Posted on 08/20/2004 5:50:22 PM PDT by Reagan Man
CRAWFORD, Texas -- A volunteer for John Kerry said Friday he picked up a flier in Bush-Cheney headquarters in Gainesville, Fla., promoting Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group the Bush campaign has insisted for weeks it has no connection to.
The Kerry campaign e-mailed the flier to news organizations Friday, declaring that the Bush-Cheney campaign was "busted" for coordinating "in their smear campaign against John Kerry."
At Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters outside Washington, spokesman Steve Schmidt said: "The Bush-Cheney campaign has nothing to do with that piece of paper. ... I don't know how it showed up at the campaign headquarters."
"The Bush-Cheney campaign would object to any flier like this being displayed in any Republican headquarters," said Schmidt.
The flier distributed at Alachua County Republican Party headquarters promotes a weekend rally sponsored by "Swift Boat Vets for Truth" and other groups.
Bill Shilling, a Kerry volunteer in Gainesville, says he went to the GOP offices there Thursday and picked up the flier from a pile of literature on the table.
"The flier they gave me was on the same table as some Bush-Cheney bumper stickers," said Shilling. "I asked them if the Swift boat veterans were coming to Gainesville, and the woman I talked to said yes."
Shilling said he went back to Kerry headquarters and turned over the flier.
"I thought there was supposed to be some separation between Bush-Cheney and the Swift boat controversy but I didn't understand there was a big deal about this," said Shilling. "I think this whole thing attacking Kerry's war record is a diversion by Bush-Cheney from the real issues of the campaign."
Financed by a Texas businessman with longtime ties to prominent Republicans in the state, including President Bush, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth sponsored an ad featuring several Vietnam veterans who accuse Kerry of lying about the circumstances surrounding events for which he won his medals. Kerry received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts while in Vietnam.
The anti-Kerry group distributed a second commercial to the news media and said it would begin airing the ad next week in Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Mexico, the last a state Bush plans to visit next Thursday. The ad intersperses clips of a youthful Kerry talking about war atrocities during an appearance before Congress in 1971 with images of veterans condemning his testimony.
The Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign.
The Kerry campaign cited recent press reports and the group's own statements. The Bush campaign denied the allegation, as did the organization that aired the ad.
Assuming this were true, who's to say that some eager GOP volunteer didn't unwisely bring it into the headquarters and drop it on a table?
This proves nothing.
Good grief.
A volunteer probably didn't realize the legal implications of having that flier out.
Or a dem operative placed them there to set them up. Proves nothing.
BUMP FOR SUPPORT SWIFTVETS AD 2... http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/sellout.mpg
That's it? He picked up a flier in a Gainesville campaign office? Wow, the jig is up, I guess. That really proves that Bush is behind this, allright.
Holy living cow.
Ho hum....they are realllly desperate.
It's another case of "breathing while Republican." The shame of it.
Obviously it was a plant. One democrat goes in and plants it and another democrat walks in and "discovers" it.
Well now. John Kerry is associated with Michael "Pig" Moore and allowed him to sit in the Presidential box at the Rat convention. Side by side with the pacifist Jimmah Carter. Kerry also recently hired a new internet director, who use to work at MoveOn. George Soro's has given $15 million to MoveOn for the purposes of beating PresBush.
Too many coincidences here. It smacks of a setup.
I start work at our local GOP campaign HQ next week. I could walk in there and drop a stack of fliers on a table and there's every chance no one would notice them for days. And I'm a nobody. All it takes is one person.
This has nothing to do with the national campaign (though I think it's perfectly legitimate for the Dems to criticize that local campaign, or maybe even for the FEC to penalize them for distributing literature from a 527, depending on how it happened). But the idea that this will be a major issue in the campaign is ludicrous.
If that's coordination, what does this dickhead call Mega Moore hanging out at the 'Rat convention?
First it sounds likle there was ONE flyer and I would bet good money it was planted.
I just saw the flier on another thread.
All it says is Rally for USA and then lists several groups that will be attending.
Swiftvets was one group, so was Bush Cheney 04.
It was an advertisement for a picnic.
I, personally, don't get the argument or why Kerry is bringing it up. Even if they could prove a link, which they can't (especially not with this lame piece of paper, they have to prove collusion on the ads), it still wouldn't answer the questions that the ads bring up.
So why waste your money, and the chance that this will thrust the whole thing to the forefront even more than it already is.
Are they banking on the American people thinking, oh that group supports Bush, so it must not be true. That's not going to happen, especially with the second ad.
i just looked at the alachua go rep web site...they are having a lincoln dinner tonight. i can't wait to find out if it is a set up. maybe the dems just wanted to mess up their dinner.......
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