“I’m John McCain, and I Never Approved of Squat”
John McCain is denying responsibility for an ad run by the RNC on his behalf last fall. Evidently he did not approve of that commercial, though the judge is not buying it, and is allowing Jackson Browne’s suit for infringing on his song “Running on Empty.” The GOP wankers should have tried using Browne’s “Rosie.”
In last fall’s election campaign the GOP used an ad in Ohio that ripped off the Jackson Browne golden oldie, “Running on Empty.” The point they were trying to get across was that the Obama campaign energy policy would leave us without gas, or something like that. Jackson Browne was offended by the ad, and has sued all of the above, John McCain, the RNC, and etc. Turns out John McCain’s defense is that he never approved the use of the song. The man helped write the campaign laws, for Christ’s sake, and he can’t take personal responsibility for this kind of bungling? Here’s his defense, from Wired.com:
I was not involved at all in any way in the writing, creation, production, distribution or dissemination of the video, nor do I have any knowledge whatsoever of how this video was written, created, produced or disseminated or who was involved in any aspect of the writing, creation, production, distribution or dissemination of the video. I was completely unaware that this video even existed until I was informed of it after this lawsuit was filed.
The judge didn’t buy it.
Despite McCain’s claims of being a hapless dupe for his party, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said (.pdf) the RNC and McCain were so intertwined — what the judge called an “agency relationship” — that McCain stays in the case. The judge wrote that, even if McCain’s statement were true, “once an agency relationship is established, the principal is liable for the acts of her agent, even if the principal does not expressly authorize or instruct her agent to take any action.”
The judge also did not agree with the Republicans and McCain that Browne’s lawsuit was bogus. Among other things, the judge kept the lawsuit alive to give the defendants a chance to demonstrate how using about 20 seconds of the song in the commercial was a fair use.
Yes, persons running for political office are responsible, just like we are, for using and paying for the artistic products they want to emply to back their own ambitions.
In the interest of full disclosure, my son goes to sleep quite well to Jackson Browne’s “Jamaica Say You Will.” I have not played “Rosie” for him.
Right-wingers seem to have a tendency to appropriate rock songs (or try to) while remaining utterly clueless about their context. Case in point: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” which some Republicans have used as a patriotic anthem while not knowing or caring that it’s a bitterly ironic plaint by a Vietnam veteran who feels used and discarded.
(According to one story, Lee Iaccoca, that resident of the Academy of the Overrated, tried to get the rights to “Born in the USA” to use in a Chrysler commercial. Springsteen reportedly refused with a three-word message: No thanks, Mister.)