SOFT MONEY, BABY!

I've been doggedly trying not to bluescreen at all the various eyewitness accounts of actions during Kerry's Vietnam service. I've been trying to give the SwiftVetsferTruth a fair hearing, since I read the Dick Cavett show transcript from long ago when Kerry and John O'Neill (now the leader of the SwiftVets group) went head-to-head, and I do think O'Neill has more than a shred of credibility.

Two things.

For the sake of argument let's say that the substance of the SBVT charges are in large part true. Kerry didn't do any secret mission(s) in Cambodia, didn't save any men from the water under fire, didn't do much of anything valorous, and didn't deserve 2 of his 3 purple hearts. Oh and didn't burn down any civilian villages or participate in other war crimes, as he claimed shortly after his return from Vietnam. The result would be: Kerry served as an officer on a small boat in Vietnam for four months, returned, and slandered his fellow soldiers with an amazingly large but vague broadbrush as bloodthirsty, capricious, brutal oppressors of Vietnamese civilians. But, we already knew that. If he did deserve all his medals, and so far I think he did, he still threw them away, and said at the time that they were empty attempts by the military to make soldiers feel good about cooperating with the bloodthirsty oppression of Vietnam.

About the charge that SBVT is a front organization controlled by the Bush/Cheney campaign... well it is a legal 527 organization. 527 groups can accept any amount of money from anyone. And apparently it is OK for a 527 to express an opinion about a presidential campaign. To wit:

Here is the list of the top 50 527's and their money received to date and spent to date:

1.) Joint Victory Campaign 2004, $41,685,706, $35,780,404

2.) Media Fund, $28,127,488 27,208,905

3.) America Coming Together, $26,905,450, $24,196,532

4.) Service Employees International Union, $16,652,296, $8,808,017

5.) American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees, $13,658,207, $13,274,331

6.) MoveOn.org, $9,086,102, $17,435,782

7.) New Democrat Network, $7,172,693, $6,970,070

8.) Club for Growth, $4,818,063, $6,610,032

9.) EMILY's List, $4,162,226, $4,070,369

10.) AFL-CIO, $3,750,840, $3,691,832

Of the top ten, nine are decidedly pro-Democrat and anti-Bush, while the tenth, the Club for Growth, is really pro-Conservative (and not necessarily pro-Bush), and has actually run ads against Republicans who they do not believe advocate appropriate tax and spending policies.

A quick tally shows that the Democratic party and John Kerry have at their disposal a sum near $195,186,845.

I believe the SwiftVet guys have received something like $500,000, although clearly they are making money from the O'Neill book also.

Donald Sensing has a lot of analysis of the back-and-forth on the medal incidents, and there appear to be plenty of questions for both sides.

Final thought. I agree that Kerry's service in Vietnam carries with it more honor than serving in the National Guard to avoid going overseas. But after the years-long hammering given to Bush's Guard service, including the continued accusation of desertion, it's a little funny that the Democrats think the SwiftVets' stories are beyond the pale.