Swift Hypocrisy

First, let me apologize to my handful of loyal readers for the lack of posts. It's been a busy week.

So far, I have refrained from comment on the "Swift boat" controversy regarding John Kerry's service in Vietnam. Personally, I care far more about what Kerry would or would not do as president. However, there is one point I feel obliged to make: That is, the utter disingenousness and hypocrisy of the Kerry campaign and DNC response.

The group attacking Kerry, "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", is known as a "527 group", an independent group allowed to run issue ads provided it avoids "coordinating" its activities with any political campaign. In the case of the Swift Boat vets, Kerry surrogates are shocked, shocked to find that an anti-Kerry group has been funded to a substantial extent by Republicans. Personally, I would have expected the Swift Boat Vets to have received donations from George Soros and Michael Moore.

Speaking of whom, I find myself nauseated by the calls from Democrats for George W. Bush to denounce the Swift Boat group. While the Swift Boat ads attacking Kerry have cost only a few hundred thousand dollars, anti-Bush 527 groups have spent tens of millions of dollars on ads viciously attacking Bush. As Vaughn Ververs wrote in National Journal, courtesy of Opinion Journal:

"The dirty work thus far has been done much more to Kerry's benefit than to Bush's. Estimates from last month indicate that Democratic "leaning" 527s such as MoveOn, the Media Fund and America Coming Together had spent some $50 million on TV ads -- almost all of them attacking Bush. Much has been made by Kerry supporters of the 'positive' campaign the Democrat has run on the airwaves. But that's easy to do when you're getting support from other sources on the negative front"

As Power Line has noted, 24 of the top 25 contributors to 527 groups are Democrats or Kerry supporters.

John Kerry has refused to condemn any left of center 527s, no matter how over the top their rhetoric against President Bush. He has refused to say a word about Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's two hour slander filled anti-Bush hate fest. He has filled his rhetoric with verbal winks and nods to the fanatical Bush-hating left. Now John Kerry has the gall to condemn the Bush campaign because a 527 group made up of his fellow Vietnam vets has taken issue with how he has described his service, and the way he accused them of war crimes after returning to the US. The hypocrisy is stunning.