[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Politics as Usual

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Politics as Usual

August 19, 2004
 


 

It may seem outlandish to launch a campaign broadside by
television ad and book flackery devoted to discrediting the
respectable Vietnam War record of Senator John Kerry, who
has five combat medals. But that is exactly what a
Republican-financed group of partisans is doing in
presenting itself as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and
tattooing the Democratic presidential nominee with
accusations of lying about his service and war wounds.
Never in Mr. Kerry's command, but claiming to have served
near enough, its members are trying to contradict the
firsthand accounts of his crewmates who are vouching for
his war record. 

In a way, this political assault may merely be a
knife-edged compliment to the effectiveness of Mr. Kerry's
stratagem of tirelessly - some might say tiresomely -
highlighting his wartime service. The attack ads and the
book, "Unfit for Command,'' are a visceral part of the
anti-Kerry campaign in the battleground states. The assault
is gaining attention, with Internet and cable television
zealots debating combat minutiae and even whether Mr. Kerry
enacted wartime events with his political future in mind or
held secret meetings with Communists. 

The leader of the attack, John O'Neill, a Swift boat
veteran and Texas lawyer, has been a detractor of Mr. Kerry
for decades, ever since the Nixon White House recruited him
to rebut Mr. Kerry's criticism of Vietnam policy. And the
chief donor to the Swift boat broadside is a Texas
businessman, Bob Perry, who is known for giving millions to
the campaigns of President Bush and other Republicans. 

Voters should also know that the group is one of the new
"shadow party" efforts of supposedly independent ( but, in
truth, transparently partisan) activist groups that have
been set up to evade campaign laws and take advantage of
nonprofits' tax breaks. One of the more prominent of these
groups, the leftist MoveOn.org, is running ads attacking
President Bush's Air National Guard service. We have
denounced the Democrats for pioneering and financing these
efforts - which the Federal Election Commission, ever the
snoozing watchdog of American politics, has done nothing to
rein in. The F.E.C. is to consider some get-tough proposals
this week, but a majority of the commission members are
likely to duck responsibility once more. 

Senator John McCain, the Vietnam hero who was smeared by
one such "independent" stealth group in the 2000 campaign,
has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans' attack as dishonest
and dishonorable, declaring, "The Bush administration
should specifically condemn the ad." So far that hasn't
happened. We can only hope the senator brought the point up
as he campaigned last week with Mr. Bush. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/opinion/19thu2.html?ex=1093938808&ei=1&en=97102bb438b65459


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