Ari Fleischer, press secretary to GWB who led the message war that took us into Iraq, has confirmed that he was hired by the Susan B. Comen Foundation to recruit a senior vice president of government relations, the position now filled by anti-choice zealot, Karen Handel. Fleischer, well known conservative pundit, is believed to have been involved in Komen's strategy to defund Planned Parenthood by reverse engineering a new rule to single out the women's health care provider and cut its funding. As we have witnessed this week, that strategy blew up in the Komen Foundation's face this week in probably the worst PR fiasco in recent years. Reading the bios of the members of Komen's board of directors, one can see why they blundered into this mess. The board is made up mostly of wealthy Dallasites, plus a lobbyist, who are high ranking Republicans. Oh, and Nancy Brinker's 36 year old son, Eric. I can't imagine that there's much diversity of opinion on the board, and that often makes for bad, sometimes foolish decision making, as we just witnessed.
The hiring of Fleischer, who makes a living being a partisan talking head, to establish Komen's communications strategy, is just one more bit of evidence that Komen needs to clean house, including CEO Nancy Brinker, the board of directors, and, of course, Handel. Re-staffing the organization with qualified individuals, who have non-profit and health care experience, and to whom women's health care comes before politics, is the only way to accomplish this important goal.
If you agree, please contact the Komen Foundation and tell them so.
And, of course, keep supporting Planned Parenthood.
The hiring of Fleischer, who makes a living being a partisan talking head, to establish Komen's communications strategy, is just one more bit of evidence that Komen needs to clean house, including CEO Nancy Brinker, the board of directors, and, of course, Handel. Re-staffing the organization with qualified individuals, who have non-profit and health care experience, and to whom women's health care comes before politics, is the only way to accomplish this important goal.
If you agree, please contact the Komen Foundation and tell them so.
And, of course, keep supporting Planned Parenthood.
Well we have one down so far in the housecleaning Bob. The NY TImes reported today Karen Handel has "resigned" her position in the Komen Foundation.
She was identified as having been a Republican candidate for Governor in Georgia. So you know what that means? Whine, whine, whine, and oh yeah, don’t forget the requisite false victimization meme. Handel claims her role in this whole fiasco was a result of "gross mischaracterization of the strategy, its rationale and [her] involvement in it".
Waaah, waah, waah. They should change the symbol of the Repub Party from an elephant to a baby's pacifier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/us/after-outcry-a-top-official-resigns-at-komen-cancer-charity.html?hp