http://www.bopnews.com/archives/001541.html#1541Newsweek’s article, “The Secret Money War,” posted today (Sunday, Sept. 12) on its website, is a laughably inept political analysis of the 2004 campaign and the emergence of so-called 527 organizations such as my own group, Texans For Truth.
I was interviewed by Michael Isikoff. In the interest of full disclosure, he bought my lunch. Then, in the story, he attempts to eat my lunch.
His account of my comments is inaccurate, but I’ve been around long enough to put up with that. Isikoff had the same difficulty recently with inaccurate reporting in his stories on Michael Moore. I’m proud to be in such company. I’d just like to correct one small thing, some errors by omission, and point out the story’s obvious and irresponsible anti-egalitarian bias.
I was never furious at John Kerry or his campaign. Never said I was. Isikoff made it up. I did say Americans were being treated to an Alice in Wonderland spectacle of draft-dodger George Bush attacking the war record of decorated military hero John Kerry. And I did say that even if the law allowed coordination between a 527 and a political campaign that I would not have done so because I wanted the independent voices of real Texans and Americans to be heard without interference from any campaign.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5974038/site/newsweek/Like many Bush-loathing Democrats, Glenn Smith was disgusted this summer when a supposedly independent political group he'd never heard of, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, began running television ads smearing John Kerry's military service. Smith became even angrier when Kerry stood by as the spots, funded by wealthy Bush supporters, started denting the Democrat's poll numbers. "It was like Alice in Wonderland," Smith says. He couldn't believe Kerry, a decorated war hero, would allow himself to be slammed like this when the president had never seen a day of combat.
Unlike other Democrats, Smith was in a position to do more than complain. A veteran political consultant in Texas, he decided to make a nasty ad of his own. If Kerry wasn't going to fight back, Smith figured, he'd do it for him. Using the Swifties as his model, Smith formed Texans for Truth, and registered the group as a so-called 527. That let him take advantage of a powerful loophole in the tax law. He could raise unlimited money, and use it for almost any political purpose, as long as he didn't explicitly endorse any candidate. That suited Smith fine. Instead of defending Kerry, he would just bash Bush. Smith cut his ad, which features a former lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Air National Guard who insisted young Bush never showed up for duty.
All Smith needed was money to buy air time. He knew where to turn. He called some friends at MoveOn.org, the hyperorganized, generously bankrolled liberal 527 group known for its own in-your-face political ads and its army of shaggy get-out-the-vote workers. Last Tuesday, MoveOn sent out an emergency e-mail to thousands of members, asking for quick cash to fund Smith's project. Within three days he had $400,000 in hand, including $100,000 from Daniel O'Keefe, a onetime "Seinfeld" writer and Kerry fund-raiser. The ads will go up next week in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other battleground states. With more money on the way, Smith is already working on his next attack ad, featuring the newly revealed memos claiming Bush received special treatment in the National Guard. And what if the papers turn out to be fake? "It doesn't matter to me," Smith says plainly. The issue of Bush's service is still valid. "I wish we could be talking about
jobs ... and health care," he says. "But you've got to play the game you're in."
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