Posted on 10/18/2002 12:24:49 AM PDT by windchime
For Immediate ReleaseThursday, October 17, 2002
McBride’s Story About Vicious Remarks Challenged by Veteran Washington Post Reporter
Tallahassee -- McBride’s story about vicious remarks challenged by veteran Washington Post reporter. The veteran Washington Post reporter who yesterday broke the story about Bill McBride’s refusal to repudiate the recent vicious comments made by one of his supporters against Gov. Jeb Bush and his family, today challenged McBride’s assertion that he did not know about the remarks when he was asked for comment about them.
The Post yesterday reported that just prior to McBride joining as an in-studio guest on Victor Curry’s Miami radio program, Curry verbally assaulted the Governor and his family, at one point saying that the Bush family and the bin Laden family were business “‘partners’ seeking to profit from war.” Curry went on to say of the Bush family, “These people are on a neo-Nazi, right-wing mission against the American people.” He concluded calling the Bush administration a “Godless, wicked regime.” McBride later refused to repudiate Curry’s remarks, saying he had not heard them and was unaware of them.
But David Von Drehle, the well-respected national correspondent from the Post who wrote the story, told the Miami Herald today that, contrary to McBride’s claim that he was unaware, McBride was in fact read each of the remarks before asked for comment, and still failed to condemn them.
Today’s Herald reports, “Von Drehle, a veteran national correspondent who interviewed McBride in a car shortly after the radio appearance, said Wednesday he specifically read each of Curry’s remarks to McBride, offering the candidate ample opportunity to respond. ‘I read each of them to him, and his answer was the one I quoted in the story,’ Von Drehle said.”
“It’s bad enough that Bill McBride would sit by and let one of his supporters make such vicious and personal attacks against Gov. Bush and his family,” stated Bush-Brogan Communications Director Todd Harris. “But to then distort the truth about it, pretending he was unaware of the remarks when asked to comment, makes the whole thing all the worse. Bill McBride has shown once again that he does not have the political courage to stand up to his supporters, even when he knows they are wrong. He still has not repudiated Curry for his remarks, nor has he called on Curry to apologize for them.”
Seems McBride/McAuliffe has another characteristic in common with Clinton............lying.
The entire article is here. I'm amazed it appeared in the WP. Here are a few other tidbits:
. . . . He and his wife, a retired bank executive, used to file joint tax returns. Shortly before announcing his bid for governor, they switched to separate returns. As a result, McBride could claim the smallest net worth of any major candidate -- when for all practical purposes he is by far the richest.
McBride lives in a spacious house on 30 lakeside acres outside Tampa, in an area in which a comparable home recently listed for just under $1 million. But in a 1999 speech, McBride said, "I live in a poor area of my state. The only time many of my neighbors see a lawyer is when the lawyer is representing the mobile home park owner evicting them." . . . .
The aw-shucks aura is essential to McBride's canny strategy, which is to make the election all about Bush and never, ever, to let the focus swing around to him. . . .
McBride attacks Jeb Bush for cutting taxes too aggressively. He blames Bush for Florida's budget deficit. He reminds voters that Bush campaigned on promises to improve education and fix the state's troubled foster care system -- and insists that if Bush hasn't delivered results yet, there is no point giving him more time.
But when the subject shifts to his own plans, McBride remains stubbornly fuzzy. "There's no need for me to change what I've been doing," he tells reporters pressing him for position papers.
Take his second-most prominent issue, prescription drug coverage. McBride speaks so warmly about the travails of retirees struggling with rising drug costs that it's easy to miss his bottom line -- it's not a state problem. Though he ridicules Bush's proposal to provide $160 a month to help needy seniors pay for drugs, it is more concrete than McBride's plan, which is to lobby Congress to solve the problem.
On environmental issues, such as offshore oil drilling and Everglades restoration, McBride's positions appear to be the same as Bush's, though it is hard to tell because he often demurs when pressed on specifics.
There is nothing but danger in taking stands, campaign spokesman Alan Stonecipher suggests. Bush would simply use them to "attack Bill."
So we'll email this article to FNC and give them the latest! Let's hope Cameron keeps on it.
Not to worry. We've got the final debate on Tuesday evening and McBride CANNOT dodge or weave with Tim Russert.
NN, do we know what stations the final debate will be on and are we going to get the party started? Pls advise. FV
I love politics. Go, Jeb, go!
Is this Curry guy a freeper? I read those same kind of remarks here all of the time. As for McBride, what does one expect from a member of the Liars party?
Bush will will win by 6-7 points.
According to today's Washington Post, McBride recently appeared on the radio program of former Miami-Dade NAACP chair Rev. Victor Curry. On the air, just before McBride's interview began, Curry verbally assaulted the Governor and his family, at one point saying that the Bush family and the bin Laden family were business "partners - seeking to profit from war."
"Curry could be heard on monitors around the small building saying that he would support 'a dog' rather than Jeb Bush. As for President Bush, he "should be impeached" for treason," the Post reported. Curry went on to say of the Bush family, "These people are on a neo-Nazi, right-wing mission against the American people." He concluded calling the Bush administration a "Godless, wicked regime."
And what was Bill McBride's response to all of this? Instead of condemning the remarks, McBride instead praised Curry. According to the Post, "Minutes later, McBride's gentle drawl came over the radio, assuring Curry that, as governor, "One of the people I'm going to listen to is you."
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