I really did plan on letting the Swiftboat story sink under its own corrupt weight, but there were just too many provocative details released since yesterday afternoon. I’m afraid I can’t help myself.
First, and most importantly, is the latest connection between the Bush campaign and these lying liars. When Kerry suggested that Bush aides were connected to the smear campaign, the campaign called the charges “false” and “frivolous.” Since then, we’ve learned that an associate of Karl Rove is providing the funding for the group’s commercials and that an advisor to the Bush campaign was not only helping the group, but even appeared in the Swiftboat hacks’ attack ads. Today, it got worse.
A top lawyer in President Bush’s reelection campaign acknowledged Tuesday that he has been advising the veterans group seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry’s military record, an admission the Kerry campaign said is evidence the president’s campaign is orchestrating a “smear” by the private group.
Benjamin L. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush campaign who also has advised Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said in an interview: “I’ve done some work for them. . . . The law lets lawyers do that . . . and does not include lawyers among the coordinated political activities” that are prohibited by federal election law. He said two prominent Democratic lawyers are doing the same thing.
Yes, as a matter of fact, some prominent Dem lawyers are doing the same thing, but when the Dems did it, the same Ben Ginsberg said the work represented illegal coordination and was a violation of federal election law.
So many hacks, so little time…
Second, we also learned this morning that Navy records prove — again — that Kerry’s right and the GOP attack dogs are wrong.
The Navy task force overseeing John Kerry’s swift boat squadron in Vietnam reported that his group of boats came under enemy fire during a March 13, 1969, incident that three decades later is being challenged by the Democratic presidential nominee’s critics.
The March 18, 1969, weekly report from Task Force 115, which was located by The Associated Press during a search of Navy archives, is the latest document to surface that supports Kerry’s description of an event for which he won a Bronze Star and a third Purple Heart.
Third, John O’Neill, a protégé of Nixon dirty trickster Charles Colson, obsessive Kerry critic for 35 years, and author of the Swiftboat liars’ book, has stepped into another scandal that makes his already-weak credibility look even worse.
O’Neill insists Kerry couldn’t have gone to Cambodia in 1969 because that would have been illegal and would have gotten him “court-martialed.”
O’Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O’Neill said precisely the opposite to then President Richard Nixon.
O’NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.
NIXON: In a swift boat?
O’NEILL: Yes, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now, O’Neill may have an explanation for this but he has not returned CNN’s calls.
What’s the matter, John? Cat got your tongue? Feeling shy all of a sudden?
And, finally, there’s the sad story of the terribly foolish Alfred French. I’m afraid it’s impossible to keep up with every SBVfT member who’s been discredited and/or caught lying about John Kerry, but this one stands out for being particularly moronic. It exceeds the garden-variety dishonesty that’s been common with these hacks and approaches Darwin Award-style mendacity that can (and should) get a guy fired.
Several Vietnam veterans are calling for an assistant district attorney [in Portland, Ore.] to resign after questions were raised about his statement in a recent ad criticizing Democrat John Kerry’s military service.
Alfred French of the Clackamas County district attorney’s office appears in the ad sponsored by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In the spot, French says: “I served with John Kerry. … He is lying about his record.”
As it turns out, it’s French who is lying about having served with John Kerry. Indeed, French had no direct contact with Kerry and based his accusations on things he heard second-hand from other Kerry critics. He admitted in an interview with The Oregonian that he did not personally witness the events he was talking about.
As if that weren’t dishonest enough, French, who I remind you is an assistant D.A., lied about his accounts in a sworn legal document.
Before recording the ad, French signed an affidavit that said: “I am able to swear, as I do hereby swear, that all facts and statements contained in this affidavit are true and correct and within my personal knowledge and belief.”
It goes on to say that “Kerry has wildly exaggerated and lied about his record in Vietnam” and that he received his Purple Heart medals “in the absence of hostile fire.”
Time to update your resume, Mr. French.