Senator-elect Hagan drops suit over 'godless' TV ad

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: CNN

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan withdrew her defamation and libel lawsuit Thursday against incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole for a campaign commercial that Hagan alleged questioned her Christianity.

Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said the papers were filed Thursday afternoon in Wake County court, putting an end to the legal fight over a controversial TV ad in the final week of the campaign ultimately won by Hagan.

The ad only ran for a few days but became a hot issue. Dole brought up her campaign rival's attendance at a fundraiser hosted by an adviser to the Godless Americans Political Action Committee, an atheist advocacy group.

Flanagan said Hagan can spend her time better working to help families hurt by the bad economy instead of pursuing a lawsuit that "would just continue the focus on a very personal and negative attack against Kay."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/14/hagan.lawsuit.ap/index.html

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. Way to take the high road. nt

[lamp_shade]

3. You said it. The lady's got class. n/t

[harmonicon]

4. I disagree

I think politicians who have been defamed should follow through on such suits so that it stops happening. By giving this up now, she's just inviting it 6 years from now.

[depakid]

5. That ad was not only defamatory, but also an example

of what 25 years of no accountability has done to the US media- and to politcal (and general) discourse in America.

That said, one sort of expected as much. It's probably going to take a major tragedy- or perhaps several, before people in the US begin to treat matters like this seriously.

[onenote]

7. and yet it would have been a hard lawsuit to win

the bar for winning a defamatino suit against a public figure/public official is exceedingly high. Maybe Hagan could've cleared it, but (a) if she had lost it would've been viewed as somehow giving credibility to the ad; (b) she'd be spending time and money pursuing the suit when she has other more important responsibilities now; (c) she already won the victory she was seeking -- vindication in the court of public opinion.

[Kolesar]

9. Nice summary ... eom

[customerserviceguy]

13. Agreed

she didn't just beat Dole in a very Southern state, she absolutely humiliated her. This wasn't Coleman or Stevens, or even Smith in Oregon, this was a big flat slapdown to a technique Jesse Helms had perfected in that state. It won't be repeated.

[Kelvin Mace]

15. The suit would be costly for Dole

and would deter people from doing this in the future, since they would know that it would be costly, even if they win.

By withdrawing the suit, Hagan has signaled she was never serious about it in the first place and that the GOP can continue with impunity in the future.

[depakid]

16. I'm aware of the standard in public figure cases

and this ad is about at clear cut as it gets. While it's true that you never know what a jury's going to do, I think most attorneys would probably feel pretty good about taking this to trial, considering that the plaintiff is a elder in her church AND a Sunday school teacher.

There's also some political risk, but my bet is that the public would be behind her if the issue was framed in terms of holding people accountable (and deterring) grossly defamatory campaign ads.

While negative ads are effective- a substantial majority of people when polled consistently say they really dislike them.

[Hekate]

2. So glad Kay won. So disappointed in Dole, who reached depths of slime I didn't know were in her. nt

[SpiralHawk]

6. Just keep calling Dole what she is: a Republican

That says it all. By now the vast majority of Americans know exactly what that means, for Republicons have aligned themselves so closely with anger, hate, corruption, lies, and FAIL.

[RedLetterRev]

8. As much as I would have been glad to see someone burn Biddy Dole

a few new buttholes I'm proud of Kay for being the better person. I agree with the poster upthread: Keep calling Biddy what she is, a Republican. That alone is epithet enough.

K/R

Edit: How about a spellcheck, Rev? Sheesh!

[LynneSin]

10. Hagan's victory was better than the lawsuit

I appreciate freedom of speech, it's something I hold very dear to me. However, this ugly smearing has got to go. It's one thing to say 'John Doe voted against this or voted like that' but it's another to make far-stretching lies thru vague associations in order to try and win a campaign.

[mackerel]

11. When you win you can afford to take the high road.

Good to see none the less.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

12. The lawsuit had already achieved its objective

so she was smart to drop it.

It signaled to voters that Hagan takes her faith so seriously that she is willing to defend herself against attacks with every means available.

That was the message voters needed to hear. They vindicated her at the polls, so she had nothing left to prove.

Good for Hagan for channeling her resources to positive goals. As for Liddy Dole, she is no more.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. As long as we keep backing off

punishing these people, they will keep doing this.

By dropping the suit, the action simply becomes a stunt.