Get Your Blog Up

“This administration is populated by people who’ve spent their careers bashing government. They’re not just small-government conservatives—they’re Grover Norquist, strangle-it-in-the-bathtub conservatives. It’s a cognitive disconnect for them to be able to do something well in an arena that they have so derided and reviled all these years.”

Senator Hillary Clinton

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

I propose Swift Boat action figures

That way, you can put them in bed with your favorite GOP/Bush administration member!
Though the Bush campaign insists it has no ties to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group, the Dallas Morning News reports that Bob Perry, the "key bankroller" for the group, "is listed as the co-host of a New York City fund-raiser next week... whose guest list includes President Bush's top political adviser." President Bush's father is also on the guest list.

or how about
The Bush campaign's top outside lawyer said Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record and antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and countless appearances on cable news programs.

The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask for his help and he agreed. Mr. Ginsberg said he had yet to work out payment details with the group and he might consider doing the work pro bono.

Maybe you can interview them to get to the truth about the whole smear campaign:
Asked his opinion of the Democratic nominee, O'Neill paused, then turned his thoughts back to the day more than three decades ago when he first heard Kerry contend that war crimes were being committed in Vietnam.

"I resent deeply what he did in 1971," O'Neill said.

or ask your Robert "Friar Tuck" Brant action figure:
Robert "Friar Tuck" Brant, a member of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said Kerry called him Sunday and asked if he was aware of the group's activities.

"I said, `I am one, John,"' said Brant, who had appeared at a news conference announcing the group in May. "There was a moment of hesitation and he said, `I appreciate your honesty.' He said, `Well, why are you?"'

Brant said he told Kerry he was most upset about Kerry's protests after returning from the war, when he accused soldiers of committing atrocities. "I said, `You know that's not true,"' Brant said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "That's been simmering in me about 35 years."

Even the fake media can see this "story" is ridiculous:
"All of us [on 'The Daily Show'] are just blown away by the turn the campaign has taken," [executive producer Ben] Karlin said. "We cannot believe that this is what is being talked about at this juncture. It's so astounding to us. We are trying to work through our amazement and to conduct a meaningful conversation absent of incredulity, because [the interview] is not going to go anywhere if you just say, 'What the [expletive] is going on?' "

Karlin said he will nonetheless suggest that that be the first question Stewart puts to Kerry tonight.

"If you just want to pinpoint the success of the Republican Party and Bush, this is a perfect case study," Karlin continued, "because George W. Bush has put a moratorium on talk about his behavior under the age of 40 and everyone [in the press] is abiding by it. 'Were you or were you not an alcoholic or did you just have a drinking problem?,' 'Were you or were you not a drug abuser?' Meanwhile they're debating whether [Kerry's war] wounds drew blood or were they superficial, or occurred in the same day, or whether he shot a guy wearing a toga. . . . How is that possible?"

The irony? A news story about a story about the inanity of the Swift Boaters. Good grief.