Posted on 08/15/2004 11:28:42 AM PDT by Roscoe Karns
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
A group of Vietnam veterans that is challenging Sen. John Kerry's claims of heroic war service says it received a flood of donations in recent days after advertising its contentions on television in three states.
The group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said it hoped to use the money to monitor Kerry's campaign travels and run ads in cities where he appears.
"That's our goal," said John E. O'Neill, a Houston attorney who's one of the group's leaders and co-author of Unfit to Command, a 251-page book being distributed by Regnery Publishing house. The book quotes Navy veterans as saying Kerry distorted his record as a river boat commander in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in 1968 to 1969.
Democrats have said the group is nothing but a Republican hit squad determined to besmirch their candidate.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a so-called 527 organization, not affiliated with any party. It got off the ground with a $100,000 donation from Texas homebuilder Bob J. Perry, a prominent Republican donor.
Roy F. Hoffman, a retired admiral and chairman of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said the first TV ad, which ran for one week in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia at a cost of $550,000, got so much national news attention that it generated an additional $400,000 from 8,000 donors around the country.
"We are putting together the second ad," said Hoffman, 78, of Richmond, Va. As a Navy captain in 1968 and 1969, Hoffman commanded a unit of 1,650 sailors that included Kerry as a lieutenant.
Hoffman said the unit, known as Task Force 115, included about 16 swift boats and their crews, which patrolled the delta looking for Viet Cong and other enemy fighters.
"I knew Kerry pretty well," he said. "I did not ride his boat, but we operated very close together. ... I can't say I was a personal friend or buddy-buddy, but I sure knew him ... and I never felt he had the qualifications."
Kerry has made his war service the centerpiece of his campaign for president. His supporters include men who served on his boat, including a former Green Beret who said Kerry rescued him from the water while under fire.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth first gained public attention in May when its leaders -- including men who served on boats near Kerry's -- called a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
Hoffman said the group is not connected to the Republican Party. He said he hasn't been politically involved since leaving the Navy in 1978. Yes, he said, the group had taken cash donations from Republicans. But that became necessary, he said, because the news conference received little attention on network television and in national newspapers.
The group concluded that it needed to buy its own TV ad, he said. And that required money. Hoffman said of Perry: "We had our hand out, and he put money in it. ... As far as I'm concerned, he's a wealthy construction person. If he owns the money legally, I'm all for it."
The group reported $158,000 in donations as of June 30, its latest filing with the election commission.
Donors as of that date included O'Neill and Texas real estate developer Harlan Crow, also a Republican contributor. Each of them gave $25,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington non-profit that tracks political donations.
Current advisers include Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm in Arlington, Va., that Mike Russell, a spokesman, said has done work for the Republican Party and "conservative-oriented causes."
And that total is just the beginning. Donations will continue and when a new ad appears, elicit a new wave.
The media has exposed itself on this issue. Their reputation will continue to decline.
My thanks to these Veterans and their supporters!
Aha! 50 bucks apiece! Proof that this is all the work of the Republican attack machine! (Democrats don't have that kind of money)
...or so goes the spin.
Be careful of what you wish. If Kerry is forced out, Mrs. Clinton will step up. Are we certain that she can be defeated?
Good plan, run the commercials a couple of days before Kerry comes to town. If they can get them on the local tv channel right before the news it would be even better. After a couple of days of this commercial and no coverage by the local press you might sway some more people. A little local news paper advertising might help as well. And who knows maybe a reporter might grow a set and ask Kerry directly about his time in Cambodia.
Unfit for Command Shipped from Amazon and people are recommending "instead of books" that trash Bush -- and they couldn't even have read it yet.
Please visit Amazon and recommend something GOOD (write a review too)
< http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0895260174/qid=1092449463 >
Sounds a little fishy to me. Why would contributors donating to the Swiftee's need to list their employer?
second ad should include video of Kerry talking about his Christmas in Cambodia on the floor of the Senate and then his testimony in 1972, tying those together and publicizing the fact that Kerry has had to admit his Cambodia tale was all a lie.
John O'Neil and Steve Gardner are both democrats.
527 regulation
More likely the ambulance chaser would move up and take his place and Gephard would run as the vp. Getting in now is a losing proposition that Hillary is too smart to get herself involved in.
Isn't there a cutoff date for 527 or special interest tv ads? Something like 60 or 30 days before the election?
Have her call her local RNC office (or do it for her). They will help her get an absentee ballot, and even register if she's not registered already.
I thought it was all elections ads. The last 30 days the republicans are going to get killed in the media if they can't run adds. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
They have to list that data when they report their cortributions from private individuals. Federal requirement.
Thanks for the address for a great cause and BTT!
We don't put my occupation on anything we don't have to because it can target us for animal rights nutcases.
I've had some medical personnel and others that saw my occupation on paperwork I had to fill out take an offensive attitude at times.
Guess Mrs. FT needs to send the check in her name,we don't need to be a bigger target than we already are. :)
Thank you for clearing that up.
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