The American Future Fund, a conservative group opposed to the nomination of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, is opening up a new front in its effort against him with a national television campaign painting him as ethically challenged.
The ad for the most part cobbles together flare-ups from Mr. Hagel’s tenure in the Senate to argue that he is not qualified to head the Defense Department, and its producers hope to draw attention to the issue of his ethics in his coming confirmation hearings.
In the commercial, which is to run on CNN and Fox News Channel this week, an announcer asserts that “while serving in the Senate, Chuck Hagel declined to pulicly disclose millions in ‘underlying assets.’ ’’ The spot is referring to an issue investigated by The Hill newspaper regarding whether Mr. Hagel appropriately listed the assets of a group he had a financial stake in, McCarthy Group Inc. But Mr. Hagel was not accused of any wrongdoing by the Senate ethics committee.
The ad goes on to say Mr. Hagel “accepted gold-plated trips from lobbyists - and campaign cash from banking interests he was supposed to be regulating.†It is making reference to flights Mr. Hagel took on the corporate jet of Novartis along with four other Republican lawmakers cited in a 2003 USA Today article, and to accommodations the American Bankers Association provided him and his wife in Orlando, Fla., when he was a featured speaker for the group, according to ! a 1999 Associated Press report.
The ad notes that Mr. Hagel sits on the board of Chevron, which has received numerous Pentagon contracts, and that he “even sits on the board of a private equity firm with investments in Iran.’’ The spot appears to be referring to his board appointment to Deutsche Bank’s Americas advisory board. The New York Times reported in August that federal and state prosecutors were investigating whether Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions “funneled billions of dollars through their American branches for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations.†The bank said it had not done business wth Iran since before a sanctions loophole closed in 2008 that made such activity legal under certain conditions.
American Future Fund strategists said they were spending $500,000 to place the spot on CNN and Fox.
