As the special Senatorial election in Massachusetts became more and more competitive, Democrat Martha Coakley was forced to go negative in order to make up for being caught flatfooted by the sudden ascendency of Republican Scott Brown. Here are FrumForum’s top four picks for Coakley’s most embarrassing negative ads.
Associating Scott Brown with the World Trade Center
One recent Martha Coakley ad featured a picture of the World Trade Center as a backdrop to the accusation that Scott Brown was tied to Wall Street greed.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani erupted at the news, saying: “Never in their wildest dreams did they think they would lose in Massachusetts… Now they’re using imagery from an area of New York where thousands of Americans died.” The ad, he continued, “just understates how excessively negative they’ve become since they’re so paranoid about losing this seat. They’re now using buildings that were destroyed on 9/11 — which is just unthinkable.”
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Accusing Scott Brown of Wanting to Deny Rape Victims Emergency Contraception
A Coakley ad accused Brown of wanting to “deny rape victims care”, showing a smiling Scott Brown side by side with a traumatized young girl, huddled in a stairwell. At issue was an amendment that Brown proposed in 2005, which would have allowed doctors to find a substitute if they objected to providing emergency contraception on religious grounds.
Ayla Brown, Scott’s daughter and a former American Idol contestant, defended her father fiercely, saying that the ad “represents everything that discourages young women from getting involved in politics, and as a young woman, I’m completely offended by that.”
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Coakley Ad accuses Brown of Wanting to Turn All Rape Victims Away From Hospitals
Going even further than the video ad that showed a rape victim huddled in a stairwell, a flier was sent to voters that read: “1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.”
Dan Winslow, counsel for the Brown campaign, immediately threatened legal action: “The law creates a forum after the election for the facts to come out,” Winslow says. “Scott Brown cannot have this lie stand.”
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Coakley Ad Misspells “Massachusetts”
There’s been a lot of forgetfulness circulating around the campaign. President Obama appeared to forget which state he was in while stumping for Coakley, and Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) called Martha Coakley ‘Marcia’ several times after the President’s speech.
But perhaps the worst offense is the misspelling of Massachusetts in an ad approved by Coakley’s campaign. It doesn’t get much worse than this – in an ad designed to increase negative perceptions of Scott Brown, this image only served to portray Coakley as out of touch.
Newbigtech // Jan 18, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Brown will win this because the people in the state of Mass. are not idiots. They Know Coakley is a puppet, and a pawn. No representation and a sheep that follows blindly.
Brown on the other hand has not stooped so low. He has stayed above the fray, He is ready to serve.
Won’t get fooled again in 2010!
balconesfault // Jan 18, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Seriously? Rudy Giuliani is complaining about someone politicizing 9/11?
What – does he think he has a copywrite on that?
Anyway, I’m pretty much thinking that the 9/11 obsessed sort are the only ones who see that footage and think 9/11, particularly given the text of the ads.
balconesfault // Jan 18, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Ayla Brown, Scott’s daughter and a former American Idol contestant, defended her father fiercely, saying that the ad “represents everything that discourages young women from getting involved in politics, and as a young woman, I’m completely offended by that.”
So a woman running for Senate is discouraging young women from getting into politics?
I wonder how she feels about cries at political rallies to stick curling irons in certain portions of the female candidate’s anatomy?
jakester // Jan 19, 2010 at 12:34 am
balconesfault
Got to agree with you, that is a standard looking Wall Street type skyscraper, the 9/11 tie in is a real reach. Also the quip about the ad discouraging young women from entering politics makes about as much sense as right wingers who could give a fig about civil rights talking about all the racists and anti-semites running a party full Jews and Blacks
kevin47 // Jan 19, 2010 at 12:44 am
“Got to agree with you, that is a standard looking Wall Street type skyscraper,”
You’ve got to agree with him? It’s not a matter of opinion. It is the WTC.
jakester // Jan 19, 2010 at 2:23 am
kevin47
maybe it is , but most people and I didn’t associate it with the WTC. It would be like a shot of the lobby or the public restrooms of the WTC, only some consummate insider or nerd would pick that out.
jabbermule // Jan 19, 2010 at 6:45 am
balconesfault:
“Anyway, I’m pretty much thinking that the 9/11 obsessed sort are the only ones who see that footage and think 9/11, particularly given the text of the ads.”
Given the left’s cavalier attitude about the worst terrorist attack in the history of mankind, I’m glad some in America continue to be obsessed with 9/11 (i.e intelligence community, military, law enforcement) so people like you can continue to hide your heads in the sand about the possibility of yet another, potentially far worse, 9/11-style attack.
By the way, it’s spelled “copyright.”
GOProud // Jan 19, 2010 at 7:40 am
“By the way (balconesfault), it’s spelled “copyright (not copywrite).”
jabbermule, we’ve all learned in past dealings with Balconesfault, woe to thee who trieth to correcth the nave on his ideas or grammar. Shame on you for forgetting or, worse yet on Friends-of-Frum, not heeding the lesson.
sinz54 // Jan 19, 2010 at 8:59 am
The seething hatred the liberals are now feeling for Brown is evident from this column by liberal Jonathan Chait in The New Republic, a liberal journal I used to respect:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/panic
Of all the photos he could run of Scott Brown, the one he selected was the Cosmo picture from 20 years ago.
Is The New Republic competing with the National Enquirer now?
kevin47 // Jan 19, 2010 at 10:39 am
“maybe it is , but most people and I didn’t associate it with the WTC.”
Then what was the point of using the image in the ad? In addition to being repugnant, it was incoherent as well.
Come to think of it, that just about sums up Coakley’s candidacy. Everything makes sense now.
balconesfault // Jan 19, 2010 at 5:06 pm
“By the way (balconesfault), it’s spelled “copyright (not copywrite).”
jabbermule, we’ve all learned in past dealings with Balconesfault, woe to thee who trieth to correcth the nave on his ideas or grammar.
Actually, I appreciate corrections on points of fact.
Brown barracks Obama as NHS plans suffer coronary « Philtheone.com // Jan 20, 2010 at 6:30 am
[...] because he associated with and implicated himself in Martha Coakley’s aggressive, unpopular smear campaign that preferred to make Scott Brown look bad rather than herself look [...]