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Flashback 1991: Gephardt Called Bush's Speech to Students 'Paid Political Advertising'

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As Barack Obama prepares a nationwide broadcast to America's students next Tuesday, it has been revealed that Democrats complained in 1991 when then President George H. W. Bush broadcast a speech from a Northwest Washington junior high school.

In fact, the House Majority leader at the time, Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), said "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students."

Such was reported by the Washington Post on October 3, 1991 (h/t KY3 Political Notebook via Chuck Todd):

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House Democrats criticized President Bush yesterday for using Education Department funds to produce and broadcast a speech that he made Tuesday at a Northwest Washington junior high school.

The Democratic critics accused Bush of turning government money for education to his own political use, namely, an ongoing effort to inoculate himself against their charges of inattention to domestic issues. The speech at Alice Deal Junior High School, broadcast live on radio and television, urged students to study hard, avoid drugs and turn in troublemakers.

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.' "

Two House committees demanded that the department explain the use of its funds for the speech, an explanation that Deputy Secretary David T. Kearns provided late in the day in a letter to Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander was out of town.  [...]

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), chairwoman of the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, said it was outrageous for the White House to "start using precious dollars for campaigns" when "we are struggling for every silly dime we can get" for education programs.

Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.) said that if Bush feels obliged to use government funds to hire outside consultants "to make him look good," then he should fire some of the public relations experts on the White House payroll. "Then the president might be more sympathetic to unemployment benefits," Frost said, referring to Bush's threat to veto legislation to extend benefits.

Makes one wonder if today's media, with the economy in what they've repeatedly called the worst recession since the Great Depression, will question Obama's use of education funds for his upcoming speech.

After all, when you look at Education Secretary Arne Duncan's letter concerning this event, one has to assume it's costing the Department a great deal of money.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.

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They go apoplectic when

They go apoplectic when GHWB gives a speech in ONE school, yet here they are broadcasting to ALL public schools.  Hypocrites!

Spam Deleted

....

More spam

Two comments on NB and both of them the same.

SPAM ALERT NEW SPAMMER ALERT

'Member 1 day 12 hours'.

I'm not at all interested

I'm not at all interested in your opinion, but I'm very concerned about your writing.

Jer

Jer,

LOL.

Yeah, one of my English profs would have thrown up her hands in disgust, too.

She was old-school (of the petrified fossil variety), and social promotion wasn't part of the deal - if you get my drift. 

It was either her way, or the registrars office. 

I managed to eek out a B, but it damn near killed me. 

-Dave

It’s either Obama or America. There cannot be both.

I know what you mean, Dave...

I know what you mean, Dave...

My high school English teacher was such a strict grammarian, if you walked into class with so much as one participle dangling, it was blackboard time.

Jer

Jer, I had one of those in the 8th grade

She was about three years older than baseball, and what was worse, she taught Latin at Agnes Scott College in her "spare time."

She was also the grandmother of one of my best friends, so I had to behave myself.  

LOL - Honestly, I don't know how I escaped being thrown out of the private schools I attended, as my parents seemed to have a knack for finding the ones run by relatives of Nurse Ratched, but that is a story for another day. 

Anyhow, she was seriously into diagramming sentences, and I don't mean those little piddly subject/verb versions, but the kind that would take up the entire board, which ran the length of the wall in that particular classroom.

And God help you if you screwed it up, too.

:-) 

-Dave

It’s either Obama or America. There cannot be both.

Dave...

Mine must have been hatched from the same egg.  She had the school's only custom blackboard with a special pull-down extension to accomodate her endless, convoluted, incomprehensible, freakin' diagrammed sentences.

Jer

And that turned you

into the competent NBer you are today, and not some loser spamming his blog in pathetic syntax.

:-D

Candance..."A competent NBer"

"A competent NBer".  I'm literally beaming.  And my English teacher, bless her soul, would be so proud.

Jer

Jer, LOL

Actually, I think a "competent NBer" is a high compliment, as I am pretty sure being considered a competent DKoser or DUer requires a self-administered, do-it-yourself at-home lobotomy.

:-O 

-Dave

It’s either Obama or America. There cannot be both.

At least you get a competint

I can't even spell it.

Btw Jer- are you from/in Cali?

But you're an artist, BK...

But you're an artist, BK...you don't need to spell.

Cal--only when visiting my sister.

Jer

:-) Jer

To be a good NBer is to be in an exclusive club.

Must chime in here, fellas.

I had one, too, however in the 9th grade.  She taught Advanced Placement English, and although she didn't teach Latin, she did grade papers for a professor who taught College Level Writing.  Her name was Mrs. Creech.  As big around as she was tall (which wasn't very)....and she weilded about a 3' ruler she used to slam on the desk.

I remember her first assignment....write a research paper, here is how you do it, I mark off for spelling errors, bad grammar, punctuation, typos, as well as missing footnotes (etc. etc. etc.).  I shall grade your papers exactly as I do the sophomore college students.

I have wanted to hug that woman so many times in my life.  She made my life in college ever so much easier, knowing how to write properly.  In business school, all the other students would freak when the prof would state "yes, I do count off for form"....I'd just go "YES!".  In business, I've always been the one everyone turns to for proof-reading, techncial writing, etc.  Writing isn't hard, but one must be disciplined, and concise.

Here's to you, Mrs. Creech!  And all of the other fabulous teachers I had back when a public school education was a worthwhile thing.

I hope he fails, too.

Blonde...

Somehow, I can't imagine a "Mrs. Creech" with any other persona than the one you describe.

Jer

I forgot to mention the blue hair

I also had an English teacher in 7th grade (I went to a very avant garde school for 2 years in 7/8 grade called Nova University School....where they did wide open team teaching and everything was taught in modules).  Fast paced kids went real fast...by the time I got to regular school in 9th grade, Mrs. Creech didn't phase me one iota (Nova was an hour and a half away, just couldn't hack the bus ride, and my mom wasn't fond of driving, LOL).

Anyhoo....one of the seventh grade English teachers was the antithesis of Mrs. Creech.  She was a Playboy centerfold in her former life.  I think her name was Carolyn Katz.  The kids, natch, went absolutely bonkers.  She wasn't a half bad teacher, though.

:) 

I mention this since all that boobage is going on over on the Behar/Bamster capfest.

I hope he fails, too.

From the FAQs on the DoE link:

Will the address be available in some form after the original broadcast date and time?

Downloadable video of the speech will be made available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/mediaresources/ as well as on www.ed.gov. C-SPAN.org will provide archived and "on-demand" viewing options.

***

I'd like to know why I can't see a transcript of his speech BEFOREHAND, so I'll know just what he intends to tell our children.  In fact, shouldn't we be given at least 5 days in advance to review it?  Wasn't that one of his campaign promises about transparency in government?  Oh wait, that only applied to bills before he signed them, not speeches to our children. 

OTOH, it doesn't seem to apply so much to the bills, either. 

Hush Tactics

I'd be happy to be wrong, but I doubt we'll get any preview.

After all, isn't it the tactic of bullys, pedophiles, and rapists to tell their targets not to say anything about what's going on? The offensive act is compounded by depriving the target of the opportunity to speak out.

dick gebhardt

gebhardt is another pompous oaf with no discernible qualties.  I am glad his sorry face is no longer in the senate to spout his b.s.

Ah, Gepthart served in the

House not the Senate. 

The Democrats' Creed

Do as I say, not as I do.

Once you figure that out, everything they say makes sense.

 

"I support the President but not his policies" - Blonde

Great Forgotten Flaskback

I had completely forgotten about this...

Prepping in advance

I'm prepping my kids in advance. I expect a call from a shocked teacher or principal when they hear what my kids say about what they think Obama should do. And while it is tempting to make it obscene, it will just be something like cut taxes, reduce government, eliminate the Education Dept., etc.

While many would accuse my kids of being drones repeating what I'm saying; they are really listening, processing and drawing their own conclusions. We really underestimate the intelligence of our children. They get simple concepts like you can't spend your way out of debt. That taxation is stealing. That when you have to spend your own money you don't go out for dinner every night.

Bring Comrade Obama on. My kids will rip him a new one.

Political Advertising 1991?

Of course it is! Everyone knows that democRATS favor kids doing drugs!

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason

Why would Democrats and the

Why would Democrats and the teachers' unions want their students to be smarter? Their vote depends on stupidity and gullibility.

No kidding..

The comparrison though, between Bush's 'Say No to Drugs' speech and B. Hussein Obama's original speech is apple and oranges. 

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason

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