Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

"I totally understand and respect his will to keep himself out of the political fray," said Eli Pariser, executive director of the political action committee. "But the things that he's revealing have real political consequences because they demonstrate that Bush mismanaged his core election issue."

Pariser said the group had a right to quote Clarke under the 1st Amendment. "Generally speaking, you can quote public figures in an ad or wherever you like," he said.

3:11 PM PST, March 31, 2004

WASHINGTON — The former White House counterterrorism chief who has heaped criticism on President Bush's response to terrorist threats today protested the use of his voice and words in an anti-Bush television commercial.

Richard A. Clarke, who has given interviews on national television and to other media and authored a book critical of the president, apparently decided that a political advertisement was over the line.

The Associated Press quoted Clarke as saying that he wanted the ad, which quotes him directly, to be pulled from CNN, Fox News Channel and other news outlets. The ad was sponsored by a political action committee of MoveOn.org, a group opposed to Bush's reelection. The ad began airing Tuesday and is scheduled to run through Friday.

"I just don't want to be used," Clarke told AP. "I don't want to be part of what looks like a political TV ad. I'm trying hard to make this not a partisan thing, but a discussion of how we stop terrorism from happening in the future, keep this on a policy issue. I don't want this to become any more emotional or personal than it has already."

Efforts to reach Clarke this afternoon were unsuccessful.

The ad, which shows Bush walking at the White House, quotes from a recent interview Clarke gave the CBS news show "60 Minutes."

"Frankly, I find it outrageous that a president is running for reelection on the grounds that he'd done such great things on terrorism," Clarke is quoted as saying in the ad. "He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11."

The ad's sponsor rebuffed Clarke's request to pull it.

"I totally understand and respect his will to keep himself out of the political fray," said Eli Pariser, executive director of the political action committee. "But the things that he's revealing have real political consequences because they demonstrate that Bush mismanaged his core election issue."

Pariser said the group had a right to quote Clarke under the 1st Amendment. "Generally speaking, you can quote public figures in an ad or wherever you like," he said.

Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt declined comment. The campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, did not immediately respond to phone calls.

Republicans have charged that MoveOn is coordinating its TV ads with the Kerry campaign. The Democrat's aides and the leader of the liberal group deny the charge.