Human Events Exclusive: DEMS' SCARE TACTICS-Trying to Scare Stations Out of Airing Anti-Kerry Ad

Human Events Online ^ | August 5, 2004 | Human Events

[hinterlander]

Lawyers for the DNC and Kerry-Edwards sent this letter to television station managers, claiming the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ad is "false" and "libelous." Click here for the full letter (can't be pasted into Free Republic window).

[Uncle Vlad]

Gee, the "Bush is Hitler" crowd can dish it out, but it can't take it.

[cake_crumb]

"If they're alleging libel, why not file a libel suit?"

Exactly what I would like to know. I think they know they don't have a case, so they're using their #1 best weapon : exacting the usual Pavlovian response from the meda and left; any allegation against President Bush must be true, and allegation against Kerry must be a lie.

[antivenom]

Kerry went behind THIS doctors back and had another doctor sign the paperwork...

Kerry's money will be slip sliding away fighting this cause...

[antivenom]

YOu are correct...high profile person can't sue for libel or slander...ONLY if it affects his current source of income. OR that is how I have had it explained to me...

[blackie]

These democrat cretins have a lot of guts!

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for posting this. I point out the obvious, that this letter was written by KNOWN LAWYERS. And based on the affiliations below their names, these two also associate with many other KNOWN LAWYERS. Certainly, many of these lawyers are even (shudder!) TRIAL LAWYERS.

So there are as many, if not more, reasons to believe that the letter written by the lawyers is a bald-faced lie, as it is to believe that of the ad from the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. Come to think of it, has anyone ever heard of an organization called "Lawyers for Truth"? I thought not.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Backbenchers in Boston, The Unnoticed Democrats "

If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.

[mewzilla]

Drudge should put on his website the 60+ pages of corroboration that were sent to the stations along with the ads. A station manager just said on Hannity that the corroboration was very impressive.

[philman_36]

After reading that letter the only thing I have to say is...
How the 7734 does the ONDCP get their ads played?
Talk about falsehoods!

[Congressman Billybob]

Good get, Capt. to note that the lawyer now for Kerry-Edwards used to be the lawyer for Robert ("cur dog from New Jersey") Torricelli. In my 40 year career and counting as a lawyer, I never chose to represent anyone I considered to be a card-carrying sleazeball.

So, either the Kerry-Edwards lawyer was domb as a hoe handle not to notice that Torricelli was a brass-plated bum, or the lawyer drew the line on clients differently from me. (He drew the line thusly, "If the check is good, the client is innocent.") That seems to be an appropriate benchmark for a person who represents Kerry-Edwards.

John / Billybob

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Have the Kerry/Edwards campaign made a mistake here, sending the letter to radio stations?

[philman_36]

I heard Letson on Boortz this a.m. He says that he did not sign because the medic was the one that was supposed to sign.
Oh what a crying shame! No wonder he doesn't want the information released. If the medical sheet I used to get a purple heart was signed by a mere corpsman/medic then I wouldn't want anybody seeing it either.
I hope the dork does try to "disprove" the doctor, then we can all see how "serious" this "wound" was. It was so "serious" that a mere medic took care of it and a real doctor wasn't even necessary.

ROTFLOL Thank you for that info and for the best laugh of the week!
I hope the Kerry campaign fights this tooth and nail.

[philman_36]

You see this CD?
Kerry went behind THIS doctors back and had another doctor sign the paperwork...
Where did you get that info from anti?

[Congressman Billybob]

Have the Kerry-Edwards lawyers made a legal mistake by sending this letter? No. Some lawyers send threatening letters like this all the time.

However, have they made a POLITICAL mistake by sending out this letter? You bet. Like a child picking at a scab, they have made a bad situation worse. I would have expected them not to reply directly to the anti-Kerry ads, just as Bush stayed above the fray on anti-Bush ads.

It's a matter of not dignifying the charges by appearing forced to respond. The response helps convince some folks that the original charges were correct. It is one more tin-eared mistake by the Kerry Campaign.

John / Billybob

[King Prout]

retyped for legibility:

VIA FACSIMILE

Re: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Dear Station Manager:

.....We are counsel to the Democratic National Committee and John Kerry,
respectively. It has been brought to our attention that a group calling itself "Swift Boat
Veterans For Truth" has bought time, or may seek to buy time, on your station to air an
advertisement that attacks Senator Kerry. The advertisement contains statements by men
who purport to have served on Senator Kerry's SWIFT Boat in Vietnam, and one
statement by a man pretending to be the doctor who treated Senator Kerry for one of his
injuries. In fact, not a single one of these men who pretend to have served with Senator
Kerry was actually a crewmate of Senator Kerry's and the man pretending to be his
doctor was not. The entire advertisement, therefore, is an inflammatory, outrageous lie.

....."Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" styles itself as a group of individuals who
personally served with John Kerry in the United States Navy in the Vietnam War. In
truth, the group is a sham organization spearheaded by a Texas corporate media
executive. It has been financed largely with funds from a Houston homebuilder. See Slater, Dallas Morning News, July 23, 2004.

.....In this group's advertisement, twelve men appear to make statements about
Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. Not a single one of these men served on either of
Senator Kerry's two SWIFT Boats (PCF 44 & PCF94).

.....Further, the "doctor" who appears in the ad, Louis Letson(sp?), was not a crewmate of
Senator Kerry's, and was not the doctor who actually signed Senator Kerry's sick call
sheet. In fact, another physician actually signed Senator Kerry's sick call sheet. Letson is
not listed on any document as having treated Senator Kerry after the December 2, 1968(?)
firefight. Moreover, according to news accounts, Letson did not record his "memories"
of that incident until after Senator Kerry became a candidate for President in 2003.
(National Review Online, May 4, 2004)

.....The statements made by the phony "crewmates" and "doctor" who appear in the
advertisement are also totally, demonstrably and unequivocally false, and libellous. In

*end fax transcript*

I have not seen the ad, but IIRC none of the SwiftBoaters ever claimed to have crewed Kerry's boats - they claim to have served in other boats in coordinated ops with Kerry's boat. Please let me know how thie legalistic rubbish, which was quite annoying to have to transcribe, squares with the actual ad's contents.

[philman_36]

Kerry's money will be slip sliding away fighting this cause...
You know, your comment is very interesting. If one could see where I'd been on the web today they'd understand.
I almost put the tail end of that song up in this reply.
NCPAC...The goal is to take the country back to being a Republic:
We work our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip sliding away

After considering what a Democrat Simon is I decided against it.

And speaking of spending money, namely other people's money (OPM), I found this while looking for those lyrics...
The neck of my Guitar
Something interesting about $25,000 "extra" of a $27,000 campaign contribution going to the DNC.

[freedomlover]

10-to-1 this story is on the front page of tomorrow's New York Times, with an angry editorial about it.

Uh, I'll take that bet, dollars to donuts. I don't think the NYSLimes cares about censorship of conservatives.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think the media is going to be very careful about this unless they can show the money behind the group has some reasonable connection to the Bush/ Cheney campaign.

The Britt Hume Foxnews hour didn't get to this until 20 minutes into the show , did discuss it in the round table. Krauthammer thought what happened 30 years ago in Vietnam was irrelevant, Kondrake wanted to chase the money angle and ONLY Fred Barnes seemed interested in the charges.....

I was disappointed....

[backhoe]

Screw 'em & Sue 'em-- Boy, that's an apt moniker...

...and I'll point out that the phrase originated from another member, whose name escapes me, dang it!

[fight_truth_decay]

I believe what these guys are saying

How does the White House distancing themselves from these vets make you feel? Is the Bush camp using the swift boat vets as political campaign scapegoat to say the President is against negative campaign ads and will not question Kerry's service? Wonder what those swift boat vets are feeling right now.

[oldironsides]

Good. Let them go to court and allow everyone to be deposed. The goon squad lawyers are probably working pro bono. The cake will come later if Kerry wins. It is really difficult to fight truth and eye witnesses. Kerry should run on his political record and not Vietnam short tour.
I cut my face on a wet tent rope during a heavy rain. I was cutting through a driving rain and did not see it in the dark. I am betting I was injured more than Kerry. Kerry is a damned fool if he thinks we forgot his report to congress and his admission to evil behavior. He needs to face up to what he did to the Vietnamese people and to his comrades. It is long overdue.