SwiftVets.com

[Real_Patriot]

Smear Boat Veterans for Bush
The "Swift boat" veterans attacking John Kerry's war record are led by veteran right-wing operatives using the same vicious techniques they used against John McCain four years ago.

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By Joe Conason

May 4, 2004 | The latest conservative outfit to fire an angry broadside against John Kerry's heroic war record is "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," which today launches a campaign to brand the Democrat "unfit to serve as commander in chief." Billing itself as representing the "other 97 percent of veterans" from Kerry's Navy unit who don't support his presidential candidacy, the group insists that all presidential candidates must be "totally honest and forthcoming" about their military service.

These "swift boat vets" claim still to be furious about Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony against the war in which he spoke about atrocities in Indochina's "free fire zones." More than three decades later, facing the complicated truth about Vietnam remains difficult. But this group's political connections make clear that its agenda is to target the election of 2004.


Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are veteran corporate media consultant and Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth, who is listed as the group's media contact; eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as "the classic body-count guy" who "wanted hooches destroyed and people killed."

Spaeth told Salon that O'Neill first approached her last winter to discuss his "concerns about Sen. Kerry." O'Neill has been assailing Kerry since 1971, when the former Navy officer was selected for the role by Charles Colson, Richard Nixon's dirty-tricks aide. Spaeth heard O'Neill out, but told him, she says, that he "sounded like a crazed extremist" and should "button his lip" and avoid speaking with the press. But since Kerry clinched the Democratic nomination, Spaeth has changed her mind and decided to donate her public relations services on a "pro bono" basis to O'Neill's latest anti-Kerry effort. "About three weeks ago, four weeks ago," she said, the group's leaders "met in my office for about 12 hours" to prepare for their Washington debut.


Although not as well known as Karen Hughes, Spaeth is among the most experienced and best connected Republican communications executives. During the Reagan administration she served as director of the White House Office of Media Liaison, where she specialized in promoting "news" items that boosted President Reagan to TV stations around the country. While living in Washington she met and married Lezar, a Reagan Justice Department lawyer who ran for lieutenant governor of Texas in 1994 with George W. Bush, then the party's candidate for governor. (Lezar lost; Bush won.)

Through Lezar, who died of a heart attack last January, she met O'Neill, his law partner in Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson, a Dallas firm. (It also includes Margaret Wilson, the former counsel to Gov. Bush who followed him to Washington, where she served for a time as a deputy counsel in the Department of Commerce.)

Spaeth's partisanship runs still deeper, as does her history of handling difficult P.R. cases for Republicans. In 1998, for example, she coached Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, to prepare him for his testimony urging the impeachment of President Clinton before the House Judiciary Committee. She even reviewed videotapes of his previous television appearances to give him pointers about his delivery and demeanor. The man responsible for arranging her advice to Starr was another old friend of her late husband's, Theodore Olson, who was counsel to the right-wing American Spectator when it acted as a front for the dirty-tricks campaign against Clinton known as the Arkansas Project; he is now the solicitor general in the Bush Justice Department. (Olson also happens to be the godfather of Spaeth's daughter.)

In 2000, Spaeth participated in the most subterranean episode of the Republican primary contest when a shadowy group billed as "Republicans for Clean Air" produced television ads falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. While the identity of those funding the supposedly "independent" ads was carefully hidden, reporters soon learned that Republicans for Clean Air was simply Sam Wyly -- a big Bush contributor and beneficiary of Bush administration decisions in Texas -- and his brother, Charles, another Bush "Pioneer" contributor. (One of the Wyly family's private capital funds, Maverick Capital of Dallas, had been awarded a state contract to invest $90 million for the University of Texas endowment.)

When the secret emerged, spokeswoman Spaeth caught the flak for the Wylys, an experience she recalled to me as "horrible" and "awful." Her job was to assure reporters that there had been no illegal coordination between the Bush campaign and the Wyly brothers in arranging the McCain-trashing message. Not everyone believed her explanation, including the Arizona senator.

The veteran group's founder, Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, first gained notoriety in Vietnam as a strutting, cigar-chewing Navy captain. But it was O'Neill, by now a familiar figure on the Kerry-bashing circuit, who came to Spaeth for assistance.

Until now, Hoffmann has been best known as the commanding officer whose obsession with body counts and "scorekeeping" may have provoked the February 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians at Thanh Phong by a unit led by Bob Kerrey -- the Medal of Honor winner who lost a leg in Nam, became a U.S. senator from Nebraska and now sits on the 9/11 commission.

After journalist Gregory Vistica exposed the Thanh Phong massacre and the surrounding circumstances in the New York Times magazine three years ago, conservative columnist Christopher Caldwell took particular note of the cameo role played by Kerrey's C.O., who had warned his men not to return from missions without enough kills. "One of the myths due to die as a result of Vistica's article is that which holds the war could have been won sensibly and cleanly if the 'suits' back in Washington had merely left the military men to their own devices," Caldwell wrote. "In this light, one of the great merits of Vistica's article is its portrait of the Kurtz-like psychopath who commanded Kerrey's Navy task force, Capt. Roy Hoffmann."

Arguments about the war in Vietnam seem destined to continue forever. For now, however, the lingering bitterness and ambiguity of those days provide smear material against an antiwar war hero with five medals on behalf of a privileged Guardsman with a dubious duty record. The president's Texas allies -- whose animus against his Democratic challenger dates back to the Nixon era -- are now deploying the same techniques and personnel they used to attack McCain's integrity four years ago. Bush's "independent" supporters would apparently rather talk about the Vietnam quagmire than about his deadly incompetence in Iraq.

[Real_Patriot]

FOX exposed anti-Kerry vets' flip-flopping

As part of ongoing efforts to undermine Senator John Kerry's war record, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group founded to discredit Kerry's record during and after his service in Vietnam, held its first news conference on May 4. Also on that day, Media Matters for America released a report on the group's founder, John O'Neill -- also one of Kerry's strongest critics; the report documents O'Neill's participation in Republican efforts to smear Kerry dating back to the Nixon administration. The scrutiny that cable networks directed toward Kerry's critics throughout the day varied significantly; FOX News Channel provided in-depth coverage, including revealing that some of Kerry's present-day critics have, in the past, actually praised Kerry for his Vietnam service.

In many of the May 4 cable news reports, the partisan political backgrounds of the Swift Boat Vets were mentioned. CNN's afternoon news program, Live From..., described the group only as "Vietnam vets who formed a special purpose political action committee" and did not note O'Neill's or any other member's political affiliation. Later in the day, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reported on Inside Politics: "[T]he Kerry campaign points out there are Republicans here." Crowley also noted that the group's spokeswoman "is a Texas Republican who has contributed to the Bush campaign." On CNN's Crossfire, co-host James Carville also pointed to the Swift Boat Vets' Republican ties, as reported in Salon.com by Joe Conason in a May 4 article.

On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, host Joe Scarborough mentioned criticism of O'Neill's "dirty tricks" for the Nixon administration and asked if O'Neill was doing it again for the Bush campaign. MSNBC's Lester Holt Live showed a clip of Michael Meehan, Kerry presidential campaign adviser, criticizing the Swift Boat Veterans for their partisan attacks on Kerry and noting that a number of Kerry's crewmembers in Vietnam have praised his service. An afternoon report on MSNBC's daily news show, MSNBC Live, noted only that the Kerry campaign is "of course putting up veterans who disagree" with Kerry's critics. The broadcast omitted any information on individual members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whom the program identified as "a group of former Navy swift boat commanders and personnel many of whom served with Kerry in Vietnam."

FOX News Channel pushed harder on the credibility of some of the group's members. On several shows throughout the afternoon and evening, including Special Report with Brit Hume, FOX News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron provided substantial background on some key Kerry critics. Cameron reported that the veterans held a news conference "essentially to trash [Kerry]" and that much of their criticism "dramatically conflicts with the public record." Cameron stated, "Senator Kerry has released most of his military records and for the most part, they are a glowing detail of his military service." Not only does their criticism conflict with what The New York Times described in an April 22 article as Kerry's "uniformly positive" evaluations included in his military records, but, as Cameron also reported, their criticism is inconsistent with statements previously made by many of the Swift Boat Vets themselves. Cameron reported that in 1968, Kerry critic Grant W. Hibbard,[1] a lieutenant commander in Vietnam during Kerry's tour:

... described Kerry in various favorable ways, as quote, "One of the top few in his willingness to seek and accept responsibility." Captain George Elliot, who served in Vietnam at the same time Kerry did, condemns Kerry now for touting his service in a war that Kerry later protested. ... But in '96, Elliot and other critics of today, praised him for going after the enemy.

Beyond pointing out the inconsistent statements by some of Kerry's critics, Cameron also reported that Democrats say that "many of them ... have become Republicans ... who have supported the Bush campaigns in Texas, have been close friends of the Bush family both in politics and business." Cameron stated on Special Report with Brit Hume, "The GOP says it's not involved with the veterans criticizing Kerry, but many of them are Republicans who have contributed to and backed various Bush campaigns and causes over the decades."

On FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, co-host Alan Colmes challenged the credibility of the Swift Boat Vets. Colmes noted that Swift Boat Vets leader O'Neill did not serve in Vietnam with Kerry; rather, as O'Neill told Colmes, "I actually took his boat over, but about two months after he [Kerry] left." Colmes also draws attention to the flip-flopping nature of the comments made about Kerry by several group members. Colmes questioned O'Neill who appeared on the show:

Here is what Grant Hubbard [sic], who's now part of your group, here's what he had to say back then about John Kerry. And he signed -- let's put it up on the screen -- a report on Kerry. He said on initiative, one of the top few. Cooperation, one of the top few. Personal behavior, one of the top few. Why would he say that then and now be supporting you now?

Colmes further probed:

Let me show you the report of George Elliott, who also graded John Kerry in Vietnam. Here's what was said. Here's what he said. "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, Lieutenant Junior Grade Kerry was unsurpassed. LTJG Kerry emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group. His bearing and appearance are above reproach." That's a report of officer fitness from 1969 by George Elliott, who also graded Kerry. How do you account for that? Do you want to claim that everybody now is saying what you're saying? It's clearly not true.

Colmes went on to say to O'Neill, "You haven't explained to me how the very people who you claim are supporting you now had these superlative things to say about John Kerry back in the day when he was serving in Vietnam. I don't understand the discrepancy. Maybe you could explain it."

O'Neill answered by saying, "Sure. They were hardly superlative. If you look at John Kerry rated ... as a member of a group, you'll find that virtually everybody in the group got the same ones. Commander Hibbard, related generally, graded John Kerry as not observed. So you take that two or three items and ignored the not observed item on there."

Colmes replied, "[E]verything he did observe him on he was superlative."

O'Neill responded: "Yes, and mostly it was not observed."

[Ex-Military Capitalist]

Us little people are getting the picture.

He got a boo-boo, and got out. Four months.

Then went anti-war, and lied about everything.

Including his medals thrown "over the fence."

He got a purple Heart for a small piece of something, extracted from his skin, and used the three-purple-hearts-and-your-out technicality.

He is a coward.

Four months. What a wuss.
_________________
John Kerry got a bandaid for his boo-boo, and put himself in for a Purple Heart.

[JasonBinPNW]

That would explain exactly 3 of the not quite 200(?) signatures. Keep going. I'm just waiting for you to call the rest of them "sheep" or "ignorant followers" or something.
_________________
Semper Fi!

Jason

Proud member of "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy"

[reasonable]

What a pantload - Conason launching a broadside against the participants instead of reporting on the event itself. He calls Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman "the classic body-count guy" who "wanted hooches destroyed and people killed." I don't know where that came from, but I rather doubt that 19 out of 23 of Hoffman's superiors shared that opinion.

Kerry brought this upon himself 33 years ago.

[SOnioins]

Really should not be suprising that Conason did not report this but used it to further his liberal veiws. I watched the press conference late that evening and heard the liberal media attacking these vets.

One question....How is this group any different than the MoveOn.org people.

I applaude all the Swift Vets in standing up for what you believe in.

[Spirit]

http://www.spiritoftruth.org/swiftvets.htm
_________________
God bless,

J. Adams

"It is a fact that in the entire Vietnam War we did not lose one major battle. We lost the war at home and at home John Kerry was the field general."

- Bob Elder, Swift Boat Veteran For Truth

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

What a disgrace that hundreds of people who served well and honorably in the same area and at the same time as John F'n Kerry were the recipients of such smear tactics in our media when they took their turns at the mike and told their stories.

If hundreds of former National Guardsmen from George Bush's former units popped up and said he was unfit to lead, how much differently would Dan Blather have covered that story? How much more respectable air time would it have gotten?

I was a young teenager when the Vietnam war was winding down - I was too young to stand up for these men and women when they came home to the filthy propaganda and lies thrown on their service.

John Kerry was a leader of the movement that made it socially acceptable to look upon Vietnam soldiers as sub-human, crazed drug addicts who committed mayhem as a matter of course.

I was too young, back then, but I am damn sure old enough and smart enough to stand with them, now. Letting this opportunistic turncoat win the election will stab a generation of soldiers in the back all over again.

We must NOT let this happen!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[sparky]

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

You're looking pretty desperate there.

I've never done that, but if I were to call John Kerry a "baby killer," it would be to mock his past statements about the atrocities that he committed.

When did he commit these war crimes, if he wasn't a renegage Rambo, off on his own?

Apparently, he left the company of his fellow Swifties quite often and went out on patrols all alone - because no one else in those units he served with seems to remember ANYTHING the same way that Kerry does.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[sparky]

Desperate? Nah. Just irritated with Kerry opponents who tried to smear him for serving in Vietnam. While you haven't called Kerry a "baby killer" you have expressed concern for vets who are stereotyped. Therefore you should be outraged by conservatives who have smeared Kerry and McCain similarly. Nobody is tarnishing the competency and sanity of Vietnam vets nowadays except conservatives on a political search and destroy mission.

But you aren't all that concerned about these instances. Why is that? In fact, you seem to be defending those conservatives who have done this to McCain and Kerry both.

It's just politics, I guess.

As for credible vets who actually knew Kerry and were actually on his crew, their stories match up just fine, thank you very much.

[Hen3]

Here are some tidbits from the media this week.

Fox News Hannity & Colmes interview from the other side of the fence, you tell me which is more compelling:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119101,00.html

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

[Louielouie]

No doubt. He's the one who brought the whole issue of Vietnam up in the first place.

[Sandy Bottom]

This is classic media reaction that misses the point entirley. When the truth doesn't suit their purpose, they focus on the person(s) bringing the truth. Merry Spaeth's role was to help get some publicity for this group of more than 200 men who voluntarily came forward after 35 years because John Kerry lied about us. The fact of the matter is that John Kerry lied under oath to Congress about we in Swift Boat units did in Viet Nam and went on Meet the Press and did it again to a nationwide audience. I could care less about the medals - if he chose to throw them away, so be it. But to accuse his own shipmates plus hundreds of thousands of men and women of unspeakable war crimes with no basis in fact is unforgiveable. He should either come forth with the facts to back up his made up stories or apologise and tell the world that he lied.