Senator Bernie Sanders often sends out a constituent newsletter to many on his list that includes the Senator’s perspective on many of the issues of the day, particularly those which he is actively addressing in Washington. Like many such pieces, it also includes a fundraising appeal.
Unfortunately, his most recent piece included references to the shooting in Arizona of Representatve Gabrielle Giffords and many others. The total piece, then, left him open to the following from Sarah Palin’s #1 fan Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard:
Sanders Fundraises Off Arizona Murders
There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list.
This afternoon Sanders sent out a fundraising appeal, seeking to raise money to fight Republicans and other “right-wing reactionaries” responsible for the climate that led to the shooting.
According to HuffPo’s Sam Stein, Bernie’s office responded that it would have been “absurd” to ignore the incident in a political, current-events driven newsletter, and pointed out that “the senator devoted one sentence in a four-page newsletter to thanking his supporters and another sentence indicating that their support in the future would be appreciated.”
I don’t think it’s reasonable to knock Bernie too hard on this given the above, but it was foolish at best not to anticipate this reaction. This will only be the beginning of this line of attack, not simply from the Standard, but from talk radio, Fox News and conservative bloggers, before echoing into the legacy media. Ouch.
Of course, elsewhere, the “Tea Party Express” is explicitly using the tragedy to raise money, casting itself – again – as a victim. We’ll see if we hear as much about that…
Sanders shouldn’t have combined fund raising with a letter about Giffords. It wasn’t tragic or the end of the world, but it was tacky, even if his staff didn’t consider the connection between the two things.
It’s not an awful thing–the letter pretty much follows his usual template, so they clearly just followed the formula–but completely tone deaf. Still not the same as the Tea Party’s bullshit.
I see it as more of a reflex than an overt action. He responded to the tragedy, sent out the letter, asking for money is a given.
Obama’s OFA does this nonstop. Every issue brings a partisan politics-laden e-mail, treats supporters like puppets, urging them to write letters to editor & make calls on behalf of their agenda & pleas to help raise funds, using every issue as a fundraiser.
Now Bernie’s in the crosshairs of the likes of Crystal who personally I can’t stand though Fred Barnes is ok. Crystal’s a neocon anyways. No surprises here.
He was actually the one who steered McCain to Palin I believe. What does that say? Alot.