Two Sides of His Mouth

Posted on August 24, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Liberty Scoundrels

It’s politics Tuesday!

Today, George W. Bush praised John Kerry’s war record but declined to condemn the Swift Boat ads. He wants an end to all political advertising not coming directly from the campaigns. His target is MoveOn and many other groups which have effectively decried his record independently of the Kerry Campaign. Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith told Bloomberg Television:

I think it’s great we live in a country where 260 average guys can go out and put their point of view out there before the public and influence a major presidential race….I am not one who agrees it is illegitimate for citizens to take a stand on these kind of issues and only the politicians should be able to say what they want about the issues they want to talk about.”

For those who can’t see the doubletalk and obfuscation going on here, let me rephrase the Bush Administration’s position. First, Bush is using the Swift Boat ads as a bargaining chip to get Kerry to silence MoveOn. In effect, he is proving Kerry’s contention that he had been manipulating the ads behind the scenes while distancing himself in public. His aim is the suppression of political speech. As for Bloomberg: observe how he calls them “issues-oriented”. Kerry hit Bush hard on the smears and called for a discussion of issues. Bloomberg is attempting to deflect the fact that Bush and company got caught playing dirty. He is also attempting to confuse real issues such as the war, the loss of jobs overseas, the stolen election, and the increased tax burden on the working and middle classes with faux issues cooked up to jumpstart the limbic system into rage.

Furthermore, Bush’s remarks suggest that he’s out to quash the grassroots sentiment building against him. He has seen the power of MoveOn to educate the public on the facts. The facts hurt him. One of the strongest cases against Bush is made on the basis of character. Where John Kerry has lived an exemplary political life, Bush has time and again proven the chicken hawk, the wastrel, the liar, and the thief. The Swift Boat ads are underwritten by the Bush Campaign through a Texas real estate developer where MoveOn — to Bush’s exacerbation — is financed by small contributions! They aim to tarnish Kerry’s greatest asset so that Bush’s greatest weakness will not be so obvious.

Kerry is being asked to take a stand against free speech here. My thought is to keep the heat up and keep making the link. At the heart of this is a very substantial flaw in the personality and leadership of the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: doubletalk. Just as he proclaims himself a peace president when he makes war, a supporter of our troops when he fails to equip them properly and does nothing to help them with the economic problems that he has created, and an environmental president as he eases regulations for toxic polluters and opens virgin forests to lumber interests (the national parks are next), here he is once more standing on pretense. Just as the Starrish Inquisition made Americans disgusted with special prosecutors, here he is trying to make them hate independent political committees. My advice to John Kerry is to keep the focus on the Swift Boat Veterans and keep challenging Bush to talk about the issues.

Under no circumstances, Mr. Kerry, let Bush use this political blackmail to undermine liberty. This man — the exact antithesis of Franklin Delano Roosevelt — must be shown for what he is.

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Later thoughts. This latest maneuver is an old favorite of Bush’s. The sucker punch. Hit your opponent before the referee — in this case the people — see the whole story. What Bush fears is the MoveOn ad which compares his service record to John Kerry’s. Truth hurts Bush more than it will Kerry.

Kerry and MoveOn should not stop until the whole incident is out before the American people.