Pelosi Appeals For $100,000 To Counter GOP ‘Smears’ On Health Overhaul Efforts

Roll Call reports: "Hoping to boost Democratic Congressional Committee fundraising before the August Federal Election Commission deadline, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) released an appeal Thursday with a goal of bringing in $100,000 in new donations by Monday to help fight for health care reform." Pelosi's plea was sent to the DCCC's grass-roots e-mail list and "couched as an effort to fight back against 'special interest-funded attacks' on the public insurance option and to demonstrate 'the grassroots momentum behind real reform' before Congress returns from the August recess" (McArdle, 8/27).

Politico adds: "Democrats for weeks have been on the defensive, accusing Republicans of mischaracterizing their reform effort. Now, Pelosi is pushing back." Politico quotes from Pelosi's message: "'Republicans are doing everything they can to spread the lies they hope will kill health insurance reform,' Pelosi writes at the end of the email. 'Please make a generous financial contribution to help Democrats get the truth out and fight GOP smears'" (Isenstadt, 8/27).

The Hill details the GOP comment: "The only 'smears' in this debate are the intra-party attacks in Speaker Pelosi's own caucus, not to mention her own offensive remarks assailing concerned citizens as 'un-American,'" said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Paul Lindsay. 'Democrats need to start facing the fact that they have lost August and, with it, any hope of reviving an unpopular government-run healthcare plan'" (Soraghan, 8/27).