Wednesday, April 23, 2003
By KEVIN WACK, Associated Press
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe lashed back Tuesday at a conservative group running TV ads that attack her for opposing the size of President Bush's tax cut proposal.
In ads running this week in Maine, a tax-cut advocacy group called the Club for Growth questions Snowe's Republican Party loyalty, equating her opposition to Bush's proposal to French opposition to the U.S. war with Iraq.
Snowe, speaking to reporters following an appearance with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, called the advertisements "abhorrent."
"Isn't it a sad commentary on the art of legislating and lawmaking today?" Snowe asked. "Is that what we've been reduced to in America?"
Snowe and another Republican senator, Ohio's George Voinovich, recently joined Democrats in questioning big tax cuts at a time of rising deficits and war.
In a Senate where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority, their opposition effectively thwarted party leaders' efforts to push through a tax cut larger than $350 billion.
The vote exposed a rift in the Republican Party, and Snowe indicated Tuesday that her attackers are outside the party's mainstream.
Snowe produced a handheld computer and quoted Stephen Moore, the Club for Growth's president, from a Friday news conference: "We don't need a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. We don't need to lob on all of this extra pork-barrel spending we've had."
The senator asked incredulously, "I mean, can you believe anybody describing prescription drugs as pork barrel spending?"
David Keating, the group's executive director, said the advertisements were not an attack on Snowe's patriotism and defended their message.
"It a hard-hitting criticism, but I think it's a fair one," he said.
Keating hopes the ads serve as a warning to other moderate Republicans not to oppose important parts of the president's agenda.
"Absolutely it's a message to others who might consider voting to water down the president's major tax cut and domestic policy initiative," he said.
The Club for Growth, which has occasionally targeted GOP moderates for defeat, plans to continue airing the ads through the end of the week, Keating said.
The anti-tax group has become a potent fund-raiser for fiscal conservatives since its founding in 1999.
By KEVIN WACK, Associated Press
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe lashed back Tuesday at a conservative group running TV ads that attack her for opposing the size of President Bush's tax cut proposal.
In ads running this week in Maine, a tax-cut advocacy group called the Club for Growth questions Snowe's Republican Party loyalty, equating her opposition to Bush's proposal to French opposition to the U.S. war with Iraq.
Snowe, speaking to reporters following an appearance with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, called the advertisements "abhorrent."
"Isn't it a sad commentary on the art of legislating and lawmaking today?" Snowe asked. "Is that what we've been reduced to in America?"
Snowe and another Republican senator, Ohio's George Voinovich, recently joined Democrats in questioning big tax cuts at a time of rising deficits and war.
In a Senate where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority, their opposition effectively thwarted party leaders' efforts to push through a tax cut larger than $350 billion.
The vote exposed a rift in the Republican Party, and Snowe indicated Tuesday that her attackers are outside the party's mainstream.
Snowe produced a handheld computer and quoted Stephen Moore, the Club for Growth's president, from a Friday news conference: "We don't need a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. We don't need to lob on all of this extra pork-barrel spending we've had."
The senator asked incredulously, "I mean, can you believe anybody describing prescription drugs as pork barrel spending?"
David Keating, the group's executive director, said the advertisements were not an attack on Snowe's patriotism and defended their message.
"It a hard-hitting criticism, but I think it's a fair one," he said.
Keating hopes the ads serve as a warning to other moderate Republicans not to oppose important parts of the president's agenda.
"Absolutely it's a message to others who might consider voting to water down the president's major tax cut and domestic policy initiative," he said.
The Club for Growth, which has occasionally targeted GOP moderates for defeat, plans to continue airing the ads through the end of the week, Keating said.
The anti-tax group has become a potent fund-raiser for fiscal conservatives since its founding in 1999.
