SwiftVets.com

[hanna]

They said all ads...President Bush expected to speak soon........on FOX

[kmudd]

I saw that. That is against free speech.

[vietnamvet173]

[RocketFett]

None of these ads would be necessary if it wasn't for mccains ant-free speech campaign finance reform bill. The guy is an idiot for doing that in the first place, and then having the nerve to pipe up again after his foolishness is revealed in the intentional loop hold in the bill so they could create 527s to hit Bush with for over two years. There are so many anti-Bush ads compared to the two ads from SBVT that any comparrison is foolish and can't even be legitimately made.

[wvobiwan]

McCain/Fiengold is an attempt to remove free speach from the political process. If this law is not removed, then the only free political speach will come from the media and polticians themselves.

THAT IS BS.

If Bush proceeds on this I'm going to write in John O'Neill on election day. George may have just cost himself the election.

Even Fox now has gone over the edge in allowing the Kerry "This is a smear" mantra to go forward unchallenged. This is not a smear, it is an airing of the truth.

Kerry has smeared himself his entire life, and if Bush/McCain try to prevent the people from talking about it then it's time for another revolution.

If it sounds like I'm PO-ed, you bet.
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Doug
"Proud of my Dad, 2-tour veteran of VN."
Kerry/Edwards Foreign Policy Slogan: Accept our surrender or we'll sue!

[WebTalk]

This is a free speech issue and they cannot stop it.

They may be able to change the IRS status or some other technical tweak.

Notice the use of the word "shadowy".
Does that mean something special?

Kerry challenged Bush to "Bring it on!"

Well, Mr Kerry, if you can't handle the truth from fellow Vets, how can you expect the American people to believe you're capable of handling a world full of hateful terrorists who want us all dead?
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America voted for solid LEADERSHIP and gave "W" a mandate to carry on.
God Blessed America! Again!

[lolajl]

Now, guys, let's chill out and get a perspective on this. Bush has to take the upper hand. Remember, he can't just single out MoveOn.org because that'll give them ammunition. And, court actions take longer than two months, so I look at all this as posturing and a way to undercut the Democrats, especially as McCain is going to be campaigning with Bush. I'm sure now McCain realizes the hydra monster he created and I think Bush is offering him an out. Remember, he's supposed to be a good poker player and this is one of his cards in the stack.

[kmudd]

McCain/Fiengold is an attempt to protect the incumbents . They want to prevent anyone from being able to critize elected officals. We don't live in Nazi Germany we can speak out .

[DEL]

This is good news indeed. The judicial is the branch with the authority to silence citizens. I just can't see a threat to the security of this nation with these ads. The court is not want to limit free speech.

[the0point]

I think this is just some Bush/McCain manuevering in the Republican party. McCain wants his respect, so Bush gave him some. And it undercuts Kerry's "poor me" speeches. Nothing will come of this.

[Steve Z]

I agree with lolajl that court action will probably be slow. While somebody like McCain might be able to convince a friendly judge to issue an "injunction" against ALL 527-group ads, could you imagine the reaction of $oro$ and Moveon.org against that? You would probably end up with rich lefties arguing in FAVOR of SBVT's right to free speech!

You would also have all the TV stations complaining about the loss of ad revenue from $oro$ and Company, this is violating free speech, and the rich TV stations could buy a lawyer to convince a judge to put it off until after the election.

There would be all sorts of appeals and counter-appeals, and meanwhile all the 527's (including SBVT) continue to follow the McCain-Feingold law as written, which (to me) resembles a free-for-all. It would never get to the Supreme Court before Election Day, and since they had to put the kibosh on the endless 2000 Florida recounts, they wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

After the election, McCain would then sit down with Feingold (if he's re-elected) and other campaign-finance-reformists and try to figure out what went wrong, with lots of time to think about it...
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The traitor will crater!

[BuffaloJack]

I'm not so sure about slow court actions.
If you will recall how quickly the courts acted on the "hanging chads" fiasco in Florida during the 2000 election. If they really want speed, they can get it.
I only hope this can drag out in the courts until after November.

[Polaris]

Everyone,

I read that. RELAX! This is just one more way Kerry has shot himself in the foot. First of all McCain specifically denounced the use of his statements in pro-Kerry commercials and got Kerry to pull at least one such ad. In the second place, this lawsuit would apply to ALL 527s.

If no action is taken before election day, we're set.

If action is taken before election day ACT, MoveOn, and others get hurt far, far worse than we do. They are primarily funded by soft money and it is my understanding that we are funded almost entirely (now) by small donations. That means limited us to hard money doesn't really hurt us.

In short, this is win/win for Bush.
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-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[Steve Z]

In the Florida recount case, there was a Constitutional deadline--the electors from Florida HAD to be decided by Dec. 12, 2000, otherwise the election went to Congress. With the House controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats (including Vice President Gore), Congress would be deadlocked, and the Constitution said that the issue would be decided by the governor of the state in question, who was a candidate's brother!!! Since that would obviously smack of nepotism, the Courts realized they had to get involved quickly.

In this case, there is no pressing Constitutional reason why a case concerning a new law (McCain-Feingold) concerning elections would have to be decided in the courts before the FIRST election affected by the law. The courts would probably easily see that both the President and Senator Kerry would have a vested interest in one result or another, and would probably recognize the huge disparity in the amount of money spent by 527's favoring Kerry over those favoring Bush, and punt until after the election.

Even if this case does get to court, I don't think the Bush campaign would "try very hard" to argue a case against 527's, when they are benefitting from the Swift Boat ads, and the $oro$ ads haven't hurt them much. They could always "stage" a legal action in order to give lip-service to the Kerry complaints in the press, wait for the inevitable objection from a 527 about free speech, then deliberately let it drag out until after the election.

It might be a good idea for O'Neill, or someone with legal background, to determine what type of defense SBVT could mount if a legal case was filed. If such a case is filed, maybe Judicial Watch could be of some help--even if it's just to drag the case out until after the election...
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The traitor will crater!

[jstoc]

Cooler heads have a good view on this. Bush now has claimed the so-called moral high ground that Kerry was trying to claim. Bush has out-done Kerry by calling for an end to all 527's, whereas Kerry has been whining only about the SBVT ads. Whether or not this pulls the plug on the 527's, the book is still on sale and flying off the shelves. That won't stop. Whether or not the 527s are silenced, with the Republicans claiming this issue, Kerry is forced to try to talk about his dismal 19 years in the Senate. He doesn't want to do that, never has, and that's why he actually works very hard to keep this controversy in the news, even while he pretends he wants to talk about 'the issues.' If the 527s begin to fade, even the SBVTs, Kerry still will never again be able to talk seriously about his Vietnam war record. His claims are forever suspect now. This is why the closest he would come to taking a question about the SBVT charges against him was in a b.s. format from a comedy talk-show host (on the Daily Show). Even there he remained silent, trying in a vain attempt to be funny. I have to wonder if he thinks the 60 mins folks won't ask even one question about it, though, admittedly they aren't likely to pursue it as true journalists would. Kerry continues to foul up his own campaign. So, what matters most is what Kerry does; what Bush does matters most in how it helps expose Kerry for the fraud that he is.
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Veritas