Posted on 08/22/2004 5:42:49 AM PDT by kattracks
The Kerry campaign is gloating this weekend over the resignation of Bush Cheney volunteer, former Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier, who's featured in the latest Swiftboat ad - saying it proves illegal coordination between the Swiftvets' 527 group and the official Bush campaign.But Kerry has no plans to fire Zach Exley, a key campaign staffer who served as the organizing director for MoveOn.org throughout the presidential primaries. What's more, MoveOn, whose sole mission is to defeat President Bush in November, maintains that Exley is allowed to "communicate" with the 527 group even as he works for the Democratic nominee.
"Col. Cordier did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement," the Bush campaign said in a statement late Saturday. "Because of his involvement [in the ad] Col. Cordier will no longer participate as a volunteer for Bush-Cheney '04."
But there's no doubt that Kerry knew all about Exley's background when he hired him.
In April the Kerry for President Web site proudly announced: "Zach Exley joins the [Kerry] Internet team as Director of Online Communications and Online Organizing. He was previously the director of special projects for the MoveOn.org."
Exley claims he won't communicate with MoveOn until after the election, but when he teamed up with Kerry, MoveOn's executive director, Eli Pariser, acknowledged that Exley will be able to make use of "what he's got in his head."
And a statement issued by MoveOn when Exley signed on with team Kerry insisted, "federal election rules permit some forms of communication" between Exley and the liberal 527.
As for the ideas that Exley has "got in his head" and will now be sharing with the Kerry campaign, his past credits include a political parody site that portrayed Bush as a crack user.
In my opinion, it is good to spur the participation of other elements of the society and break the stranglehold of the professional politicians and their handlers. Obviously, they all do the same things and have brought us to a contentious 50-50 eletorate. Like it or not, we are getting a lot more bang for the buck from a Michael Moore movie and a $150,000 book campaign than we get from those awful TV ads political consultants make. Politics will probably not be the same, after this.
Won't this all be over when we go into the blackout 30 days before the elections?
Without double standards, Liberals would vanish.
Yup! This is infuriating me...
My 80 year old Dad, a WWII Navy Vet, is even getting political again because of JF'nK....he absolutely detests him! Telling all his buddies and anyone else who will listen not to vote for this POS....LOL I think that there are a lot more vets like my Dad who have been quiet for years that will truly make a difference come Nov......I sincerely hope so.
Zach Exley?
I thought his name was Ex Zackley.
But I am not exactly sure.
Yes.
Tim Russert "Meet the Press" did on his show today.
JUST KIDDING, YOU KNOW THEY'LL NEVER BRING THIS UP.........
BUT WE CAN........
Harvard Crimson : Kerry refused order to destroy Viet Cong village
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=352185
Published on Wednesday, February 18, 1970
John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress
By SAMUEL Z. GOLDHABER
Crimson Staff Writer
"...One time Kerry was ordered to destroy a Viet Cong village
but disobeyed orders and suggested that the Navy Command
simply send in a Psychological Warfare team to be
friend the villagers with food, hospital supplies,
and better educational facilities."
Bush adviser quits after appearing in swift boat ad
Kerry has accused group of illegally working with campaign [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/21/edwards.swiftboat/index.html]
ROANOKE, Virginia (CNN) -- A volunteer adviser has quit President Bush's re-election campaign after appearing in a veterans group's television commercial blasting Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's involvement in the Vietnam-era antiwar movement.
A Bush campaign statement said it did not know that retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier had appeared in an ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Kerry campaign has accused the group of illegally working with the Bush campaign.
As a so-called 527 group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is barred from coordinating efforts with an election campaign.
Kerry's camp calls it a front for the Bush campaign and has urged the Federal Election Commission to cite the group, the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee for violating federal election laws.
The 527 groups are named for the federal provision that makes such organizations tax exempt and allows them to accept unlimited donations.
Before his departure, Cordier -- who spent six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam -- was a member of the Bush-Cheney campaign's veterans' steering committee, campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a written statement issued Saturday night.
Cordier appeared in a commercial launched Friday by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has accused Kerry of lying about his Vietnam service. In it, he and other Vietnam veterans accuse Kerry, a decorated Navy officer, of selling out his old comrades by joining the antiwar movement upon his return home.
"He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?" Cordier asks in the ad.
Schmidt called Cordier "an American hero" but said he would "no longer participate as a volunteer for Bush-Cheney '04" because of his appearance in the anti-Kerry ad.
"Col. Cordier did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement being run by a 527 organization," Schmidt said.
The Bush campaign called Kerry's FEC complaint "frivolous" in a response released Saturday and urged commissioners to dismiss it swiftly.
A previous ad by the swift boat group accuses Kerry of lying to get his war medals: three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. Kerry and others say the ads are false and misleading.
The latest ad, a 30-second spot released Friday, uses segments from Kerry's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. In the ad, Kerry says, "They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads," "randomly shot at civilians," and "razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Kahn."
The ad does not include Kerry's preface, in which he said he is reporting what others said at a Vietnam veterans conference. Instead, a swift boat group member refers to the statements as "accusations" Kerry made against Vietnam veterans.
An official transcript shows Kerry was referring to a meeting in Detroit, Michigan, that was part of what was called the Winter Soldier investigation. Kerry has said he regrets some of the comments but stands by his protests.
Two speak up for Kerry
Also Saturday, two former comrades of Kerry backed up the candidate's account of the events that earned him his Silver Star.
William Rood, an editor at the Chicago Tribune, writes in Sunday's editions: "Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened [in 1969] were overblown. The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us."
Like Kerry, Rood was a lieutenant junior grade and skipper of one of the three boats ambushed twice while on patrol February 28, 1969. Kerry was awarded the Silver Star, the Navy's third-highest combat decoration, for his aggressive response to the ambushes.
Rood won a Bronze Star for his actions in the same clash, and writes that criticism of Kerry " impugns others who are not in the public eye."
He says, "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
John O'Neill, who wrote a book challenging Kerry's accounts of his service, said Saturday that SBVT was not challenging Rood's commendation. But in a statement issued the same day, he called Rood's account "an obvious political move" and said the group's accusations against Kerry were drawn from two previous books about the Massachusetts senator.
"Anyone who compares the three books on the Silver Star incident will see that they are substantially identical in the facts," he said.
Rood says in the first-person article that Kerry asked him to publicly discuss his account of that mission.
"I can't pretend those calls had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this," he writes."What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."
Rood writes that Kerry was in charge of the mission and discussed with the other two skippers how to handle the inevitable ambushes.
"We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had a clear fix on the location of the ambush," he writes, "we would turn directly into it, focusing the boats' twin .50-caliber machine guns on the attackers and beaching the boats."
Twice on that day Kerry ordered such a maneuver, according to Rood. Each time the ambushes were quelled.
O'Neill's book said Kerry shot a fleeing Vietnamese teenager to win the award.
Rood disputes that, saying he checked with another sailor on that mission and they agreed that "he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the [Viet Cong] usually wore."
Wayne Langhofer, who now works at a gunpowder plant in Kansas, said he also was present for the battle.
"I was with Kerry when he won his Silver Star, and as far as I'm concerned, he did right," he told CNN on Saturday.
CNN's Matthew Hoye and Phil Hirshkorn contributed to this article.
This is the World of Commander McBragg
Your hair will curl in the World of McBragg.
He fights monsters galore
And then asks for still more
Or so says the brag of McBragg.
When on the hill the marines plant a flag
They may be led by Commander McBragg.
With a cannon in hand
He can beat any band
Or so says the brag of McBragg.
Fencing and fighting and round table knighting
And slaying of dragons, too.
Shipping and sailing and great harpoon whaling
There's nothing McBragg can't do.
Hunting and trapping and gold miner mapping
And flying to Timbuktu.
Roping and riding and Indian guiding
Commander McBragg comes through.
This is the World of Commander McBragg
Your head will whirl in the World of McBragg.
He can do anything
In his world he's a king
Or so says the brag of McBragg.
They don't even want to talk about the MILLIONS Soros gave
Son of a BITCH! How much longer is Bush going to let Kerry enjoy a double-standard?
The major media is a Liberal 527 group.
Kerry campaign caught, red handed!
Quite.
I elect this song as the Kerry Theme replacing Mighty Mouse on Rush limbaugh show.
The left is disgusting, more so the "justices" who allow their behavior, and ditto to those Rs who are too "courteous and well bred" to do anything about it. The Sandy Burglar story has gone exactly where? And how about the poor aide who exposed the rats plans to use the Intelligence Sub-Committee for political blackmail? FIRED BY US! Or the shaming of Trent Lott for acknowleding an old man's presidential run at his 90th birthday party - while a rat senator says "nigger" with no condemnation.
We got ourselves into this horrible position and have no choice but to dig ourselves back out again. So let's push up our sleeves and keep people's feet to the fire - be they rats, justices, or weak republicans.
Now this is a good idea. Onward freepers!
I'm amazed. Perhaps this will have an impact if it's allowed to grow legs. Tim Russert...??? still amazed...
That's coordination - and illegal. I'm sorry I didn't have a picture.
So much for the 1st Amendment...
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