Political thuggery:

We've been reading about the Swift Boat veterans charges against Kerry for the last couple of days and it's really disgusting. This nonsense - no, wait, it's not nonsense, it's absolute pure fucking bullshit. This garbage is like the anti-McCain ads of four years ago, straight out of the same sewer pipe. There have been contradictions and lies from these guys and the fact that the story has any coverage is a tribute to our inept media. John McCain has spoken out about an ad these bums are running against Kerry:

Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing for it, McCain said, "I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."

The White House should denounce (and not merely distance themselves from) these goons. We read:

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to condemn the ad. He did denounce the proliferation of spending by independent groups, such as the anti-Kerry veterans organization, that are playing on both sides of the political fence. "The president thought he got rid of this unregulated soft money when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reform into law," McClellan said. A chief sponsor of that bill, which Bush initially opposed, was McCain.

That's right, McClellan only went so far as to denounce independent groups doing anything, not what they specifically do. Here is a transcript of the relevant exchange: (emp add)

Q Do you -- does the President repudiate this 527 ad that calls Kerry a liar on Vietnam?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President deplores all the unregulated soft money activity. We have been very clear in stating that, you know, we will not -- and we have not and we will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. I think that this is another example of the problem with the unregulated soft money activity that is going on. The President thought he put an end -- or the President thought he got rid of this kind of unregulated soft money when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reforms into law.

And, you know, the President has been on the receiving end of more than $62 million in negative attacks from shadowy groups. The President is calling for an immediate cessation to all the unregulated soft money activity. He believes that it should all be stopped. The unregulated soft money activity that is going on does nothing to elevate the discourse. We hope the Kerry campaign will join us in calling for an end to all the unregulated soft money ads and activity.

Q So the President joins McCain in criticizing this particular ad?

MR. McCLELLAN: We hope the Kerry campaign will join us in calling for an end to all the unregulated soft money ads and activity that are going on. Again, the President has been on the receiving end of more than $62 million in negative attacks from shadowy groups. And the President thought he got rid of this kind of activity when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reforms into law. This campaign should be about the issues and it should be about the records.

Q Scott, more specifically, though, will the President or the campaign ask this particular group to pull this particular ad off the air?

MR. McCLELLAN: We're calling for a cessation to all the unregulated soft money activity, and we hope that the Kerry campaign will join us.

Q Scott, during the primaries in 2000, or I guess during the Republican Presidential Primaries, an unregulated ad was run against John McCain. At the time, the governor said, "We don't have anything to do with it." Can you give us a sense of the evolution, what's changed from, we don't have anything to do with it, to, let's all stop it.

MR. McCLELLAN: The President supported the bipartisan campaign finance reforms that were passed, and he felt that they improved the system. And that's why he signed them into law. We should have a level playing field for candidates and parties. You have, right now, a problem with these unregulated soft money groups. These were loopholes that we thought were closed when the President signed the campaign finance reforms into law. And so the President believes that all the unregulated soft money activity should stop. We hope the Kerry campaign will join us in calling for an end to all this kind of activity.

The President knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of more than $62 million in negative attacks from these kinds of shadowy groups.

How about all that activity?

Political Animal seems to think this is more of a headache than anything serious. We're not so sure. We agree that it's a royal pain to have to counter these "lunatics", but if you don't, there goes the neighborhood. Actually, the real problem isn't with the lunatics, it's with the press that gives them a forum. There is no excuse for airing serious charges that contradict thirty years of general understanding about Kerry's service without checking the story thoroughly.

For instance, we were "with" Bush during his National Guard service (we both were citizens of the United States, and residing in same). We charge that Bush stole a fellow guardsman's King James Bible and proceeded to use it as toilet paper. Started with Genesis and went all the way to Revelation. When the paper ran out he looked for a copy of the Koran or Book of Mormon, but by that time his service was almost over, so he used magazines he stole from his coke dealer.

Now can we get on Inside Politics?

FINAL COMMENTS: At first we were inclined, like Political Animal, to brush off the Swift Boat story. But it kept getting flogged by Drudge, et al, and now is at least a mini-story. That's what got us pissed.

posted by Quiddity at 8/06/2004 05:32:00 AM