A fund-raiser planned this week for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., by the mayor of Phoenix was canceled at the last minute amid protests from local Republicans, veterans and college students angered by the senator’s recent praise of Osama bin Laden’s nation-building tactics.
 Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza |
Murray distributed a press release late this afternoon announcing that she would be unable to attend because of “upcoming votes on appropriations and homeland security.”
Several lawmakers had called on Republican Mayor Skip Rimsza to cancel the event, and local talk radio station KFYI had planned a live-remote broadcast at the site of the reception, which was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Phoenix.
One of the leading voices of opposition was outgoing Republican state Sen. Scott Bundgaard, who counted Murray’s cancellation as a victory.
“I don’t care what her reason is,” Budgaard told WND. “I’m just glad she realized she was not going to get a warm reception from Arizona residents, largely due to her sympathetic comments about Osama bin Laden.”
Bundgaard said it was a win for “the little guy,” noting that little coverage from the major media, the story gained life through conservative talk radio and the Internet.
Some Democrats, nevertheless, privately expressed their outrage at the event, according to former Phoenix vice-mayor Frances Barwood, who spoke to WorldNetDaily in a telephone interview.
Republicans, however, made their views public.
Bundgaard, describing Murray as an “enemy sympathizer,” charged that the senator is undermining the president’s war against terrorism and should not be honored.
State Sen. Phil Hanson, a 35-year military veteran, told WND that he would not go so far as to call Murray an “enemy sympathizer,” but nevertheless wanted the fund-raiser to be canceled.
Hanson said that shortly after Murray’s controversial session with students in Vancouver, Wash., on Dec. 18, he sent the senator an e-mail, calling her remarks “anti-American.”
“I said she had better rethink her thought processes, and if she didn’t, I thought she should resign her position,” Hanson recalled, noting that he received a “canned response” from Murray’s office.
State Republican Sen. Robert Blendu thinks “enemy sympathizer” is an appropriate term for Murray but told WND he believes Rimsza, whom he has known for some time, acted out of character in his support for the Washington Democrat.
Noting that Murray serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, he thinks the event was a reward to the senator for congressional support of Phoenix’s planned light rail network.
Rimsza’s press secretary, Scott Phelps, told WND the city has been lobbying Congress to help finance the project and has held fund-raisers for lawmakers who are “in a position to be helpful because they care about transit.” He expects to raise about $20,000 for Murray.
Barwood, however, believes that the event had more to do with Rimsza building support for a Senate run, possibly as a Democrat.
She said that while Rimsza has held fund-raisers for others related to transportation funding, this was the only one in which an invitation was sent to a broad constituency. Barwood said she got an invitation as a fluke and subsequently spread the news about the event.
“It was one of those funny things that happens every now and then, when something wrong happens for the right reason,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have gotten it, most of conservative Arizona wouldn’t have known about it.”
Murray’s remarks
In a session with high school students Dec. 18 in Vancouver, Wash., Murray asked why bin Laden is “so popular around the world.”
 Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. |
The second-term senator said bin Laden has been “out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven’t done that.”
Murray then asked the students: “How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?”
Murray has since emphasized she believes bin Laden is an “evil terrorist” and said she was only trying to provoke a thoughtful discussion of U.S. foreign policy aims.
Touching a nerve?
The mayor’s spokesman Phelps told WND that complaints to his office had been relatively minimal in the past week, with about 25 e-mails, a post card and 25 or 30 phone calls. He compared that volume with the 3,000 negative phone calls that flooded Rimsza’s office in one day after announcing his intent to name the Phoenix airport after Barry Goldwater, following the former senator’s death.
Phelps said that “on the overall scale of touching a nerve,” the objection to the fund-raiser “is not very big.”
“I think it’s because people have taken the time to see what Patty Murray has said rather than what talk radio says she said,” he added.
Phelps believes “it’s Republican lawmakers and what passes for talk radio” that made this an issue, referring to KFYI.
“Most people are smart enough to know an opportunistic former state senator,” he said, referring to Bundgaard.
Barwood contended, however, that the opposition is not partisan, judging by the replies she received to an e-mail dispatch calling on Rimsza to cancel the event.
“This has caused an awful lot of Democrats to be upset,” she said. “They feel strongly that her speech was definitely pro-bin Laden, and they went online and read the whole thing to make sure it wasn’t taken out of context.”
Bundgaard, who gave up his seat to make an ultimately unsuccessful run for Congress last fall, dismisses the way Rimsza’s office characterized opposition to the fund-raiser.
“The more people learn about this, the more they are outraged,” he said. “It’s tough to get the message out, but fortunately we have talk radio and the Internet.”
‘I’d arrest her at the border myself’
Rimsza discounted the complaints against Murray’s remarks about bin Laden, stating, according to Phelps that, “If I thought 1 percent of this stuff were accurate, I’d arrest her at the border myself.”
Blendu responded: “Then why isn’t he doing it?”
“All he has to do is read the paper and read what she said,” he told WND. “If you want to give her a pass and excuse her for it, that’s another matter.”
Bundgaard insists that Rimsza should apologize to the people of Arizona, “particularly to the families of our military personnel fighting this war,” for his willingness to honor “a bin Laden sympathizer.”
Blendu, chairman of Arizona’s Senate Rules Committee, charged that Murray “is undermining our veterans and their families while they are fighting for us.”
A number of veterans groups and some college students were among those who had planned to protest tomorrow night, he noted.
“As a veteran, I’m offended that while Sen. Murray is raising money to spread her anti-American propaganda, pilots trained at Luke Air Force Base in my district are fighting on the front lines,” Blendu said.
Hanson, who serves as chairman of Arizona’s House Commerce and Military Affairs Committee, said he wished that Rimsza were as principled as Rudy Giuliani when the then-New York City mayor rejected a $10 million Saudi donation for his city after Sept. 11 because of anti-American comments made by Prince al-Waleed bin Talal.
Barwood’s mass mailing created a sideshow when she asked whether Rimsza might be hosting the event for Murray because he is of “Lebanese descent and believes the way she does.”
Rimsza, who says he has an Irish-Lithuanian heritage, called the charge ridiculous.
Barwood said Rimsza’s father told her in the 1990s that the family was Lebanese and maintains that she was only asking a series of questions as to why Rimsza would fete Murray.
Previous stories:
Patty Murray retains leadership role
Murray’s mouth has challengers lining up
Protest to flood Murray with express mail
Father of 9-11 victim blasts Murray
Petition calls for Patty Murray to resign
Murray pushed for aid to Taliban before 9-11
National press ignores praise for bin Laden
‘Bizarre’ praise of Osama riles senator’s challenger
Democrat senator praises bin Laden
