Huffington's Flip Flop on California Recall Election: Deja vu All Over Again, Statement Attributed to Jason Vines, President of SUVOA

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2003 -- Statement by SUV Owners of America President Jason H. Vines regarding Arianna Huffington's decision to pull out of the California gubernatorial recall election and to now voicing her objection to the recall:

"Ms. Huffington's California gubernatorial recall election flip flop is the second major ideological shift from her in the last few weeks. In fact, she is more and more sounding like the California version of Baghdad Bob, the Iraqi Information Minister.

"On August 28, after receiving a petition with 6,065 supporters asking her to stop her SUV bashing because it may be encouraging domestic terrorism attacks like the one at a West Covina HUMMER dealership, she issued the following flip-flopping statement:

'What these people are doing isn't activism it is vandalism, and I strongly oppose it. I have nothing against SUV owners -- my problem is with Detroit.'

"However, as SUVOA pointed out then and reiterates today, Ms. Huffington has been very vocal against SUV owners. Just last fall, Huffington had a different battle cry. In her November 25, 2002 column, she directly attacks SUV owners stating:

'How nice it must feel for SUV owners, knowing that their swaggering imprudence is helping the world's anti-democratic oil sheiks sleep just a little better at night.'"

SUVOA was formed to give voice to the 24 million SUV owners whose rights are being trampled by special interests and activist groups, as well as to provide consumers with practical information about their SUVs. Founded in 1999, the group actively defends the rights of SUV owners and rebuts false charges regarding SUVs' safety and environmental record. Since re-launching the new SUVOA Web site in May, the group has accumulated 16,818 supporters. Fact sheets addressing key safety and environmental issues are available at www.suvoa.com .