Well you really have to be quick around here. You beat me by 2 minutes.Good job..good post..
Thanks
Hey FRiends...TAX PING..
Posted on 02/21/2005 4:02:18 PM PST by Kaslin
The group of advisers who helped Swift Boat Veterans for Truth craft an effective campaign against Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election is now on board with President Bush's plan to reform Social Security.
The group, now called Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, is widely credited with helping swing the election to Bush, though he never coordinated with the group and in fact criticized it at one time.
Now the New York Times reports that same winning team is back together, this time to help craft a strategy in support of Bush's Social Security initiative, which includes allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their contributions.
USA Next, a conservative lobbying organization whose president is Charlie Jarvis, deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, and whose national chairman is Art Linkletter, "has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush's toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security," the Times reported.
They include Chris LaCivita, a former U.S. Marine who advised the Swift Vets' media campaign and wrote its effective television commercials. Also, USA Next wants to hire Rick Reed, a partner at the law firm of Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, which was retained by the Swift Vets for media production.
Finally, the Times reports, USA Next has retained Creative Response Concepts, "a Virginia firm that represented both Swift Vets ... and Regnery Publishing, the publisher of 'Unfit for Command,' a book about Senator John Kerry's military service whose co-author was John E. O'Neill, one of the primary leaders of Swift Vets."
Kerry, who was a Swift Boat commander for a short time during Vietnam, was attacked mercilessly by the Swift Vets group during last year's campaign. The group alleged - very effectively - that Kerry's Navy service and his decorations, including three Purple Hearts for wounds sustained in action, were exaggerated.
Armed with former Swift Vets advisers, USA Next will now take on perhaps an even toughest opponent: AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), which has so far put up the most resistance to Bush's plans to remake Social Security.
AARP is beginning to gear up its own public relations battle wagon, so far spending about $10 million on a print ad campaign, which will launch this week, and on print advertising in major newspapers, the Times reported. Said one ad, in opposing Bush's private accounts, "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."
But USA Next's strategy appears to be similar to the one used by the Swift Vets last year against Kerry, in that it seeks to attack its opponent's weak spot. In Kerry's case, it was his history; the same may be true for USA Next's AARP battle plan.
"USA Next has been portraying AARP as a liberal organization out of step with Republican values, and is now trying to discredit its stance on Social Security," the Times reported.
AARP, which bills itself as non-partisan, has given USA Next plenty of ammunition to use against it. Though the retired persons' organization sided with the administration in pushing for the new Medicare-based prescription drug benefit in 2003, based on its support of other policy issues, the group is fairly accurately judged by conservatives to be an opponent, not an ally.
Still, AARP's 35 million-member strength is formidable. Acknowledging that, USA Next's Jarvis says the group's planned frontal assault on behalf of Bush's Social Security reforms may again alienate the White House, since the entitlement has long been considered the "Fourth Rail" of American politics.
Nevertheless, the group revels in its reputation for helping the Swift Vets lob damaging volleys against Kerry last year.
"It's an honor to be equated with the Swift Boat guys," Jarvis told the Times.
Well you really have to be quick around here. You beat me by 2 minutes.Hey FRiends...TAX PING..
Eh. Now they'll just be another political group. They were probably the deciding factor this last election, but shilling for a cause as starkly political as SS reform weakens them considerably.
I agree---hope they aren't using money I donated to push agenda I may or may not support. I donated money to them to support their efforts to expose the War Hero Myth of John Kerry. They need to reorganize under another name and mission statement.
I agree!
since the entitlement has long been considered the "Fourth Rail" of American politics.
Carl must be a Lionel guy.
So what? They are no more experts on Social Security than Hollywood stars are about geopolitics. Who cares what they think about this subject?
And why should they all have the same opinion about it, anyway? I thought they were a diverse group -- some Republicans, some Democrats, some Liberals, some Conservatives -- who united over a common distaste for John Kerry. Who had to swallow his disagreement to make this inconsequential gesture of support for the President's Social Security proposal?
Maybe, unless the story is just a set of extrapolations from speculations based on exaggerations of ruminations.
Swift Boat Vets have credibility with me when they speak of John F. Kerry because they served with his sorry a$$. When they speak of Social Security reform, the term "Squid" keeps coming to mind.
Disappointed.
Yes, I agree- They should stay out of this as a group. If any as individuals want to get on board, fine.
This just makes them look like part of the Bush machine, and dilutes their credibility on the things that they are supposed to have been formed for.
While I support most of President Bush's Soc.Sec. reform plans, I wouldn't like to see any of the money I sent the Swifties for anti-kerry operations to be used to promote this agenda.... at least as long as kerry has any sort of existence in politics.
They were. But a number of the actual Swifties and POWs were not. As far as I know, the PR groups were generally known to be GOP. And as for the vets, they HAD been Dem. Zell Miller HAD been a Dem. What I'm still not sure that I understand is their loyalty to a party that calls them, essentially, the devil incarnate. Will they remain Dem? They probably want to reclaim their party. But the Dem don't deserve these guys. Don't know about the GOP. Have to see.
The article doesn't say the Swift Boat Vets are going to push for Pres. Bush's SS plan, but that a group that ADVISED the Swift Boat Vets are going to work on it. I don't think the Swift Boat Vets are involved at all, is the way I read the article.
Exactly, this just doesn't make any sense, they will lose all credibility.
Once again, I embarass myself by not having read carefully and not reading the whole article before jumping to conclusions. Sorry
Exactly right. They are no better than Hollywood liberals now.
"I don't think the Swift Boat Vets are involved at all, is the way I read the article."
bump
I hope that this is just an individual choice-among certain, select members-and not a widespread decision among the grassroots leadership.
Why would these advisors be using the "Swift Boat" tag as the flagship name of this political action committee?
Thanks for the ping!
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