Thompson Accuses Baldwin of Not Honoring 9/11 Victims

U.S. Senate Republican candidate Tommy Thompson has released a new ad criticizing Democratic opponent Tammy Baldwin of not honoring the victims of 9/11. The Baldwin campaign is calling the move “desperate.”

The 30 second ad features members of the military criticizing Baldwin. In 2006, she voted against resolution honoring victims of 9/11. Speaking at a campaign stop in Onalaska Tuesday, former Gov. Thompson called Baldwin ‘extreme,’ “I cannot believe anybody that has a patriotic spirit in their body would ever vote against a resolution complimenting those individuals. Complementing the city of New York, the individual volunteers who came, the families who lost members, and the members who died that day.”

According to Baldwin’s campaign spokesman John Krause, the Congresswoman voted against the resolution because it was politically loaded and endorsed the PATRIOT Act, which Baldwin voted against in 2001. Krause says Baldwin has supported nine other victim resolutions. He says Thompson politicizing 9/11 is desperate, “He tries to use human tragedy for his own political gain. The fact that Tommy Thompson would question Tammy Baldwin’s patriotism and love of America is just offensive and disgusting.”

Thompson was Secretary of Health and Human Services on September 11 and touts his delivery of medical supplies to emergency workers. But he was criticized as secretary for not doing enough to treat illnesses affecting 9/11 first responders. Then in 2008, when Thompson was president of La Crosse-based Logistics Health Incorporated, the company was awarded an $11 million contract to treat out-of-state first responders.