http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/i...71896179580.xml

I love these guys for telling it like it is.

quote:

Firefighters decry 9/11 images in Bush campaign ads Saturday, March 06, 2004 By Jim Harger The Grand Rapids Press The image of New York firefighters carrying flag-draped remains appears for just a split second in President George W. Bush's new TV commercial, but it is long enough to annoy Tony Beurkens. He and other Grand Rapids firefighters gathered Friday to watch the campaign spot, which critics say capitalizes on Sept. 11 emotion for political gain. "If they are going to ride on our backs, it's time they give us the homeland security funds we were supposed to get, " said Beurkens, president of the Grand Rapids Firefighters Local 366. "He recognizes homeland security, but yet he keeps cutting our budgets." Beurkens and other leaders of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) around the country are calling on the Bush campaign to remove the images of firefighters at the scene of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. While Bush has touted progress in homeland security, they say he has failed to follow through with the funding they need to protect Americans. "Isn't it ironic? We're the first line of defense," said firefighter Brian Brewer and he and Beurkens watched the commercial from their fire station on Bridge Street NW. Grand Rapids firefighters are facing the possibility of layoffs and the elimination of overtime pay later this year as city officials struggle to balance the city's budget in the recession that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "I just think it's a slap in the face," said Shaun Abbey, president of Kentwood's IAFF Local 3174. "We lost 350 of our brothers in that event, and he's going to use it to get elected." Though Congress has passed legislation to hire 75,000 new firefighters nationwide, union leaders say Bush has refused to put the necessary funds in his budget. The union has been an early supporter of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who is on track to become the Democratic challenger to Bush. "What he says about firefighters is nowhere near to what he is doing to firefighters," said Paul Hufnagel, state IAFF president. Bush's re-election campaign began airing the commercials nationally Thursday on cable television and on broadcast stations in about 80 media markets in 18 states. One ad shows the charred wreckage of the World Trade Center with an American flag flying amid the debris. Another -- and a Spanish-language version of it -- use that image and one of firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher. In January 2002, just a few months after nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, Bush told House and Senate leaders in a meeting at the White House that "I have no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue" that midterm election year. On Thursday, his aides defended the ads as appropriate for an election about public policy and the war on terror. "Sept. 11 changed the equation in our public policy. It forever changed the world," said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary. "The president's steady leadership is vital to how we wage war on terrorism." Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also came out in support of the ads, saying they were done "in a very tasteful way." But the commercials have angered some victims' relatives as well as the firefighters' union. "It's absolutely inappropriate," said Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother, Bill Kelly Jr., and leads Peaceful Tomorrows, a group for victims' families. "There are certain memories and certain images that I consider sacred." Kristen Breitweiser, of Middletown Township, N.J., whose husband, Ronald, died in the World Trade Center, said Bush should not use the tragedy as "political propaganda." "Three thousand people were murdered on President Bush's watch," she said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2004 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission

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