Posted on 01/05/2008 10:26:45 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
More than three years after John Kerry's bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the party is still haunted by the specter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Once upon a time, "Swift boat" denoted an obscure military vessel, but thanks to the activities of this group it has come to represent movement conservatism's penchant for ruthlessly (and effectively) smearing any and all political opponents, from a sitting senator and war hero to an 11-year-old boy with a cranial fracture.
Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission records of the group's top twenty donors reveals that they've been remarkably active in this cycle, contributing and bundling nearly $200,000 to presidential candidates. This does not bode well. During the last presidential campaign, the wealthy backers of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--now rebranded as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth--didn't do their real dirty work until the general election, where as a tax-exempt 527 group they operated outside the restraints of direct campaign contributions. We may wish we were done with the Swift Boaters, but they aren't done with us.
In 2004 the top twenty donors all gave (with one exception) at least $50,000 to the group. The top three--Houston home builder Bob Perry, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and billionaire drugstore impresario and investor Harold Simmons--gave a combined $9.5 million ($4.45 million, $3 million and $2 million, respectively). Calculating the influence of these and the slightly less wealthy Swift Boat donors during this cycle is a touch more complicated than simply adding up their contributions. Each one exerts far more influence as a bundler, given the federal restrictions on individual giving, which limit donors to a maximum of $4,600 per cycle. So The Nation looked not only at the contributions of the donors themselves but also at those of their family members and employees. It's an imperfect method, since some employees are clearly contributing of their own volition (such as one employee of a Simmons company who gave money to Hillary Clinton), but it gives a rough estimate of who's backing whom and to what extent.
The most notable recipient of Swift Boat largesse is John McCain, erstwhile front-runner and Stand Up Guy. When the Swift Boat ads were first unleashed, McCain was alone among his Republican colleagues to condemn them. A fellow Vietnam veteran, a good friend of Kerry's and a former target of smears about his own service, McCain called the ads "dishonest and dishonorable," a "cheap stunt," and he urged Bush to condemn them. But in pursuit of the GOP nomination, McCain ditched the mantle of maverick for that of hack, and his once-floundering, possibly rejuvenated campaign has been aided along the way by $61,650 from Swift Boat donors and their associates. "There is such a thing as dirty money," said Senator Kerry in a statement, after The Nation informed him of McCain's FEC records. "I'm surprised that the John McCain I knew who was smeared in 2000 and thought so-called Swift Boating was wrong in 2004 would feel comfortable taking their money after seeing the way it was used to hurt the veterans I know he loves." (McCain's office did not return calls for comment.)
McCain's Swift Boat bounty is exceeded only by that of Mitt Romney, who has raked in $70,550. Romney's success with Swift Boat donors is significant because he has surpassed even McCain in his demonstrated willingness to do or say anything in pursuit of the presidency and because he has emerged as the GOP establishment's favored candidate. Last year, when McCain held that position, the Arizona senator received significant backing from Swift Boat donors. But many have subsequently switched their allegiance. Pickens, who donated to McCain in June 2006, is now an enthusiastic Giuliani donor and fundraiser (Giuliani ranks third in Swift Boat funding, with $47,950). Perry, who also recorded several donations to McCain's PAC in 2005 and 2006, is now a major donor and fundraiser for Romney. If the list of top Swift Boat donors is expanded to fifty, Romney's fundraising edge is even more pronounced. (Neither Romney nor Giuliani's campaign returned calls for comment.)
Also noticeable among the recipients of Swift Boat largesse is one who received only a single donation: Mike Huckabee. Despite meager fundraising and little national name recognition, the former Arkansas governor has experienced a bubble-like expansion of support and media attention, taking the lead in Iowa and approaching a steady lead in national polls. But the lack of Swift Boat contributions lends credence to the claim that Huckabee is viewed warily by the money men who call the shots in the modern GOP. Despite proposing a radically regressive tax change and taking Grover Norquist's antitax pledge, he's been attacked savagely by the Club for Growth and eviscerated by columnist George Will for "comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs," among them "free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity."
This all supports the notion that the people behind the Swift Boat operation are chiefly concerned with the continued upward redistribution of wealth that is, more or less, the contemporary GOP's raison d'être. In 2006 Perry ponied up $5 million to start the Economic Freedom Fund, a 527 group devoted to attacking Democratic incumbents, and landed a large donation from prominent Swift Boat donor Carl Lindner. All of which is to say that the Swift Boaters aren't some kind of side show, a coterie of vicious mudslingers operating at the edges of respectability. They are the show. They are modern conservatism's core funders and beneficiaries. With conservatives staring straight into the abyss, their activities in this election cycle could very well make the Swift Boat smears look tame by comparison.
If you read the whole article, it is just a cheap trick to damage McCain, Romney and Giuliani (our supposed frontrunners) and install Hucklebilly, who they know they can beat. That’s how I read the whole thing.
I guess they haven’t figured out that not many Republicans even read their rag.....LOL
? Most effective and satisfying political money I have ever spent.
Ready to re-up....we will be needed again!!
It is interesting to note tht all Kerry had to do to end the assault by SVT was to rully release his DOD-180. The fact that instead he endured all of that grief, and indeed lost the election, instead of releasing his DOD-180 can only mean that the truth in those files was more damning than all of wat he endured. About says it all, doesn’t it?
Those interested in the truth about the Swift Vets may wish to check out To Set the Record Straight.
So the moonbats don't like the whole "truth to power" thing when it's used against them.
He must have failed the history part -- at least the REAL history part.
Pure Bravo Sierra from the Nation which tried to smear GW Bush in a story about Enron by falsely claiming that GW Bush owned the Houston Astros or that the Texas Rangers played in Houston (yes they f***ed up the retraction in their efforts to continue to link Bush and the Democrat sponsoring Ken Lay who definitely played the Democrat side of politics locally in Houston).
Ain't no brag/smear if it's the truth.
Kerry was a traitor. He lied before Congress in claiming he witnessed and participated in war crimes (his own term which he retracted decades later). He lied when he claimed that Nixon sent him to Cambodia in 1968 (he wasn't sworn in until January of 1969).
This is pure Yellow Journalism, stained yellow by cowards and horse sh**.
It would be funny if the rats had no power. If the rats take firm control in 2009, they will try to silence groups like the Swift Boat veterans. The rats do not care that the Swift Boat veterans are about honor and stopping the disgusting dishonorable practices of phonies like Kerry. The rats only care about winning at all costs.
Beyond the total mischaracterization about the Swift Boat veterans, this author is delusional about money and politics. The rats are over flowing in money. In addition, the wealthy are almost exclusively allied with the rats. The rats have embarked on a strategy of industry control to reward their friends and industry retaliation to punish their enemies. Government jobs and non profits are additional growth areas for rat supporters. The rats will even align with the chamber of commerce on immigration. Conservatives, especially advocates of low taxes and smaller government, are under attack.
We know the Swift Boaters lied because Kerry has released his records to the public. Oh! He didn’t! I’m sorry, I was in OZ for a moment.
The Mark Foley affair was not a case of child molestation as they claimed. It was a seedy act by a homosexual but nothing criminal. And the DNC claimed that GOP leadership knew but did nothing while subsequent government investigation proved that the Democrats and the media knew far more earlier and filed it away as an October Surprise.
These Stalinist tactics won't work in an open society with an uncensored blogosphere.
“You can tell from how he writes he’s got a degree in: history, rhetoric, English, philosophy, or psychology- guaranteed.”
I would have guessed drama.
Lying Kerry shared SOME of his records with a friendly cohort at the Boston Glob, a paper that is on record running known photos purloined from a sex site as “proof” of US troops “raping” Iraqi women. The State Department had already exposed the hoax when the Boston Glob ran enemy propaganda as “proof”. The editor resigned but he should’ve be prosecuted for providing aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war. It was a deliberate act.
Yes, I know. Time for the public to get a peek before he runs for senate again or otherwise tries to screw up the country.
The Rats don’t care about elections. They want the power by any means necessary. They have already shown they will block military ballots. They have already shown that they will fabricate votes. They have already shown that they will vote multiple times. They have already shown that they will slash the tires of GOP election vehicles on election day.
They want the numbers, they don’t give a damn what the public really thinks.
the Foley gambit worked just last year, and I'm not sure it wasn't boosted along by the blogosphere. BTW , watch that "open society," you know who has appropriated it.
When Goons Attack-Bullies Storm Republican Office ( vandalism, shooting, more-)
(see links in the article)
The Foley thing was 2006. Last year was 2007 and the toe tapper. Or am I getting the name of the guy in Florida with the emails/IMs wrong?
The Culture of Corruption tag ignores crooks like William Jefferson (D-LA) who had the National Guard escort him to his home after storm ravaged Katrian damage to check on his ill gotten money.
War is only convenient to the left when it helps their cause.
When it hurts their cause, they attack the war and anything relatedly responsible for the war.
Kerry’s war medals have the net worth of a lead penny sinking in a river. Thank the Swift Boat Veterens for Truth, for giving Americans the real truth about Hanoi John.
Ping the donations!
The public deserves to know for the sake of setting the historical record straight. A traitor was almost elected to the highest office of the land and those who spoke out were smeared by Communists.
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