Opinion: Smear Effort Not The Most Swift Of Ideas

Smear Effort Not The Most Swift Of Ideas
DANIEL RUTH
Published: Aug 25, 2004

If the Swiftboat Veterans Shilling For Karl Rove had any less credibility they'd make Jayson Blair look like Diogenes.

Perhaps the political lesson here ought to be that if you are going to attempt to launch a cheesy smear campaign, especially against a presidential candidate, it's probably a good idea not be more tainted than Monica Lewinsky modeling for the Gap.

For weeks now, the Swiftboat Veterans For Rent have been flitting about the landscape trying to portray Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as being more gutless under fire during Vietnam than Robert Vaughan in ``The Magnificent Seven.''

Gracious, if you believed merely half of what the Swiftboat Veterans For W have been alleging, you might think Kerry had really spent the entire Vietnam War sitting around the Cote d'Azur sipping Campari and reading Marcel Proust in the original French.

Nixon Crowd

Indeed, the Swiftboat Veterans For Whatever have suggested that Kerry's Silver and Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts awarded for combat heroics are less deserved than Milli Vanilli's Grammy.

Could it be possible John ``Bring Me A Shrubbery!'' Kerry was more spineless than Monty Python's Knights of the Round Table?

Insert ``Oooooopsie!'' right about here.

For the problem with the allegations made by the Swiftboat Veterans For Bush/Cheney's Bidding is that their claims have been repeatedly exposed as having less veracity than ..., well, ``Mission Accomplished.''

The problems begin with the group's funding - $100,000-plus from Texas Republican fancy-pants Bob Perry, who has also contributed millions of dollars to the GOP across the country.

Thus we're hardly dealing with merely a civic-minded, nonpartisan group of veterans.

Next, the leader of the Swiftboat Veterans For the Lion of Crawford is led by Texas mouthpiece John O'Neill, the same John O'Neill the Nixon crowd dug up to debate Kerry, then an anti-Vietnam War activist, some 30 years ago.

Real Cowardice

As well, many of the veterans now accusing Kerry of being more of a poltroon than Barney Fife were supporters of the candidate, some as recently as a year ago.

Others have recanted their accusations against Kerry and, even more importantly, those who insist the senator was the Milo Minderbender of the Vietnam War weren't even witnesses to the events for which the various decorations were awarded.

Cue an Emily Litella ``never mind'' moment right about here.

Oh, and then there is this: Virtually every Vietnam veteran who served aboard Kerry's vessel, and/or were cheek to jowl with him in combat, have supported his version of the events attesting to his bravery under fire - including William Rood, now a Chicago Tribune editor who, over the weekend, refuted the attacks on the candidate's war record.

How absurd has this gotten?

After Rood pretty much showed up the smear campaign against Kerry for the smarmy right-wing propaganda effort that it is, O'Neill fumbled and bumbled away with this quote to the Chicago Tribune: ``We also stand by our judgment that while the action involved a degree of courage, it was not ... worthy of a Silver Star.''

``Degree of courage''? Since when did a political huckster like John O'Neill become the national arbiter of what constitutes courage under fire? What's next? Will O'Neill allege that if John McCain had been a better pilot he wouldn't have wound up living the life of Riley as a prisoner of war?

Here's the real act of cowardice:

Hustings thugs created a blatant special interest group that exploits Vietnam veterans who served with distinction, and who may well have a fair beef with Kerry over his antiwar activities, simply to advance the political career of a candidate who used the war himself as little more than a glorified dental plan.