[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Swift Boats and the Texas Nexus

[michael at intrafi.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by michael at intrafi.com.


These adds put in question the validity of all medals. This is a great diservice to our veterns. 
Michael


michael at intrafi.com


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Swift Boats and the Texas Nexus

August 25, 2004
 


 

President Bush should stop evading responsibility and
unequivocally condemn the attacks on Senator John Kerry's
Vietnam War service that are being orchestrated by
negative-campaign specialists deep in the heart of the
Texas Republican machine. Mr. Bush says that Mr. Kerry's
record is admirable and something to be proud of. Yet he
allows these politically useful ads to continue spreading
unfounded charges that Mr. Kerry fabricated his
medal-winning experience as a Swift boat commander. 

The attempt to contradict the federal government's own
records about Mr. Kerry's record is the work of a
transparently partisan group led by a longtime Kerry
antagonist, John O'Neill, a Swift boat veteran recruited by
the Nixon White House to counter Mr. Kerry's denunciations
of the war when he returned from Vietnam. The operation's
start-up money came from big-money Texas donors long
supportive of Bush political causes; some principals have
ties to the "independent" attack ads that blindsided
another Vietnam veteran, Senator John McCain, in his 2000
primary contest with Mr. Bush. 

Rather than single out the Swift boat group, Mr. Bush
condemned all such stealth-party activities, Democratic and
Republican, which have sprung up to evade legal
restrictions on the flood of "soft money'' into political
races. Mr. Bush called on Mr. Kerry to join in renouncing
these specialists in low-blow politicking - an idea we
applaud. This page has long criticized the Democrats'
pioneering soft-money evasions, and the Federal Election
Commission's refusal to control these rogue operations. 

But the president had hardly finished speaking when the
White House began sidestepping, insisting that Mr. Bush had
not intended to single out the anti-Kerry ads as something
that should be stopped. This is unfortunate. Senator McCain
has called on the administration to "specifically condemn"
the ads. 

Senator Kerry invited debate on his war service by making
it a keystone of his campaign. But that means fair debate.
Some of the veterans in the ads criticizing Mr. Kerry have
praised his courage in the past. No one has offered
evidence to contradict the record. By failing to condemn
the ads, Mr. Bush leaves the impression that he condones
this effort to turn the historical record into a partisan
blur. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/opinion/25wed2.html?ex=1094469361&ei=1&en=1f84847e5efe8041


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