Sen Kennedy asks conservative group to stop using tapes of JFK

Sen. Ted Kennedy wants radio ads using JFK's tax plan pulled

CNN Capitol Hill Producer Dana Bash

Washington (CNN) - John F. Kennedy's family is asking a conservative group to stop using the slain President's voice touting his own across-the-board tax cut to help sell President Bush's tax plan in radio advertisements. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and his brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. Monday wrote Greg Mueller, head of the Issues Management Center the group running the ads, asking them to pull them.

"It is intellectually dishonest and politically irresponsible to suggest that President Kennedy would have supported such a tax cut. It is a dramatic misreading of history to compare President Kennedy's and President Bush's tax cut proposals," wrote the Kennedys.

The pro-Bush group began running the ads using JFK's voice on Monday in Louisiana to pressure that state's undecided senator, Mary Landrieu, to vote for the Bush tax cut.

The radio spot features former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes reminding Landrieu that Kennedy proposed his own across-the-board tax cut in 1962, followed by the late president's voice:

"The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrence to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system. And this administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top to bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in 1963." The Republican mantra in their sales pitch in trying to woo Democrats to support Bush's 10 year, $1.6 trillion tax plan is that it is smaller than what President Kennedy proposed some 40 years ago when adjusted for inflation.

Kennedy's brother and niece disputed the claim, saying unlike Bush's plan which benefits wealthy Americans most, Kennedy's was targeted towards the middle class and was propsed at a time when Medicare and Social Security trust funds were not in jeopardy.

"If President Kennedy were here today, he would vigorously oppose President Bush's irresponsible tax scheme," wrote the Kennedys. "He would be outraged by comparisons between his 1963 tax cut and the current proposal." The Issues Management Center is also running the advertisements in South Dakota, Georgia and Montana targeting Democratic senators Tom Daschle, Max Cleland and Max Baucus respectively.

The ads are designed to supplement white house efforts to put pressure on Senate Democrats to vote for the GOP tax cut.

With its 50-50 split and lukewarm support from a handful of moderates in his own party, Bush is trying to woo Democrats from conservative states that voted for him for President, particularly those who are up for re-election in 2002.

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