Nazi Memorabilia-collector, Harlan Crow, funded the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth

[blogslug]

Last edited Mon Apr 10, 2023, 04:39 AM - Edit history (1)

Harlan's been a shitheel for a long damned time:

From a 2004 Salon article about one of the filthiest political smear campaigns of the 21st century:

...Previous investigative reports in Salon have established that major Texas Republican donors Bob Perry Jr. and Harlan Crow provided nearly all of the initial financing for the Swift Boat group -- and that professional public relations and research experts affiliated with the GOP were instrumental in launching the group. This week, media reports focused on the president's chief outside campaign counsel, Benjamin Ginsburg, who has given legal advice to the Swift Boat group. That sudden exposure prompted Ginsburg's resignation from the Bush-Cheney campaign.

The network of Republican operatives involved in the Kerry-bashing campaign can be traced still further to a pair of the most influential national conservative organizations, Empower America and Citizens for a Sound Economy, which officially merged last July under the banner of a new entity called FreedomWorks.

That merger brought together such right-wing luminaries as former House Republican leader Dick Armey of Texas, former Bush White House counsel C. Boyden Gray (who also served on the Bush-Cheney transition team in 2000), former Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp and author and foundation official William J. Bennett. Empower America and Citizens for a Sound Economy boast a combined "volunteer army" of more than 600,000 activists across the country, with many organized into state chapters. Their new combined Web site features an endorsement from George W. Bush: "Folks, you've got to get to know this organization. ... They have been doing a great job all over the country educating people."

From a 2005 Texas Monthly article on the creation of the Swifites:

...SPAETH: Bob Perry helped us early on, as did [Dallas real estate executive and George Bush Presidential Library Foundation trustee] Harlan Crow. But it was slow going after that. I’m not a fund-raiser, so what I did was throw myself on the mercy of two very close friends here in Texas and say, “I need your help.” Neither of them has been identified in the press, so I would rather not say who they are. But they are both longtime Republicans who had no role in, or contact with, the Bush campaign. When I approached them about helping me fund-raise, their initial response was hardly positive. You have to understand what I was asking them to do. Because we were a 527, if they got involved they could not play a role in the campaign. Plus, if the whole thing blew up, we’d all look like idiots. So they were putting a lot at risk. Both of them came to the conclusion that the Swifties were very credible. They agreed to help me, and as a trio we went around scraping up money...

From a 2011 NBC article on Clarence Thomas' billionaire BFF, Harlan Crow:

...Mr. Crow, 61, manages the real estate and investment businesses founded by his late father, Trammell Crow, once the largest landlord in the United States. The Crow family portfolio is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and includes investments in hotels, medical facilities, public equities and hedge funds.

A friend of the Bush family, Mr. Crow is a trustee of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation and has donated close to $5 million to Republican campaigns and conservative groups. Among his contributions were $100,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group formed to attack the Vietnam War record of Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and $500,000 to an organization that ran advertisements urging the confirmation of President George W. Bush’s nominees to the Supreme Court...

[MagickMuffin]

1. Poor ol Harlan Crow will never be an American patriot

He’s never served our great country in combat. But he’s exceptionally good at tearing it apart though!

[delisen]

2. Anti-democracy roads lead back to Bush Family nt

[yardwork]

6. Yes. The Bush-Cheney Crime Family.

This is why I'm not a fan of Liz Cheney.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Mebbe when Republicans complain about George Soros, they're really projecting about billionaires lik

Harlan Crow?

[yardwork]

7. Every accusation is a confession.

[paleotn]

12. Exactly.

[BadgerMom]

9. 💯

[JudyM]

4. Thanks for posting this

Goes to show his “friendship” with CT is all the more suspicious.

[dalton99a]

10. Kick

[paleotn]

11. Smearing, lying and buying officials, elected or otherwise, is profitable for Repukes.

A pittance really compared to favorable tax law and regulation loopholes.

[Botany]

13. John Kerry had a bronze star, a silver star, 3 purple hearts, and never lost one man in some of ...

... the most hazardous duty of that war and "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" ran a smear campaign
to paint him as some kind of coward. Karl Rove, Creative Response Concepts, Fox News, and T.
Boone Pickens were in on that hit job too and meanwhile as Kerry was risking his ass w was going
AWOL snorting coke, and pissing his bed dead drunk almost every night.

BTW I got to meet some of the men who served w/Kerry on the swift boat in2004 Kerry was a
real life hero.

Ohio 2004 still haunts me.

[Delarage]

14. Yup

Bush v Gore
Bush v Kerry
Trump v. Clinton

= Some serious bullshit that has done major damage

[Blue Owl]

15. Those were dark, disgusting times

I hope Rush Limbaugh’s bloated corpse has been devoured by maggots and I hope Karl Rove’s will soon follow — along with everyone else who participated in this smear of a fine American hero…

[Botany]

16. I met one of Kerry's crew. He pulled a man out of the water as his boat was under fire ....

.... saving the man's life and Kerry was hit in the shoulder by some shrapnel. If it he had
been a few inches higher it would have hit his throat and killed him. The Kerry campaign
in OH tried to get the real life people from his swift boat on local TV but they wouldn't touch
those interviews but 2 local stations Fox and Sinclair kept running the "Swift Boats for Truth"
bull shit.

BTW Kerry won OH but the dirt and shit rigging here gave OH to w in 2004.

[Botany]

20. It was very dirty .... I saw "it" w/my own eyes and heard "it" w/my own ears.

The last "un-blended poll" had Kerry @ 51.5 vs w @ 47% with women voters and
Kerry @ 49.5 %vs w @ 48% with men voters.

[crickets]

17. Great find. The Swift Boating of John Kerry was a travesty

that still makes me so furious about what might have been.

[UTUSN]

18. Of course

[Peacetrain]

22. Are you kidding me?? oh my GOD.. what terrible people those were..

[FakeNoose]

23. This Crow guy has way too much money and he's being a total asshole about it

Let's figure out new ways to TAX his ass!