Grams Continues to Campaign From the Gutter by Congressman James L. Oberstar Appearing in Press Release on 2006-10-30. Series of new negative attacks launched this week Duluth—Rod Grams is launching a flurry of last minute negative campaign attacks in a desperate attempt to save his failing run for U.S. Congress. On Monday, Grams unveiled a personal attack in the form of a radio ad falsely alleging that the house Oberstar’s father and grandfather built in Chisholm, is not his home. Grams is using a number of false and distorted claims to attack Oberstar’s record on national security. And this past weekend, Grams distributed a textbook example of a negative campaign mailer that depicts Oberstar as a “serial killer.” “I wonder how low Rod can really go,” said Oberstar. “He’s making false, personal attacks about me, about my home, about where I live. Now he is distorting my record on protecting America from terrorists. All this from a man who said he was my friend at the beginning of this campaign.” In 2002, Oberstar worked with Republicans to come up with a bipartisan, comprehensive port security bill. But the Bush White House refused to fund the legislation. Oberstar says he is continuing to fight for real port security. Currently he is working with his colleagues in Congress to pass a new port security bill that would require all cargo containers that enter the United States be tracked with a global positioning satellite to prevent tampering by terrorists. This March, Oberstar beat back a plan by the Bush Administration to allow the control of major American ports by a United Arab Emirates company. After that, Oberstar pushed back another proposal which would have allowed foreign companies to buy controlling interests in United States airlines. “These are all examples of how the Bush White House and Republican leadership have failed Americans on national security. Democrats need to take control of Congress so we can enact real homeland security,” said Oberstar. In yesterday’s press release, Grams made a false claim that Oberstar voted “against allowing the armed forces to pursue, capture and try the terrorists who attacked the U.S.S. Cole and the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.” “This is an offensive remark, and an outright lie. The bill that he cites was a political tool by Republicans, a poorly-written piece of legislation that permits the use of torture and allows the President to disregard the Geneva Convention,” said Oberstar [Vote 508, September 29, 2006 [http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/]. The veteran DFL incumbent says that he’s standing with John McCain on this issue, who has stated that these provisions could lead to our own prisoners of war being abused when they are taken by the enemy. ###

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