Director Greg McNeilly in a written statement. "There are only a handful of issues that John Kerry hasn't flip-flopped on: One is raising taxes and the other is raising CAFE standards." |
