There they go again

The Swift Boat Liars for Bush are up to it again.  They did another dishonest anti-Kerry ad attacking Kerry's Vietnam service.  One the one hand, it's pretty bad.  On the other, I don't know what the Republicans think they're doing promoting this kind of stuff.  Bush's Vietnam-era conduct just doesn't look very impressive compared to Kerry's.

Kerry has nothing to fear from a comparison of those two records.  On the contrary: as was very evident at the Democratic convention, he's more than happy to highlight that comparison.

One of those who has been involved in the anti-Kerry campaign is being pretty explicit in saying it was a bad idea: Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry Boston Globe 08/06/04.

But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry's former commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ''terrible mistake" in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star -- one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in their ad and book.

Elliott is quoted as saying that Kerry ''lied about what occurred in Vietnam . . . for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back."

The statement refers to an episode in which Kerry killed a Viet Cong soldier who had been carrying a rocket launcher, part of a chain of events that formed the basis of his Silver Star. Over time, some Kerry critics have questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to Kerry's crew. Crew members have said Kerry's actions saved their lives.

Yesterday, reached at his home, Elliott said he regretted signing the affidavit and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.

''I still don't think he shot the guy in the back," Elliott said. ''It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here."

Elliott said he was no under personal or political pressure to sign the statement, but he did feel ''time pressure" from those involved in the book. ''That's no excuse," Elliott said. ''I knew it was wrong . . . In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake."

Joe Conason has been keeping tabs on the Swift Boat Liars for Bush crowd:

The GOP's not-so-impartial hit man Salon.com 04/23/04
Smear Boat Veterans for Bush Salon.com 05/04/04
The Vietnam investor behind the "Swift Boat Vets" attack Salon.com 05/14/04
The hunt is on Salon.com 06/18/04
Aiming for John Kerry's Purple Heart Salon.com 07/16/04
Republicans' Dishonorable Charge Salon.com 08/06/04

John McCain has distanced himself from the Swift Boat Liars' latest piece of trash: McCain Criticizes Ad Attacking Kerry on Vietnam War Record Washington Post 08/06/04.

On Thursday, McCain addressed the tussle over a new 60-second ad produced by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group includes dozens of Vietnam veterans and claims Kerry exaggerated his wounds to win war medals and betrayed soldiers with his antiwar protesting after he returned from Vietnam. ...

A GOP firm based in Alexandria -- Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm -- produced the spot, which began airing Thursday in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The ad is part of a broader effort to discredit Kerry's war service that includes a new book, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." While the book will not be released until later this month, it was ranked first in sales Thursday on Amazon.com.

The general counsel for theKerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee sent television stations a letter asking them not to run the ad because it is "an inflammatory, outrageous lie" by people purporting to have served with Kerry.

In an interview with the Associated Press, McCain called the ad "dishonest and dishonorable." Asked if the White House was behind it, McCain said: "I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."

In the 08/06/04 Salon.com piece linked above, Joe Conason says:

When the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign declined to follow his lead, the Arizona senator could hardly have been surprised. Nobody who understands American politics as well as McCain has any illusions about the game that the Republicans are playing here. It is a strategy that dates back to the racially inflammatory Willie Horton ad aired by an "independent" group in 1988, and that was used against McCain himself in 2000 when another "independent" group aired ads against him during the Republican primaries.

The Republican orientation of the Swift Boat Veterans organization is transparently obvious, despite the inclination of some journalists to pretend otherwise. From stern to bow, they're strictly GOP.

"Swift Boat Liars for Bush" is one of the valuable contributions to the political vocabulary by Hesiod Theogeny, who gave up producing his excellent blog a few weeks ago.  "Bush Fedayeen" is another.  I hope Hesiod decides to resume blogging one of these days.  His site was one of the more useful political news clearing-houses in the blogosphere.