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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (206452)	10/14/2004 12:47:01 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574679

Bunning used prompter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Michael Collins Post Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jim Bunning's re-election campaign conceded Tuesday that the senator used a TelePrompTer during his opening and closing remarks during a television debate with his Democratic opponent, Daniel Mongiardo. Bunning campaign manager David Young said the TelePrompTer use was permitted under the terms of a debate agreement worked out in advance between the two campaigns. Mongiardo's campaign, however, called the device "an outrageous violation of the agreement." "Jim Bunning is so out of touch with Kentucky voters that he has to use a TelePrompTer as a crutch to address their concerns," said Mongiardo campaign manager Kim Geveden. "Jim Bunning cheated in the debate, just as he is cheating Kentucky's working families." Young countered that Mongiardo's campaign is trying to turn the debate into "a circus issue" to avoid a discussion about other issues. "They were never serious about the issues and how they affected Kentuckians," he said. "Instead, they obfuscate and spread rumors about Sen. Bunning's health. For a doctor to do that, it is especially despicable." The hour-long debate, taped on Monday for broadcast on television stations around the state beginning tonight, was a somewhat rancorous event, with Bunning apologizing for saying last March that Mongiardo looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons and then accusing Mongiardo of spreading false rumors about his health -- allegations that Mongiardo denied. The debate was supposed to be a face-to-face matchup between Bunning, a former professional baseball pitcher who is running for a second term in the Senate, and Mongiardo, a physician and state senator from Hazard. But a last-minute change found the candidates in separate studios 500 miles apart and responding to questions via satellite. Over the weekend, Bunning's office informed Lexington television station WKYT, where the debate was to be taped, that the senator needed to be in Washington on Monday to cast several important votes, including one on a $10 billion buyout for tobacco farmers. After last-minute haggling by the two campaigns, the debate went off on schedule, with Mongiardo participating from the Lexington studio and Bunning speaking from a studio at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington. Almost immediately, there was speculation that Bunning had relied on a TelePrompTer during part of the debate. Besides Bunning, only two other people -- a cameraman and Bunning campaign aide Rick Robinson -- were allowed inside the Washington studio while the debate was under way. Robinson's role was to hold up cue cards signaling to the senator that his allotted time for answering questions was nearing an end. A reporter for The Kentucky Post was allowed to watch the debate from the studio control room. A TelePrompTer screen visible inside the control room was cued up with the text of Bunning's opening and closing statements and was rolling as the senator delivered those remarks. However, it was not immediately clear whether the TelePrompTer was visible to Bunning inside the studio. The TelePrompter wasn't in operation during the debate's question-and-answer session. Young acknowledged Tuesday that the device was visible inside the studio and that Bunning used it during his opening and closing remarks. The machine was not in use at any other time during the debate, Young said. The two-page agreement outlining the guidelines for the debate doesn't directly address the use of TelePrompTers. It says only that candidates could not rely on "props, signs, charts, graphs, photos, audio or video playback, or other demonstrative items." The pact did give the candidates the option of using notes. The Bunning campaign contends that the TelePrompTer was permissible under the guidelines. "The agreement said we could use notes, and whether or not that was the prepared notes in front of him or elsewhere, notes are notes," Young said. "They were not answers (to questions)." The Mongiardo camp, however, argues that the TelePrompter was a "prop" and was thus prohibited under the agreement. "It's an aid," Geveden said. "It's designed to prop up a candidate. It's misleading, it's deceiving, and it's an outrageous violation of the rules. It was cheating. The question now becomes what else was going on in that room during the debate." Young countered the Mongiardo camp violated a clause in the agreement that allowed each campaign to bring four people into the Lexington studio during the debate. Mongiardo's guests were allowed inside the Lexington studio, while Bunning's were relegated to a nearby conference room, Young said. Geveden said the decision to bar Bunning's guests from the studio was made by WKYT because Mongiardo's representatives weren't allowed inside the Washington studio with Bunning. Jim Ogle, senior vice president for news at WKYT, told the Lexington Herald-Leader: "There was nothing in the rules that specifically prohibited" using a TelePrompTer. "But I think it was despicable. It more than violated the spirit of the rules." kypost.com