http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040822/LOCAL/40821054/1078(note: free registration required)
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth member featured prominently in ads attacking Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service said he was misled by Republicans when asked to speak at an anti-Kerry rally in Gainesville on Saturday.
Joe Ponder, wounded during the war in 1968, said he turned down the speaking engagement after learning that fliers promoting the event had been distributed at a local Bush-Cheney campaign office Friday.
Pete Webster, another member of the organization scheduled to speak, did not attend Saturday's rally.
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During an interview Saturday from his Keystone Heights home, Ponder said he did not know how the fliers wound up at the Alachua County Republican Party headquarters in Gainesville, and offered few details of the event itself. In addition to the swift boat group, the program noted that "Alachua County Republicans," "Veterans for Bush," and the "Alachua Bush-Cheney Committee" were scheduled to attend.
"I had the assurance that the party and the Bush-Cheney campaign had nothing to do with this," Ponder said.
But after learning about the flyer, "I contacted those folks and told them that as much as I was looking forward to addressing the vets, I decided it was in the best interest of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that I not participate in this event."
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