[tag]Reflections Photography[/tag], which made headlines in January when it scrubbed its site for pictures of the president and [tag]Jack Abramoff[/tag], also has rare pictures of vulnerable GOP incumbents hanging out with top members of the Bush gang, including the president himself. But, as Roll Call noted today, the company is keeping them securely out of sight.
Luckily, a few days ago, we were able to view photos of a $1 million event that Bush did for [Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio)] on Feb. 23. As he did this month, DeWine avoided being seen with Bush in front of cameras at that February event, but photos taken privately were posted on the Reflections Web site.
You could see that DeWine was taking the “safety first” route, standing a good foot or two away from the president in each picture. Still, there they were, together, in a photo-op DeWine never wanted. Not so mysteriously, after [Roll Call] called Reflections to inquire about photos from the Feb. 23 event, the photos suddenly became password-protected.
Also password-protected are photos of [Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)], another embattled GOP incumbent, with — gasp — Karl Rove at a March 7 fundraising event. (Santorum avoided a public appearance with Bush when the president visited Pittsburgh recently.)
In fact, casually perusing the Reflections site, it seems nearly all of the pictures of GOP candidates appearing with Bush or Cheney are hidden away behind password protection, while most of the other events have publicly-accessible photos available to anyone. Hmm.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee poked around the site because it would like to help show the public about the White House’s connections with various Republican candidates — free publicity for Republicans! — but came up empty. It prompted DSCC Phil Singer to say:
“GOP Senate candidates are even more paranoid about letting their photos with Bush go public than the White House was about releasing the president’s pictures with Jack Abramoff. I’m not sure what’s more pathetic: Bush allowing himself to be snubbed in public and then be used as an ATM for these campaigns, or these GOP candidates not having the spine to be seen with the president.”
That’s a good question. They’re both pretty sad.