Super Bowl Ad Opposes Iraq Troop Surge
By CBSNews.com's Jennifer Hoar
If you were watching Super Bowl XLI in the Washington, D.C. area, Duluth, Minn., or Maine on Sunday night, you might have seen an ad that had nothing to do with chips, beer or Kevin Federline.
VoteVets.org, a political action committee that is part of the Americans Against Escalation in Iraq coalition, ran an ad in those television markets encouraging opposition to President Bush's proposed troop surge in Iraq.
The ads feature statements from several veterans, one of whom gesticulates with a semi-amputated arm, and concludes by exhorting residents to call their respective senators, John Warner, Norm Coleman, and Susan Collins – all Republicans – "to stop the escalation."
The thing is, all of these Senators are already against the escalation.
In fact, the Warner resolution that is currently on the docket, and is supported by a bipartisan group of senators, opposes the troop increase and ensures that funding for troops is not reduced.
"We're not certain why they ran the ad," Collins press secretary Jen Burita said.
Apparently, neither were some constituents. Burita said that Collins' Capitol Hill office received about half a dozen calls about the Vote Vets ad, four of them from people confused about its message.
"These are all members who are adamant" about preventing the troop increases, Burita said. "The members [constituents] who are calling are the ones agreeing" that the troop surge must be stopped.
A communications consultant for Vote Vets, who asked that his name not be used, explains that the organization fully supports the Warner resolution, but wanted to embolden Virginia, Minnesota and Maine constituents to express support to their senators.
"Especially with a threatened filibuster and [Senate Republican Leader] McConnell saying he has all Republicans on his side for one, it's important these senators know that their constituents want them to do the right thing," the consultant told CBSNews.com in an e-mail message.
Originally, Vote Vets urged support for the resolution co-authored by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. However, that proposal to declare the president's troop increase "not in the national interest of the U.S." was killed last week, as CBS News was first to report.
The ads did not target constituents of Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham (both Republicans) because neither is likely to budge on the issue. After all, McCain, Graham and a cadre of other Senate Republicans support the Bush Administration plan to send an additional 21,500 American soldiers to Iraq.
Vote Vets spent $91,000 in the D.C. market, and considerably less in the other two, to air the "stop escalation" ad once during the game on Sunday. Both Vote Vets and MoveOn, a progressive political action committee, sent out e-mails recently to raise the money to air the ad during the Super Bowl and they had it within a day and a half, the group's consultant said.
By Jennifer Hoar