August 22, 2004

Connections

The Bush Campaign has been accused of having connections with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. However, a look at the Kerry campaign reveals some interesting connections to these so-called 527 groups.

Jay Caruso adds some additional detail.

...and for those who use John Kerry's website as your source of definitive information, as the post here seems to indicate, maybe there really was some good information there.

Posted by jdmays at August 22, 2004 03:33 PM | TrackBack
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Comments

Firstly, your web of connections for the Kerry Campaign to 527s is hardly convincing. Col. Cordier, a Bush campaign adviser, actually appeared in the Swift Boat ad. It's rather hard to top that for guilty by association. Also the Hitler comparison was a submission to a contest, one of about 10,000 - which even moveon.org denounced. Media time was never bought and it only aired on the news shows. These differences are quite profound. If evangelicals are so saintly then why don't they abide by the advice that "money is the root of all evil?" It seems that they take many of Jesus' teachings for granted when they prove inconvenient. Perhaps, a case could be made that they are the genuine heretics. I say this with great trepidation, since I have a few very close evangelical friends. But it must be aired, because it is this rigid judgmental quality, this self-righteousness condemnation of others, along with the refusal at any real attempt at self examination and refusal to ever admit fault that I find so hopelessly arrogant about them. Sadly enough, it seems that more often than not, the root of evil derives from this insatiable need to play the game of oneupmanship (I'm better or more self-righteous than you - better Christian, more money, more successful) mantra. It is a zero sum game, and unfortunately, money and religion have now been coopted as a means to this destructive end. It's merely religiosity without the religion.

Posted by: Charley Stevens at August 23, 2004 04:44 PM

Charley,
Col. Cordier was a -volunteer- for the Bush campaign. I hardly think that's a smoking gun. Most, if not all of the connections shown on the web of connections graphic are former paid staff to the Kerry campaign. It isn't unreasonable to assume that someone who dislikes Kerry would also be supportive of Bush's campaign, albeit as a volunteer.
As far as the hitler ad is concerned, I was not aware that moveon.org denounced it. Maybe they did that after they were sure it had plenty of exposure. (Has anyone denounced Al Gore's statement about Republican supporters being brownshirts?) I've yet to hear of the Kerry campaign denouncing any of these types of ads against Bush and they've been going on for quite a while.
If evangelicals are so saintly then why don't they abide by the advice that "money is the root of all evil?"
Well, not to be too picky, but the bible says "the love of money is the root of all evil." I'm not 100% sure where that fits in all of this, but you are correct that there are plenty of evangelicals who don't practice what they preach, are rigid, self-righteous and arrogant. You're also right when you point out how oneupsmanship has permeated our society (evangelicals included). I'm not sure though that you could make the connection that evangelicals were involved in any of these 527 ads. Also, I'm not sure that bringing up issues that the Kerry campaign would like to sweep under the rug is wrong, especially since Kerry made these Vietnam claims the center of his campaign.
With all of that being said, you might agree with me that the McCain-Feingold law is poorly conceived and almost impossible to enforce fairly. I think the campaigns should instead be forced to publicly account for every donation.
-jdm

Posted by: JDM at August 23, 2004 05:01 PM