The Swifties are here to stay
Kerry's attacks on his Vietnam-era accusers have only increased attention
Sunday, August 29, 2004
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An axiom of politics is: <font color=blue>"Don't feed a bad story."<font color=black> By going postal about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John Kerry has laid out a veritable banquet.
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Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).
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Kerry has accused the Swifties of smearing him by criticizing his Vietnam service. But he has gone further, declaring the Swifties to be Republican shills, put up to attacking Kerry by the evil Bush. If Kerry were to acknowledge the real reason why the Swifties hate him -- because he falsely accused them and other Vietnam veterans of committing war crimes -- it would not enhance his appeal to swing voters.
Kerry's <font color=blue>"evidence"<font color=black> for this charge is that most of the seed money for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth came from a $200,000 contribution from Houston home builder Bob Perry, a frequent contributor to GOP candidates.
The New York Times has tried to help Kerry out by publishing a complex genealogy which indicates that Swiftie John O'Neill, principal author of <font color=purple>"Unfit for Command"<font color=black> and now a prominent Houston lawyer, knows Republicans who know other Republicans who know Bush. (That Times article didn't mention that O'Neill says he's an independent who voted for Al Gore in 2000.)
If the <font color=blue>"Republican attack machine"<font color=black> were behind the Swifties, it did a lousy job. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had barely $250,000 on hand when they launched their first ad in three mid-sized markets in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia. <font color=blue>By contrast, the three largest independent committees have raised and spent nearly $60 million on ads attacking Bush.<font color=black>
Benjamin Ginsberg, national counsel for the Bush-Cheney campaign, resigned after it was disclosed that he was also providing legal advice to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Ginsberg said the Bush campaign was unaware of his connection to the Swifties.
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The law says there can be no coordination between campaigns and 527 groups, but attorneys are specifically permitted to provide legal advice to both campaigns and independent groups.<font color=blue>
Robert Bauer, the national counsel of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, also represents America Coming Together, one of the largest of the anti-Bush 527s. He hasn't resigned from either post.
One of the anti-Bush 527s is run by Jim Jordan, Kerry's former campaign manager. Kerry staffer Zach Exley came to his campaign from MoveOn.org, the 527 that has run the most vicious anti-Bush ads.<font color=black>
Kerry can be confident that while the <font color=blue>"mainstream"<font color=black> media will trumpet his charges, there will be no exploration of possible collusion between his campaign and these supposedly independent groups.
On May 9, for instance, the Democratic National Committee issued a press release that said: <font color=blue>"The Democratic Party is partnering with MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Campaign for America's Future and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans to organize a massive public mobilization."<font color=black>
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The biggest unreported story of this campaign is the extent to which the major media are in the tank for Kerry. But media bias -- which has reached comic proportions in the Swift Boat vet controversy -- may be doing Kerry more harm than good.<font color=black>
If journalists were more interested in covering the news than in covering up for Kerry, they would have explored the Swifties' charges back in May, when the group first raised them. Had due diligence been done then, it might have been possible for Kerry to put the controversy behind him. At least, it might have kept Kerry from making his alleged heroism in Vietnam the theme of the Democratic National Convention. Now it has exploded on him at a critical time, knocking him off message.
When Kerry's attack on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth forced the story onto the front pages, the media tried to provide damage control. But what might have been contained as a small fire in May had become a raging inferno by August.
Despite the media attempt at a blackout, the charges made by the Swifties were causing a hemorrhage of support for Kerry among veterans, thanks to the efforts of dozens of Web loggers. Still, his escalation of the issue is puzzling. Thanks to Kerry, many, many more people have heard of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and are curious about what they have to say. The publisher of <font color=purple>"Unfit for Command"<font color=black> can't print books fast enough to meet demand.
While still small potatoes as far as 527 committees go, the Swifties are now -- thanks to Kerry -- relatively flush. The group reports having received more than $1.7 million in Internet contributions since Kerry attacked them. They won't be going away anytime soon. |
