More Apparent Fallout Over Group’s Anti-Roberts Ad

When someone suddenly leaves a position after a major controversy it usually suggests that it may not be a coincidence. And so we see this via Ad Wars about a departure from the group that produced the widely panned — and withdrawn — ad blasting Supreme Court nominee John Roberts:

Dear Friends –

Today will be my last day with NARAL Pro-Choice America. I’ve been thinking for a while that I would most likely leave after the Supreme Court nomination fight was over, and by leaving now I can spend the next two weeks in Cape Cod with my family relaxing, instead of trying to find a place with good cell phone reception..

I’m very proud of the work I’ve done here in the past two years, and especially proud of the leadership role this organization is taking both in the current Supreme Court debate, and in its efforts to change the dynamics of the political debate around reproductive freedom.

ETC. And it’s signed David E. Seldin, Director of Communications, NARAL Pro-Choice America.

This suggests that at the very least (a)the group itself judged the backlash to be a public relations and political disaster OR if this resignation was indeed voluntary (b)Seldin went through hell on this story and truly decided he wanted to move on faster than he originally expected.

But the bottom line is this: the ad was a huge political mistake and probably in the end helped Roberts more than it hurt him, by raising the eyebrows of some centrists and independents who don’t like finding out that highly touted allegations (even about someone who they may not support) are in fact false. Also, when a news story comes out and shows that someone making an allegation doesn’t have the facts it automatically discredits that group with a certain segment of the population — so their long run political strength is diminished (and this is self-inflicted).

Thanks to reader Marty from sending us this link from Blogs For Bush on this item.