For most political observers, the term “swift-boat” has become a ubiquitous, easy-to-understand verb. Whereas it used to mean lying about an opponent’s military service in order to smear him or her, it’s now taken on a more general meaning: to swift-boat is to fabricate a phony smear of your opponent.
The right, apparently, is still a little sensitive about this generally-accepted phrase entering the political lexicon. Conservatives are surely aware that the vicious lies about John Kerry’s heroic military service were a key development in the 2004 race, but it leaves them uncomfortable to realize that “swift-boating” is synonymous with fraudulent smears. It was a disgraceful moment for the right, and it’s apparently left them rather embarrassed.
So, they’re pushing back, suggesting that the swift-boat liars weren’t lying after all. Last week, Rush Limbaugh insisted that the 2004 propaganda was “right on the money, and nobody has disproven anything they claimed in any of their ads.”
This week, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, a major contributor to the swift-boat liars, offered $1 million to anyone who could disprove any of the group’s 2004 claims. Yesterday, Kerry gladly accepted the challenge.
Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry’s race against President Bush, responded by saying he won’t consider giving Kerry the reward unless he surrenders his combat films, additional military records and wartime journal. […]
Pickens wrote Friday in a letter faxed to Kerry, “I am certainly open to your challenge,” but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, as well as movies he shot while on patrol and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? It’s not merely enough to highlight the group’s obvious lies; Kerry needs to let Pickens dig through his personal life from 35 years ago?
Kerry isn’t backing down. “While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false,” Kerry wrote to Pickens. “I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.” The senator will donate Pickens’ money to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Kerry told the AP, “It’s beyond me; it’s important for all the vets who served with me, who cared about it, whose own records were lied about. The problem is, it’s the way they operate on the other side, and we have to end swift-boating forever. The way to do that is to have this public accounting.”
For his part, Pickens said he’ll hold up his end of the bargain, just so long as Kerry turns over everything Pickens demands to see.
“When you have done so, if you can then prove anything in the ads was materially untrue, I will gladly award $1 million. As you know, I have been a long and proud supporter of the American military and veterans’ causes,” Pickens wrote.
That might be more believable if he, you know, didn’t finance the swifties.