Republicans Threaten Suits Over Labor Ads

By Brooks Jackson/CNN

WASHINGTON (July 1) -- The AFL-CIO started running ads about Medicare funding last Thursday in the districts of 17 House Republicans. The ads are part of what Republicans call a "Mediscare" effort to turn elderly voters against the GOP.

One ad shows an old woman while a voice says, "Last fall, Congresswoman Helen Chenowith voted with Newt Gingrich to cut $270 billion from Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy."

The Republican National Committee responded instantly threatening lawsuits against TV stations for running the ads -- calling them false, inaccurate and defamatory. "This ad is false and inaccurate, and therefore libelous to the member of Congress defamed," reads the RNC's letter.

"This ad is really an egregious example of a malicious attempt to libel Republican members of Congress," said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mary Crawford. "It takes great liberties with the truth and is patently false, in charging that Republican members of Congress have tried to cut Medicare.

The ads accuse Republicans of trying to destroy Medicare. Another ad shows an elderly couple talking about how they make ends meet. "We're barely making it, we're barely getting by," says the woman. "And I'm telling you, without my Medicare, I just couldn't make it."

The AFL-CIO backs the legitimacy of the claims made in its ads.

"The ads are completely true," said AFL-CIO general counsel Jon Hiatt. "We've got the documentation to prove every statement that is made in the ads. We'll supply them to any station or anybody else that wants them. And what these tactics are is these are the tactics of people who don't want their voting records disclosed to the public and don't want it known that they're voting against working families."

The fact is last year's Republican budget would have cut $270 billion from the projected GROWTH of Medicare over seven years. It's also true that Medicare spending would have continued to rise -- about seven percent per year. But COSTS have been rising faster than that -- so whether Medicare would have had to be cut, and how much, is a matter of intense debate.

And that threat of a lawsuit -- a lawyer who specializes in libel law says it's empty.

"A judge would throw this out in a heartbeat," said libel lawyer Henry Hoberman. "And one of the main reasons is this case involves political discourse, which is really at the heart of the first amendment in this country." (128K AIFF or WAV sound)

Republicans asked stations to stop running an earlier AFL-CIO ad, claiming it was false too -- and they had very little success then. Now they hope to do better with some legal sabre-rattling.

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

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• Spin Patrol: Dems, GOP Exchange Attack Ads -- June 27, 1996

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