More info:

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is supposed to be a non-partisan organization.
But it was organized with the assistance of Merrie Spaeth, a Republican public
relations executive "whose late husband, Tex Lezar, ran for Texas lieutenant
governor on George W. Bush's ticket in 1994," according to Salon.com.


Also according to Salon, the Swift Boat Veterans' website "was put up courtesy
of William Franke, a St. Louis businessman with longstanding ties to Attorney
General John Ashcroft and the Missouri Republican Party. Its chief financiers,
according to the group's last quarterly IRS filing, are Houston builder Bob J.
Perry and the Crow family, both major Republican donors from Texas." During the
past four years Perry has apparently given "$5 million to candidates and
causes, nearly all of them Republican and extremely conservative."


Again, according to Salon, "the group's IRS filing names several experienced
Washington political operatives. The June 30 filing shows payments to Robert A.
Hahn, a right-wing Internet activist and Web designer who also runs something
called the Free Republic Network."


Swift Boat Veterans head honcho and co-author of the Kerry-bashing book, John
O'Neill, is a partisan hack who used to clerk for William Rehnquist and has had
a long-standing feud with Kerry since the early seventies, when he was
hand-picked by Richard Nixon in an effort to discredit Kerry's anti-war
activities.


The other co-author of Unfit for Command, Jerome R. Corsi, PhD, has in the past
called Islam "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion"; said of Muslims that,
"RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters - it all goes
together"; said of Catholics that, "Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism
is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press"; said
of John Kerry, "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing
Judiasm? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is
John Kerry?"; and said of Sen. Hillary Clinton, "Anybody ask why HELLary
couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied? Not lesbo or anything, is she?" And there's
plenty more where that came from (if you can stomach it).


None of the veterans in the commercial served on a boat with John Kerry.
Despite saying in the ad that they "served with" Kerry, they only served in
Vietnam at the same time as Kerry. All but one of the surviving veterans who
actually served under Kerry's command have endorsed him and strongly support
him. Jim Rassmann called the ad, "pure fabrication."


One of the veterans who appears in the ad - Kerry's commander in Vietnam,
George Elliott - said last week that he had made a "terrible mistake" by
suggesting Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star. Elliott originally
recommended Kerry for the award, saying he was "calm, professional, and highly
courageous in the face of enemy fire." Elliott - along with one of the other
Swift Boat Veterans - even came to Boston during Kerry's Senate campaign in
1996 to support him. Now he says that his contradictory statements "makes me
look kind of silly, to be perfectly honest." By the way, Elliott has since
retracted his retraction. Guess the guy just can't decide what he believes.
Either that or his "pals" gently reminded him that it ain't so easy to back out
of a signed affidavit.


John McCain, chairman of Bush's campaign in Arizona, denounced the ads last
week, saying, "I deplore this kind of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and
dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry)
commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire."
Referring to the dirty tricks Team Bush used against McCain during the 2000
Republican primaries, he said, "It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on
me."


Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said, "We have been very clear in stating that,
you know, we will not - and we have not and we will not question Senator
Kerry's service in Vietnam," but refused to condemn or criticize the ad,
instead using the opportunity to complain about "unregulated soft-money
activity."
So - Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? Hardly. On the contrary, this is likely to
go down in history as one of the most dishonest and dirtiest campaign tricks
ever. Shame on Team Bush for not disowning this crap.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/04/165.html

Walt