Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Swift boat smear: Bush campaign heaves its own lawyer over the side
Another one bites the dust:
And the Kerry campaign extends an olive branch (not!):
Yep. It's nice the way the Kerry campaign is leverage Inerrant Boy's inability to ever make a mistake or apologize ("stubborn," as Kerry put it on The Daily Show).
I love the way Bush is trying to make some sort of equivalence between MoveOn.Org and the Swift Boat Veterans for [cough] Truth as "outside groups." What a Big Lie.
MoveOn is a PAC, SBV[cough]T is a 527.
MoveOn is funded by millions of small contributors. SBV[cough]T is funded by a winger Texas billionaire.
MoveOn has been in existence since Clinton, and SBV[cough]T came into existence solely for this election.
Finally, one of the several purposes behind SBV[cough]T—besides the straightforward and obvious pleasure the Bush clan takes in smearing their political opponents—is to insulate the Republican campaign from the coming release (if AP wins its suit, in time) of Bush's service [cough] records by creating a "questions have been raised about both men" scenario for the hapless SCLM. Of course, for those willing to look, the difference between the SBV[cough]T, which just makes stuff up about Kerry (see for example Atrios, and the questions raised by mainstream media (USA Today, for example) couldn't be more obvious.
Again, I think this is the battle. If Bush can overturn 35 years of Navy records and eyewitness accounts to take Kerry's biography away from him, Bush can win. I think Kerry has already turned to boat toward the enemy—he did that at the convention. And now Kerry's taking fire, but that's the plan. Hopefully, when Kerry reaches shore ...
The Bush campaign's chief outside counsel resigned Wednesday morning after acknowledging on Tuesday that he also was providing legal advice to the veterans group working to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's war record.
(via WaPo)
And the Kerry campaign extends an olive branch (not!):
"The sudden resignation of Bush's top lawyer doesn't end the extensive web of connections between George Bush and the group trying to smear John Kerry's military record," she said in a statement. "In fact, it only confirms the extent of those connections. Now we know why George Bush refuses to specifically condemn these false ads. People deeply involved in his own campaign are behind them, from paying for them, to appearing in them, to providing legal advice, to coordinating a negative strategy to divert the public away from issues like jobs, health care and the mess in Iraq, the real concerns of the American people. It's time for George Bush to take responsibility himself and condemn these false attacks."
Yep. It's nice the way the Kerry campaign is leverage Inerrant Boy's inability to ever make a mistake or apologize ("stubborn," as Kerry put it on The Daily Show).
I love the way Bush is trying to make some sort of equivalence between MoveOn.Org and the Swift Boat Veterans for [cough] Truth as "outside groups." What a Big Lie.
MoveOn is a PAC, SBV[cough]T is a 527.
MoveOn is funded by millions of small contributors. SBV[cough]T is funded by a winger Texas billionaire.
MoveOn has been in existence since Clinton, and SBV[cough]T came into existence solely for this election.
Finally, one of the several purposes behind SBV[cough]T—besides the straightforward and obvious pleasure the Bush clan takes in smearing their political opponents—is to insulate the Republican campaign from the coming release (if AP wins its suit, in time) of Bush's service [cough] records by creating a "questions have been raised about both men" scenario for the hapless SCLM. Of course, for those willing to look, the difference between the SBV[cough]T, which just makes stuff up about Kerry (see for example Atrios, and the questions raised by mainstream media (USA Today, for example) couldn't be more obvious.
Again, I think this is the battle. If Bush can overturn 35 years of Navy records and eyewitness accounts to take Kerry's biography away from him, Bush can win. I think Kerry has already turned to boat toward the enemy—he did that at the convention. And now Kerry's taking fire, but that's the plan. Hopefully, when Kerry reaches shore ...
