Giffords refutes claims in Bee ad

The campaign of U.S. Rep. Gabreille Giffords (D-Tucson) has issued a point-by-point refutation of the claims in a new ad from rival state Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson), which accuses Giffords of voting along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) 90 percent of the time, including votes against funding for U.S. troops and in favor of civil rights for terrorists.

A nine-page memo was the Giffords campaign's response, in which it tries to pick apart the arguments presented in the attack from Bee.

"Tim Bee did not do his homework," said the memo. "A comparison of the voting records of Congresswoman Giffords and Speaker Pelosi shows that... Giffords voted the same way as Nancy Pelosi 8% of the time given that the Speaker abstains from most of the votes. Furthermore, the Speaker does not take a public position on most votes and has allowed bills to come to the floor that she has publicly opposed."

The memo also said Bee's assertion that Giffords opposed troop funding is a "false and baseless attack," saying the bill the Bee ad cited "did not mandate an end to the Iraq War or block funding for our troops and military operations in Iraq." 

Finally, Giffords pushed back againt the claim that "Pelosi supports Giffords’s own bill to allow captured terrorists to be tried in our courts with the same full legal rights as American citizens. " 

"Giffords is not the sponsor or author of HR 2826," says the memo, "she is a co-sponsor. Rep. Ike Skelton, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is the sponsor. Speaker Pelosi is not a co-sponsor." 

It also refutes the characterization of what the bill was meant to accomplish, saying the bill "affirms that enemy combatants should be tried in a military commission" and that it doesn't give enemy combatants the same rights citizens enjoy, including the rights to trial by jury, access to an attorney or ability to present witnesses on their behalf.

Also on PolitickerAZ.com:

•  New Bee ad ties Giffords to Pelosi, 9/11 plotter