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Top 10 Connections Between John Kerry And 527s

 
 
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:47 am
1. Former Kerry Campaign Manager Jim Jordan Founded Thunder Road Group, A Consulting Firm Representing America Coming Together, The Media Fund And America Votes. "Jim Jordan, a Winston-Salem native, was fired as John Kerry's presidential campaign manager in NovemberÂ…. Now he has started his own consulting firm, called Thunder Road Group. The firm is representing America Coming Together, the Media Fund, and America Votes, all pro-Democratic 527 political organizations gearing up for the 2004 election." ("People," National Journal, 2/28/04)

2. Harold Ickes Is A Member Of DNC's Executive Committee And Head Of The Media Fund And Chief Of Staff To America Coming Together. Ickes "Admits That He Occasionally Tells The Kerry Camp What He's Up To, And He Insists It's Perfectly Legal." (Jim Drinkard, "'Outside' Political Groups Full Of Party Insiders," USA Today, 6/28/04; Paula Dwyer, "Why 527 Is The Dems' Lucky Number," BusinessWeek Online, 7/28/04)

3. MoveOn.org's Zack Exley Joined Kerry Campaign As Director Of Online Communications And Organizing. (Sharon Theimer, "MoveOn Staffer Moves On To Kerry Campaign," The Associated Press, 4/7/04)

4. Bob Bauer Of Perkins Coie Is Legal Counsel To Both Kerry Campaign And America Coming Together (ACT). (Jim Rutenberg And Kate Zernike, "Veteran's Group Had GOP Lawyer," The New York Times, 8/25/04)
* Kerry Campaign Paid Bauer's Law Firm, Perkins Coie, $360,244.28 For Legal Services And Other Expenses. (Federal Election Commission Records, www.fec.gov, Accessed 8/5/04)
* America Coming Together (ACT) Paid Bauer's Law Firm, Perkins Coie, $176,732 For Legal Services And Other Expenses. (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 8/5/04)

5. Joe Sandler Is General Counsel To DNC While Serving As Legal Counsel To 527s MoveOn.org And Moving America Forward. (Jonathan Groner, "Power Punch," Legal Times, 4/26/04)

6. Erik Smith Is The Media Fund's Executive Director And Worked With Steve Elmendorf, Kerry's Deputy Campaign Manager, On Dick Gephardt's Presidential Campaign. (Jim VandeHei, "Kerry Expected To Emerge From Battle Stronger Than Ever," The Washington Post, 3/3/04)

7. Minyon Moore, A Kerry Campaign Consultant, Serves On Executive Committee Of America Coming Together. (Glen Johnson, "Kerry To Press 'Environmental Justice,'" The Boston Globe, 4/22/03; Lisa Getter, "Kerry Aided By 'Illegal' Soft Money, GOP Claims," Los Angeles Times, 4/1/04)

8. Media Fund Ad Consultant Bill Knapp Hired By Kerry Campaign. (Thomas B. Edsall, "Shifting The Money So The Votes Will Follow," The Washington Post, 5/11/04)

9. Former ACT Employee Rodney Shelton Hired As Kerry's Arkansas State Director. (Michael R. Wickline, "Arkansan To Head Kerry's State Effort," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 6/22/04)

10. Kerry's New Mexico Caucus Director, Geri Prado, Is Leading ACT's GOTV Effort In That State. (Michael Finnegan, "Kerry's Low Profile May Cost Crucial Latino Votes," Los Angeles Times, 5/3/04)

Don't Forget The Dewey Square Group Provides Political Consulting Services For Both Kerry Campaign And America Coming Together (ACT).

* Kerry Campaign Has Paid Dewey Square Group $194,936.48 For Political Consulting And Other Expenses. (Federal Election Commission Records, www.fec.gov, Accessed 8/5/04)
* America Coming Together (ACT) Has Paid Dewey Square Group $51,808 For Political Consulting And Other Expenses. (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 8/5/04)
* At Least Four Kerry Advisors Are Associated With Dewey Square Group: Michael Whouley, Jill Alper, Minyon Moore And Joe Ricca. (Glen Johnson, "Kerry To Press 'Environmental Justice,'" The Boston Globe, 4/22/03; Dewey Square Group Website, http://www.deweysquare.com/, Accessed 2/5/04; Peter Grier, "How Kerry Turned The Corner," Christian Science Monitor, 2/5/04; Glen Johnson and John Aloysius Farrell, "Kerry's New-Look Campaign Relies On A Few Key Players," The Boston Globe, 1/9/03)

And Michael Meehan, Now A Communications Advisor To Kerry, Was Hired By NARAL In 2003 To "Oversee Its Vastly Expanded Soft-Money Operation." His Hiring Was "Billed As A Two-Month Leave From His Job As Political Director Of NARAL." (Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan, "Names," The Boston Globe, 11/21/03; Chris Cillizza, "NARAL Plans Big '04 Effort," Roll Call, 5/8/03)

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Brand X
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:51 am
Hook, line, sinker....gulp...

Quote:
Bush pulls a Swift one

He has Kerry caught in a dilemma
on soft-money attack ads



Everybody knows President Bush is a bass fisherman. But the President has spent most of August reeling in a more exotic specimen: the Giant New England Slack-Jaw.
Years from now, when tales of the catch are told around GOP campfires, small boys will marvel at how the supposedly intelligent Kerryfish swallowed Bush's bait, hook, line and sinker.

Slack-jaw season started in January, when John Kerry won the Iowa caucuses with help from a band of Vietnam character witnesses. At the time, Bush realized three simple truths:

1) Kerry would be his Democratic opponent. 2) The theme of Kerry's campaign would be his heroic military service. 3) Kerry would fund his campaign largely with so-called 527 soft money put up by anti-Bush billionaires who until then had been flirting with Howard Dean.

On May 4, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth held a press conference in Washington, denouncing Kerry. It is possible Bush was taken by surprise by this. It is also possible the moon's made of blue cheese.

Still, it is highly doubtful that Bush put the Swifties up to their attack. He didn't need to. They obviously hate Kerry's guts. All the President had to do was sit quietly and watch. Patience is the fisherman's friend.

Some of the Swiftie charges against Kerry's war record are highly debatable. Others - that Kerry invented a "life-changing" experience in Cambodia or that he slandered U.S. troops when he came home from the war - are matters of public record.

Either way, one thing is indisputable: The allegations have done Kerry a great deal of harm.

It took him a surprisingly long time to realize that. When he did, he tried to get off the hook in awkward ways - dispatching lawyers to scare TV stations into censoring Swiftie ads, pressuring bookstores to ban the Swiftie bible, "Unfit to Command," even appealing to the toothless Federal Election Commission to make his erstwhile comrades-in-arms shut up. But to no avail.

Finally Kerry demanded that Bush himself step in and silence the Swifties. It was a moment Bush had been waiting for.

On Monday, down in Crawford, Tex., Dubya hitched up his jeans, sauntered out to a press conference and allowed as to how he'd be glad to help his worthy opponent. But, just to be fair, he said, let's shut down the negative campaigning by all 527 groups. Goodbye, Swifties. So long, MoveOn. Just say the word, Sen. Kerry, and we'll take all the nasty dollars out of politics.

But Kerry hasn't said that word. He probably can't. His entire campaign finance structure is predicated on 527 money. Of the top 10 soft donors, nine are Kerry supporters. Combined, they have already raised more than $100 million for the Democrats. The Swifties, by contrast, have raised much less than 1% of that. For Bush, soft money is just a dab of Texas perfume; for Kerry, it's oxygen.

So, the President comes off as the champion of upright McCain-Feingold reform, while Kerry is stuck with George Soros & Co. If the senator cuts off his billionaire backers, he suffocates. If he sticks with Soros, et al., he's stuck with the Swifties, too. That's a hook Kerry can wriggle on until Nov. 2. Then Bush will throw him back.

The 43rd President is often said by his critics to be a dunce. Maybe. But in politics, as in fishing, you don't have to be a genius. You just have to be smarter than the fish.

Originally published on August 25, 2004


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FreeDuck
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:18 am
I think expanding the debate about SBVT to all 527s is horseshit. Say what you want but these other 527 ads (can anyone name one?) were not so vile as to attack and call into question one's service in Vietnam and to pour more salt into the wounds of this country's collective conscience. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law. Is he flip-flopping now?
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revel
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:20 am
FreeDuck wrote:
I think expanding the debate about SBVT to all 527s is horseshit. Say what you want but these other 527 ads (can anyone name one?) were not so vile as to attack and call into question one's service in Vietnam and to pour more salt into the wounds of this country's collective conscience. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law. Is he flip-flopping now?


agree
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McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:27 am
True, comparing the sitting president to Hitler and accussing him of being AWOL is hardly comparable at all.

Rolling Eyes
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revel
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:29 am
Kerry came against the awol charges. So he is one up on Bush. Dont know anything about the hitler charges. (however, in my book, the shoe fits)
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:37 am
MoveOn didn't accuse a sitting president to Hitler. Two of the over 1,500 people who submitted an ad to MoveOn did. MoveOn removed them from the website (at that point, people were voting for the best ad online.)

I think the AWOL thing was a miscalculation. I noted at the time thta it was out of character for MoveOn. It was apparently designed to amp up the pressure on Bush to denounce the SBVFT ad, and it won that battle; Kerry denounced the AWOL ad immediately, emphasizing Bush's continuing refusal to do so for the SBVFT ad. But in stepping out of character and giving people like McGentrix ammo, I think they may have done more overall harm.

I haven't found the actual ad yet, though, it's not on MoveOn's website that I can see.
0 Replies
 
FreeDuck
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:37 am
McGentrix wrote:
True, comparing the sitting president to Hitler and accussing him of being AWOL is hardly comparable at all.

Rolling Eyes


Did you see an add comparing the sitting president to Hitler? Did it air on television and was it released to news organizations in order to have the biggest impact possible? I'd love a link to an ad that says the president went AWOL as well, as it hasn't aired in my state. I did hear something about an ad that came out as a response to the SBVT ads, which to me seems fair -- fight 527s with 527s. I am unaware if this ad says Bush was AWOL.
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McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:40 am
Then you agree that MoveOn.org is a 527 group?
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FreeDuck
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:42 am
I wasn't aware that was under dispute, though I confess I haven't investigated to determine if it is technically correct.
0 Replies
 
sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:45 am
Is anyone arguing that? I thought that was a given. It's like, "then you agree that Bush is running a campaign?" Uh, yeah.

This was actually MoveOn PAC, though, not MoveOn.org. (Correction was there when I went to the NYT site.) I dunno yet whether they are different in terms of 527/ tax purposes.

As far as I can tell, there was no actual mention of "AWOL" in the MoveOn ad -- still looking:

Quote:
Senator John Kerry denounced an advertisement by the liberal group MoveOn.org questioning President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Air National Guard yesterday, a move likely to raise pressure on President Bush to condemn a recent commercial accusing Mr. Kerry of lying about his war record.

The new MoveOn advertisement, running in three states, accuses Mr. Bush of using family connections to get into the Air National Guard to escape combat in Vietnam and revisits accusations that he did not adequately meet his service requirements - charges that he denies.

Mr. Kerry's statement came hours after surrogates for his presidential campaign made similar accusations and was prompted by a plea from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a friend of Mr. Kerry and a fellow combat veteran in Vietnam.

Earlier this month, Mr. McCain similarly called on Mr. Bush to denounce the advertisement criticizing Mr. Kerry, by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That spot, in which fellow Vietnam War veterans said Mr. Kerry lied about the incidents for which he won his combat medals, stopped running last week but the group says it plans to run another one soon.

The Bush campaign has declined to denounce the Swift boat advertisement, saying it had nothing to do with the spot.

That decision created an opening for MoveOn, whose spot ends with a quotation from Mr. McCain about the Swift boat commercial earlier this month: "I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."

In an interview with The Associated Press yesterday, Mr. McCain said Mr. Kerry should condemn the MoveOn spot because it's "the same line of scurrilous attack" leveled against Mr. Kerry by the Swift boat veterans.

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Kerry's campaign released his statement: "I agree with Senator McCain that the ad is inappropriate. This should be a campaign of issues, not insults."

Yesterday, Mr. Bush's campaign again refused to repudiate the Swift boat advertisement. Democrats say that spot was largely paid for by Bob J. Perry, a Texas homebuilder with longstanding ties to Mr. Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove. Mr. Perry has donated $200,000, the group said.

The Bush campaign and the group say they have had no contact and are not working in coordination, which would be a violation of campaign finance rules.

"The campaign has not questioned and will not question John Kerry's service in Vietnam," said Steve Schmidt, a campaign spokesman. "The president made clear on national television that he honors John Kerry's service in Vietnam."

Mr. Schmidt painted Mr. Kerry's repudiation of the spots as disingenuous, given that at a campaign-sponsored news conference earlier in the day Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who competed against Mr. Kerry in the Democratic primaries earlier this year, and Adm. Stansfield Turner, the director of central intelligence for President Jimmy Carter, echoed MoveOn's accusations that Mr. Bush used family connections to avoid combat.

"Kerry's condemnation reeks of hypocrisy given the fact that his campaign surrogates are on the attack echoing the same baseless charges," Mr. Schmidt said.

Echoing a line that the Swift boat veterans have used, Mr. Kerry's campaign said General Clark and Admiral Turner had earned the right to speak their minds.

"With their service, they've more than earned the right to speak out," Mr. Clanton said. "We're still waiting for the president to condemn the smear campaign against John Kerry's military service."

As of last night, it did not seem as if Mr. Kerry's condemnation of the Moveon advertisement would have any effect on the group's plans.

Eli Pariser, the head of the Moveon political action committee responsible for the spot, said of Mr. Kerry, "We feel he's entitled to his opinion."

But Mr. Pariser said he did not believe that the Moveon spot and Swift boat veterans' one were in the same league.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has provided affidavits for the men making claims against Mr. Kerry in its first and last advertisement. But while some of the men served near Mr. Kerry's Swift boat, none in the advertisement served on it.


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