TERROR ATTACK - Derails Bush-Bashing Effort

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Terror Attack Derails Bush-Bashing Effort By Scott Hogenson CNSNews.com Executive Editor September 25, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - A private organization of Democratic partisans rallied via the Internet has cancelled its planned "Fall Offensive," which it described as a grassroots effort keep the controversy of the 2000 presidential election in the minds of voters.

Democrats.com, a commercial Internet web site founded and advised by a number of former Clinton administration officials and Democratic Party operatives, had planned to roll out the "grassroots movement," at a September 11 news conference on Capitol Hill, according to a media advisory issued by the group the day prior to the attack.

The campaign roll out, which was scheduled to take place slightly more than eight hours after the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists, was cancelled and the group has "no intention," of re-scheduling the event at this time, according to Democrats.com co-founder Bob Fertik.

Part of the planned offensive was to show that the some Democrats "will never 'get over' the stolen election," according to a September 10 statement by Fertik. "To put it simply: George W. Bush stole Florida."

The contested Florida election results last November were the key in determining whether Bush or former Vice President Al Gore would receive the state's 25 electoral votes and win the presidency.

Prolonged legal wrangling and various local recounts of ballots in parts of Florida ended in December 2000 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court was improper.

"Seven Justices of the Court agree that there are constitutional problems with the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court," according to the December 12 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which Democrats.com co-founder David Lytel called in a statement an "unlawful suspension of the recount."

Lytel worked in the Clinton administration as co-developer and managing editor of the White House Internet web site, according to Democrats.com.

Key activities in the planned offensive included renewed efforts to seek the impeachment of five U.S. Supreme Court justices, claiming they "violated every principle of law and the U.S. Constitution," and an electoral effort to "sweep all Republicans out of office in 2001, 2002 and 2004."

The planned offensive was called off "because the United States was attacked," said Fertik. "We are suspending all personal attacks on President George W. Bush for the duration of the national crisis."

While the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon may have derailed the effort by Democrats.com, it hasn't derailed a number of other activities by the group.

In an undated commentary published on the site, Fertik wrote, "we should not fight for freedom by destroying our own freedom, as Bush and Congress seem determined to do."

The site describes Fertik as "a consultant to numerous campaigns, including Geraldine Ferraro's 1998 race for the United States Senate."

The organization is also keeping up pressure to try and defeat certain Bush administration initiatives, including the proposed missile defense system.

Lytel wrote in another undated commentary that, "If George W. Bush now heads a national unity government it will accord honor and respect to Democrats and others who question whether or not spending trillions of dollars on a national missle (sic) defense system is the right way to protect Americans from foreign assault."

Unidentified administration officials were singled out in the commentary by Lytell, who continued, "it is far more likely that the bellicose and belligerent cold warriors of the Bush administration... are going to take the opportunity presented by the war frenzy to push through a missle (sic) shield."

Also accessible from the group's web site are numerous petitions that visitors are asked to sign, including one that proclaims in a rotating banner ad, "Bush is a thief."

The petition accuses Bush of "destroying the environment;" "ripping off consumers;" and "risking war by bullying China and Russia, breaking the ABM treaty with his $100 billion 'Star Wars' program, and ignoring the Middle East."

Fertik said Democrats.com doesn't plan to suspend those petitions at the moment. "We have many petitions. We have about 30 petitions of our own and others that we link to. They have different messages," said Fertik.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001


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