Andy Taylor, sheriff of Mayberry, has been implicated in what five U.S. Senators called a scheme to use taxpayer money to benefit Democrats in Washington.
The incident, dubbed "Mayberrygate" by the guy who sits next to Dome, began when Manteo resident and actor Andy Griffith, appeared in an ad touting the benefits of the new health care law passed by Democrats.
Five Republican Senators, including Sen. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem, objected. The senators wrote a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, requesting that the department pull the ad and reimburse the government for any taxpayer dollars spent on the effort.
The senators cited a White House blog post in which an assistant to the president wrote that the ad was meant to correct "a major misinformation campaign that was designed to scare and confuse older Americans about the real impact of reform."
Sens. Burr, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, John Barrasso of Wyoming, John McCain of Arizona and John Thune of South Dakota rejected that argument.
"Co-opting public funds during a recession, to make a political, poll-tested argument about the new law, is wrong," they wrote.
Dome notes that former colleague Ryan Teague Beckwith, who gets the hat tip on this item, is searching for an episode of The Andy Griffith Show that comes the closest to offering lessons on this real-life controversy. He suggests a caper involving a thrown-away chain letter. Anyone have thoughts?
Document(s):
andy_griffith_letter.pdf
