Posted on 09/06/2004 8:52:36 AM PDT by kattracks
After the stunning success of anti-John Kerry ads produced by the group Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, a separate group of Vietnam veterans is planning to open up a new front - in a move that could leave the Democratic nominee sorry he ever mentioned Vietnam as a campaign issue.Special Forces veteran Ted Sampley, co-founder with Mike Benge and Jerry Kiley of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, tells Ad Week magazine that his group has launched a local spot buy targeting military family-rich areas in North Carolina. The ads started last week on Fox affiliates in the area, covering key military installations at Camp LeJeune, Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point and Seymour Johnson AFB.
Sampley tells Ad Week he's currently negotiating further media buys that will reach Fort Bragg and Pope AFB.
While VVAJK has been around for more than a year, the group's entry into the Kerry ad wars is brand new, and could showcase like never before the broad resentment Vietnam veterans feel for Kerry's anti-war activities. with the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Sampley's first ad covers information that's been hushed up by the mainstream press: Kerry's participation in a 1971 VVAW meeting in Kansas City where the assassination of several pro-war U.S. senators was plotted and voted on.
The Kerry campaign at first denied the top Democrat was present, but was forced to retract the claim when the New York Sun unearthed FBI files that placed him at the meeting. Kerry claimed he voted no on the plot and then resigned from the group.
Sampley's 60-second spot blasts the White House hopeful for his leadership role in the organization, calling it "one of America's most radical, pro-Communist, anti-war groups," accusing Kerry of having "marched in demonstrations carrying the flags of the America's enemies, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese."
The spot also charges that Kerry "used the blood of U.S. service men, still fighting on the battlefields of Vietnam, for his own political advancement."
In a twist that's likely to confound critics, Sampley's group has rejected non-profit status and is not operating as the kind of 527 group that both the Bush and Kerry campaigns have condemned.
Instead, the veteran's advocate says his anti-Kerry ads are for-profit advertising for his newspaper, U.S. Veteran Dispatch.
I did a search first, but must have missed it.
First he claimed that he resigned before the meeting and was unaware that it had taken place, or that the plot had been discussed. When confronted with FBI docs placing him at the meeting, he claimed his recollection was incomplete.
I think his dispute with McCain is legitimate. I'm not saying he is correct, only that McCain's definition of a fringe vet, is any vet that is critical of McCain.
What is ridiculous about it? It seems to make some of the same points as Swift Boat ad #2, and the Communist affiliation of VVAW is well documented. Is there something in the ad, you think is false?
Read the post I was responding to. I wasn't commenting on the content of the ad.
I'd be damned careful before I criticized a POW.
Agreed tha Sampley isn't playing with a full deck. Even worse, if he is portrayed by the media as a nutbag, he may hurt the Swifties.
I smell a Larry Klayman type.
Support John O'Neill (who is not making any money off his efforts) and the Swifties!
Oh man! I love it...
The truth will set you free.
As my husband just said, "I'm so glad Gore invented the internet!"
ROTFLMAO!
He says he voted no on the assainations and then resigned. Youv'e got to be kidding me.
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