Liberal protesters target GOP budget $500,000 ad buy combines with pray-in

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/13/MNG50G73RU1.DTL

The liberal alliance that hammered President Bush's Social Security plan has turned its sights on the Republican budget, running television commercials in the districts of seven Republican moderates and promising a pray-in at the Capitol on Wednesday.

The $500,000 ad buy, sponsored by the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, accuses the Republicans of voting to "slash health care for struggling families, cut college loans for middle-class kids and take food off the tables of poor children" to "give billions in tax breaks to millionaires."

Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, a Christian group active in politics, said Monday that protesters will pray for "a change of heart" by Republicans, citing Old Testament prophet Isaiah, "Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who make widows their prey and rob the orphan."

The commercials complicate an already difficult task facing Republicans as they attempt to push through the first spending reductions in entitlement programs since 1997, while at the same time preserving Bush's first-term tax cuts on capital gains and dividends.

And he would most likely participate in it too.