Posted on 08/29/2004 1:43:37 AM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Sun, Aug. 29, 2004
CAMPAIGN
Bush sets bait, reels in helpless Kerry
ZEV CHAFETS
Everybody knows President Bush is a bass fisherman. But the president has spent most of August reeling in a more exotic specimen: the Giant New England Slack-Jaw.
Years from now, when tales of the catch are told around GOP campfires, small boys will marvel at how the supposedly intelligent Kerryfish swallowed Bush's bait, hook, line and sinker.
Slack-jaw season started in January, when John Kerry won the Iowa caucuses with help from a band of Vietnam character witnesses. At the time, Bush realized three simple truths:
1) Kerry would be his Democratic opponent. 2) The theme of Kerry's campaign would be his heroic military service. 3) Kerry would fund his campaign largely with so-called 527 soft money put up by anti-Bush billionaires who had been flirting with Howard Dean.
On May 4, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth held a press conference in Washington, denouncing Kerry. It is possible Bush was taken by surprise by this. It is also possible the moon's made of blue cheese.
Still, it is highly doubtful that Bush put the Swifties up to their attack. He didn't need to. They obviously hate Kerry's guts. All the president had to do was sit and watch. Patience is the fisherman's friend.
Some Swiftie charges against Kerry's war record are highly debatable. Others - that Kerry invented a "life-changing" experience in Cambodia or that he slandered U.S. troops when he came home from the war - are matters of public record.
One thing is indisputable: The allegations have done Kerry a great deal of harm.
It took him a surprisingly long time to realize that. When he did, he tried to get off the hook in awkward ways - dispatching lawyers to scare TV stations into censoring Swiftie ads, pressuring bookstores to ban the Swiftie bible, "Unfit to Command," even appealing to the toothless Federal Election Commission to make his erstwhile comrades-in-arms shut up. But to no avail.
Finally Kerry demanded that Bush himself step in and silence the Swifties. It was a moment Bush had been waiting for.
On Monday, down in Crawford, Texas, Dubya hitched up his jeans, sauntered out to a press conference and allowed as to how he'd be glad to help his worthy opponent. But, just to be fair, he said, let's shut down the negative campaigning by all 527 groups. Goodbye, Swifties. So long, MoveOn. Just say the word, Kerry, and we'll take all the nasty dollars out of politics.
But Kerry hasn't said that word. He probably can't. His campaign finance structure is predicated on 527 money. Of the top 10 soft donors, nine are Kerry supporters.
So, the president comes off as the champion of upright McCain-Feingold reform, while Kerry is stuck with George Soros & Co. If the senator cuts off his billionaire backers, he suffocates. If he sticks with Soros, et al., he's stuck with the Swifties, too. That's a hook Kerry can wriggle on until Nov. 2. Then Bush will throw him back.
The 43rd president is often said by his critics to be a dunce. Maybe. But in politics, as in fishing, you don't have to be a genius. You just have to be smarter than the fish.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Chafets, a columnist for the New York Daily News, at zchafets@yahoo.com.
Excellent. Thanks.
"the Giant New England Slack-Jaw."
ROFLMAO! Oh, that's him, that's just him, to a tee!
And the Swifties do hate his guts, I mean they hate him, they really hate him. Forget Bush-hatred, it's nothing, it's like a 4 year old saying "I hate you daddy!", it all smoke. The absolute contempt the Swiftees have for Kerry is unlike anything I've seen in politics in my life. And, imho, he deserves their loathing.
Pretty much says it don't it?
Doesn't Kerry's refusal to denounce all 527s prove him to be coordinating with those that are backing him?
And the LAT is salivating all over themselves at the statement by Bush that Kerry was heroic (in harms' way), and Bush was not.
I'd really like to dispute that statement because the aircraft Bush was flying had a reputation for being difficult to handle .. it took great skill .. and it had a terrible accident rate with a great many deaths. Maybe Bush wasn't being shot at but the aircraft he was flying was not safesville. And .. Bush's commitment was much longer because of the training involved.
Very damning evidence. Except that 90%+ of America doesn't know that it's a soft-money operation; that little tidbit slipped under the radar. They think he's funded the same way Bush-Cheney are.
All very well to associate Kerry with the 527s - but the entire McLame - Slimegold abortion is unconstitutional root and branch.Journalism is politics. Journalism claims to be objective, which is the same thing as claiming to be wise - and there ain't nothing you can say that's more tendentious than that.
This is priceless.
"Humble yourself, and you shall be exalted." There's a corollary to that Biblical saw, of which Kerry is in series breach.
This article is a "keeper"!
Oh yes, I agree .. and I'm quite confident the Kerry people do not know that!! And .. I have seen several stories tonight where the author made the comment about Bush remaining a gentleman through this whole ordeal. LOL!
I love this one: "Be kind to those who spitefully use you!"
BTTT
Definitely a "must read"!
Actually, it is not hate that vets have for Kerry. It is betrayal and that he is not part of the band of brothers, but a wannabe.
The closest analogy I can think of is a person on a sport's team going their own way and, when off the court, saying that no one supports him, he is right, plays great, and the rest of the team plays poorly.
A contempt develops for that person by the rest of the team. He has betrayed them, but he is "part of the team". It is like the betrayal of a family member. The hurt is deep. But you keep your mouth shut, since you are on a team.
For a sport's team, when that person is removed, the team performs better because it is a team again. They will not bad mouth the player, since he was part of the old team. But if he starts mouthing off, they will comment and do so with energy- stating the truth, that he was not a team player and hyped his stats. He betrayed the team and them.
It is not hate. It goes deeper and there is a sadness to it.
Maybe we should start calling him John "Keyshawn" Kerry? "just give me the damn country" could be his motto.
ping
Very funny piece, and right on the money, too. This campaign will be studied and studied for what not to do, the power of the internet, ordinary citizens, and the importance of vetting your candidate's background first.
His campaign finance structure is predicated on 527 money.
Isn't THAT the truth.
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