The Swift Liars are not just another 527; Also is Mitt Romney being groomed?

[ProSense]

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.

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the 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 Cunningham

Rep. 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.

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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.

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Then 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.

Another Lobbyist Emerges From the GOP Trenches

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.

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Where 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.

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So 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"?

[AX10]

1. While the GOP goons love McCain, Rudy G, a pile of dung...

or whomever can win next year, Romney looks like a "President". It's very early in the game and anything is possible. He is probably being groomed by the Conservative front organizations to be their candidate.

[mloutre]

2. Boy howdy! Talk about connecting the dots!

[Graybeard]

3. Yeah, Mitt's going to the Dan Quayle School...

...for elocution, spelling and policy lessons.

[mrdmk]

4. K & R

The Republicans had to pull out all of the stops to get an ass-hat and an ass-hat Jr. elected. No doubt, they are proud of themselves.

[C_U_L8R]

5. If Romney were any more groomed

he'd be wearing a Crisco wrapper around his hair-do

[smalll]

6. Grrr! You beat me to it!

Of course he's being groomed, far too much: even his own power-point presentations admit his hair is too perfect!

[C_U_L8R]

7. That Ronald Reagan look went out of style

even before Ronald Reagan.

Ick.. greasy kid stuff

[ProSense]

8. More on false comparisons.

So, how did Maximum John nail the creep?

(Kerry asked,) How does the nominee feel about the level of "personal destruction" in politics these days?

Snip...

Fox explained that he and his wife donate generously to GOP political causes. "When we're asked, we generally give," he said. He said he could not recall who asked for the Swift Boat donation but explained that he thought it was important to give to a 527 working on behalf of Republicans because a 527 "on the other side" was stooping to such low levels as comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

"So two wrongs make a right?" Kerry asked.

What that asshole Fox is referring to is an urban legend: Namely, that MoveOn.org ran an ad depicting Bush as Hitler. In fact, MoveOn held an ad contest, and one of the many entries submitted - and promptly rejected - compared Bush to Hitler.

So there you have it: The far right makes up things about the left, and then does those things themselves.

more...

False comparisons: the Swift Liars are not the same as MoveOn; George Soros is not T. Boone Pickens or Sam Fox; and the liars aren't your average 527, but a gang of soulless rat bastards.

[blm]

9. Coirpmedia lets BushInc and GOP get away with lies and won't report the facts

or the truth no matter how many times those facts are delivered to their desks and reporters.

[ProSense]

10. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

11. Lieberman praises Foxie:

here.

[ProSense]

12. Who is John O'Neill?

Point made by DUer Karynnj:

Also, when the MSM did handle the SBVT issue, they always seemed to start from the perspective of there being 2 groups of people who had differing views of what happened.

The premise being that the liars were a legitimate group that took issue with Kerry 1971 Senate testimony and were out to prove his statements false, when in actuality John O'Neill was linked to Nixon and his sole purpose since has been to perpetrate vicious lies to try to destroy Kerry.

Houston lawyer John O'Neill is a Republican -- as the Houston Chronicle noted the day after O'Neill's interview with Blitzer. According to the paper, O'Neill voted in the 1998 Republican state primary. But O'Neill's ties to the Republican Party extend far beyond party affiliation. During the CNN interview, Blitzer reported that former President Richard Nixon had urged O'Neill to publicly counter Kerry on The Dick Cavett Show, but there is more to the story. O'Neill was a creation of the Nixon administration, as Joe Klein detailed in the January 5 issue of The New Yorker. Former Nixon special counsel Chuck Colson told Klein that Kerry was an "articulate" and "credible leader" of those veterans calling for an end to the Vietnam War and therefore "an immediate target of the Nixon Administration." As such, the Nixon administration found it necessary to "create a counterfoil" to Kerry. Colson recounted, "We found a vet named John O'Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O'Neill meet the President, and we did everything we could do to boost his group." Articles from the April 21 Houston Chronicle and the June 17, 2003, Boston Globe confirm close ties between O'Neill and the Nixon administration.

Beyond his role in the Nixon administration's strategy to undermine Kerry in the 1970s, O'Neill is also connected to Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist (a Nixon appointee) and to former President George H.W. Bush, according to Houston Chronicle articles from March 31 and April 21. In the late 1970s, O'Neill clerked for Rehnquist; in 1990, according to an October 7, 1991, report by Texas Lawyer, the former President Bush considered O'Neill for a federal judgeship vacancy.

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