Obama's
comment:
"The swift boat ads were of a different degree, even in the ugly arena of politics. They were extraordinarily well publicized, that there was essentially a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. It had a profound impact on the election."
It was a fraud perpetrated by the Bush campaign with the aid of the media. After Max Cleland tried to deliver the following letter to Bush in person...
Text of letter to President Bush
Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Posted: 2:37 PM EDT (1837 GMT)
Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, will deliver the letter asking Bush to condemn commercials attacking Kerry by the group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Though Bush has said Kerry "served admirably" in Vietnam, the commander in chief has not condemned the commercials.
Here is a copy of the letter:
Dear President Bush,
We, the undersigned members of the United States Senate call on you to specifically condemn the recent attack ads and accompanying campaign which dishonor Senator John Kerry's combat record in the Vietnam War. These false charges represent the worst kind of politics, and we agree with both Senator John McCain and Senator Kerry that a firmly established service record in the United States Military is fully above reproach. As veterans of the armed services, we ask that you recognize this blatant attempt at character assassination, and publicly condemn it.
Snip...
Mr. President, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, we believe you owe a special duty to America's combat veterans when they are under false and scurrilous attacks. We hope you will recognize this duty, and speak out against this group and their efforts to smear the reputation of a man who has served this country nobly.
Call on this group to cease and desist. We can return this campaign season to a discussion of the issues on either side, and restore faith in the political system. As Americans, we should expect nothing less.
linkthe Bush campaign countered with this:
Text of veterans' letter to Sen. John Kerry
Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Posted: 2:35 PM EDT (1835 GMT)
Following is the text of a letter to Sen. John Kerry signed by a number of pro-Bush Vietnam veterans, including several GOP congressmen.
Dear Senator Kerry,
We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all whom have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.
Snip...
You said in 1992 "we do not need to divide America over who served and how." Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.
We are veterans too -- and proud to support President Bush. He's been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He's made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.
Snip...
We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran's right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.
Sincerely,
Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson
Rep. Duke CunninghamRep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Sam Johnson
Lt. General David Palmer
Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient
James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)
Paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc.
link Duke Cunningham? Really?
Then of course there was the resignation of Bush's campaign
lawyer.
That didn't stop them. Bush's Belgian waffler select Sam Fox contributed his
$50,000 to the liars in October, after this August editorial in the Boston Globe:
For far too long this attack has worked to Bush's advantage. Even when Kerry and other veterans were defending his war service effectively, Vietnam headlines were obscuring stories on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses, rising deficits, growing poverty, declining health coverage, and more soldiers dying nearly every day in Iraq.
Ginsberg resigned his Bush campaign position with unintended comedy, saying he was saddened that his role had "become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election." Was he suggesting this bogus smear is a critical issue?
Now the politics of the issue seems to be catching up with the facts. The story is no longer Vietnam but the smear. Bush, realizing that the tide has turned against him, is trying to back-pedal and change the subject -- proposing yesterday that both campaigns join in challenging the so-called 527 groups, like the veterans and some Democratic and Republican groups, that use unregulated "soft" political contributions from wealthy donors and special interests to influence campaigns. There is a legitimate 527 issue. The members of the Federal Election Commission, appointed by Bush and Bill Clinton, have betrayed their office by not reining in groups that are too closely aligned with both campaigns.
But that is not the issue with the anti-Kerry veterans. The issue is Bush -- his refusal to condemn a patently false attack, his willingness to try to reap some political reward on the cheap, his utter lack of leadership in brushing off the role played by his close political aides.
The media also repeated the "patently false attack" hundreds of times in August 2004:
By the time the Swift Boat story had played out, CNN, chasing after ratings leader Fox News, found time to mention the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth–hereafter, Swifties–in nearly
300 separate news segments, while
more than one hundred New York Times articles and columns made mention of the Swifties. And during one overheated 12-day span in late August, the
Washington Post mentioned the Swifties in page-one stories on Aug. 19, 20, 21 (two separate articles), 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31. It was a media monsoon that washed away Kerry’s momentum coming out of the Democratic convention.
linkThen there is
Tony Feather, founder of Progress for America (which was just fined for
violating campaign finance laws in 2004), political director for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and close friend of Karl Rove.
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 13, 2004; Page A15
The rise of Tony Feather from congressional intern to successful lobbyist is a story of loyalty, of good deeds rewarded -- and of Republicans taking care of their own.
After nearly three decades of working for GOP candidates in Missouri and surrounding Midwest states, Feather is emerging as a Washington power broker, thanks to some friends named Karl Rove, Joe M. Allbaugh, Ken Mehlman, Donald L. Evans and Jack Oliver, his colleagues from President Bush's 2000 campaign, for which he served as political director.
Feather's firm has a major contract with the Republican National Committee and is almost certain to be hired by the Bush reelection campaign. He is a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group that is one of the most politically active GOP allies in Washington. And as the founder of Progress for America, a tax-exempt group likely to become a major vehicle for pro-Republican activities financed with soft-money contributions, he has been at the center of the GOP effort to circumvent the campaign spending rules established by the McCain-Feingold law.
In his seamless transition from state political operative to K Street player, Feather is following in familiar tracks. In four-to-eight-year cycles, most often tied to presidential campaigns, the GOP has recruited new waves of skilled strategists and tacticians from state campaigns and brought their innovative thinking and ability to adapt to a changing political environment to Washington.
linkWhere is Feather now:
Veteran Mo GOP operative, Tony Feather, now works for Romney.
Funny, Fox just made a whopping contribution to Mitt:
But the
piece, aptly headlined “Go for the gelt,” has this nugget of particular interest to readers here: Romney received a whopping $100,000 from Sam Fox, the wealthy Clayton businessman who is perhaps Missouri’s most generous GOP contributor.
The donation was made back in July, to the Iowa version of Romney’s leadership fund, the Commonwealth PAC. (Look
here for the campaign report.)
Though federal campaign limits would prohibit such a large donation on the national level, Fox’s hefty contribution was made to a state-level committee, which appears to make it permissible.
The six-figure check is yet another link in the unlikely alliance between the Bay State politician and Show-Me Republicans.
Earlier this month,
Gov. Matt Blunt was front-and-center in Boston for a fundraising blitz for Romney, who later this month will be a featured guest at the Missouri GOP’s annual Lincoln Days gathering.
The support of Fox, recently named U.S. ambassador to Belgium by
President Bush, is a compelling twist in the Romney-Blunt connection.
linkSo Progress for America is fined peanuts, and by the comments in the article, the group isn't the least bit remorseful. One has to wonder about the
Swift Liars. Why hasn't anyone gone after that group for the "fraud" it "perpetrated on the American people"?