May 12, 2000
Democrats get producing credit for march of moms
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sunday's Million Mom March, billed as a grass-roots
gathering of soccer moms devoid of partisan politics, is being
denounced by critics as a slickly produced media event bankrolled
by Democrats and organized by Dan Rather's ex-publicist.
March founder Donna Dees-Thomases is on temporary leave from
CBS News and is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases � a close
friend and political adviser to first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
The group's Web site gives President Clinton the "Mom's
Apple Pie Award" and depicts House Majority Whip Tom DeLay in a
dunce cap in the "Time Out Chair."
"Is this march simply an instrument of the elite or does it
reflect genuine grass-roots support?" said Jonathan Baron,
spokesman for the Texas Republican. "I'll leave it to others to
assess the grass-roots nature of the event.
"I mean, from our point of view, this organization gave
President Clinton their apple pie award, so we can only take this
kind of thing so seriously," he added.
The march, expected to draw hundreds of thousands and
closing off two streets that run parallel to the Mall, has
prompted controversy since it first emerged.
Mrs. Dees-Thomases, who did not return telephone calls to
The Washington Times, is the publicist who persuaded Mrs. Clinton
to appear on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," where the
first lady was given an advance peek at answers to a "pop quiz"
she aced on the air. Mrs. Dees-Thomases later met again with Mrs.
Clinton to thank her for the appearance.
Mrs. Dees-Thomases met Monday with Mr. Clinton at the White
House to plot strategy for the march. But White House Press
Secretary Joe Lockhart downplayed the administration's role.
"This came out of some mothers and groups that wanted to
find a way to make a statement on Mother's Day," Mr. Lockhart
said. "We have worked with them some this week, finding an
appropriate way for the president to participate in the effort.
"But as far as political advice, I don't think they've come
looking for that here," he added.
The first lady plans to march, along with Vice President Al
Gore's wife Tipper and daughter Karenna Gore Schiff, Attorney
General Janet Reno and TV talk show host Rosie O'Donnell.
The group's Web site asserts that guns kill an average of 12
children per day in the United States. But the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said the real number is only half
that.
The discrepancy is rooted in the fact that the march
organizers count adults, aged 18 and 19, as children, which are
legally defined as people 17 and younger.
Critics say most of these adult gun deaths are gang- or
drug-related and should not be counted as gun deaths among
children.
The Million Mom March listed itself with the Internal
Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization, which has
preferential tax status. But IRS documents state that "501(c)(3)
organizations may not engage in political activity, including
endorsing candidates."
Although march organizers openly lobby for specific gun
control laws � primarily the licensing and registration of all
handguns �some issue lobbying is allowed under IRS rules,
explained agency spokesman Don Roberts.
Mrs. Dees-Thomases has sought to portray the march as a
groundswell of ordinary, nonpolitical moms from across the
country who are demanding "common sense gun safety laws."
But while the group has openly promoted Democrats who
advocate gun control, it has shunned safety advocates affiliated
with the firearms industry.
For example, march organizers fired their Colorado state
organizer for encouraging Shari LeGate to pass out child safety
locks at a booth during the march. The dismissal came after march
organizers learned Mrs. LeGate had ties to a gun trade group.
Letting Mrs. LeGate in would have been akin to having
Seagrams speak at a rally of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said
the new state coordinator, Amy Sodnicar.
But while march organizers are banning Mrs. LeGate, a
proponent of gun safety locks, they are welcoming Tamarla Owens,
whose 6-year-old boy is accused of using a stolen handgun he
found in a crackhouse to kill a 6-year-old girl in Michigan in
February. Her son reportedly had been left unattended when he
found the gun.
Mike Beard, a member of the steering committee for the
march, said he was unaware of Mrs. Owens' plan to march. He
called the ban on Mrs. LeGate one of those "internal doctrinal
disputes and personnel problems" that always occur "in marches
like this."
"There is nothing wrong with gun safety locks, but we had
decided the goals of the march would be licensing and
registration," Mr. Beard said.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National
Rifle Association, doesn't buy claims of a nonpartisan,
grass-roots event.
"This isn't moms, it's the tentacles of the Clinton-Gore
operation playing politics," Mr. LaPierre told The Washington
Times. "It all looks to me like a soft money expenditure for the
Clinton-Gore operation, to tell you the truth."
But Mr. Beard, who is also president of the Coalition to
Stop Gun Violence, insisted ordinary mothers provided the impetus
for the Washington march and 66 other marches around the country
that will also be staged Sunday.
"Talk to a Hispanic mother in New Mexico who's organizing
the march there and you realize she's not doing this because
somebody who knows Bill Clinton in Washington asked her to do
it," Mr. Beard said.
Mr. Beard said the largest march donation was probably the
$200,000 that came from billionaire George Soros.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Soros
last year gave $2,000 to two separate campaign funds for Mr.
Gore, and has also given campaign cash to Sen. Charles E.
Schumer, New York Democrat, a relentless advocate of gun control.
He also has given more than $180,000 in "soft money" to various
Democratic accounts since 1995.
As the widespread media coverage of the march has neared,
congressional Democrats have pushed for sweeping new gun controls
that have virtually no chance of passing the Republican-led
Congress.
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Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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