The swiftboating of...Bob Casey

Interesting e-mail I received today from the Casey campaign today.


Don't Let Them "Swift Boat" Bob Casey

Dear XXXXXXXX,

Remember Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth?"

This week we saw a similar group with an equally ironic name jump into the Senate race here in Pennsylvania. We are now less than a year away from the election but already Americans for Job Security (AJS) has spent close to half a million dollars on a new TV ad to help Rick Santorum climb out of the cellar.


AJS is a shadowy special interest group that hides their donors and engages in Karl Rove-style politics. We can only imagine who is funding them and what they will do next.


For a few months now, we've been saying that this campaign will be unlike any other. Rick Santorum will stop at nothing to hold onto power and continue pushing the Bush agenda.


Rick may be out of touch with Pennsylvania voters, but he's in touch with a lot of powerful right-wing groups that want to reward him for voting with them instead of for Pennsylvania priorities.


We need your help to fight back against the Swift Boat-style attacks that we know are coming.


Please contribute today.


We all saw the damage that groups like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth caused in 2004.


Americans for Job Security is no different. AJS has connections to Bush, Rove, and the Swift Boats group. To top it all off, their leader, David Carney, is a Rove protege. And the group's lawyer Ben Ginsberg resigned from the Bush-Cheney campaign after his connection to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was disclosed.


It's up to us to prevent these shady, special interests groups from pulling the wool over the eyes of the American public again.


Please contribute today.


Thanks,

Jay Reiff
Campaign Manager

Paid for by the Bob Casey for Pennsylvania Committee

www.BobCaseyforPA.com

We all know what she thinks of Man-On-Dog Santorum. And I'm sure she'd like to get a little payback for her man. Hell, she could bankroll a counter-attack all by herself.

I believe this is a well thought out reference. Teresa held a fundraiser for Bob Casey. It's pretty clear how she feels about Santorum. I wouldn't be surprised if she and/or JK had some input to this message or at least were consulted about the use of the term.
I think the Dem use of "swiftboating" is fairly brilliant, and we'll see a lot more of it. By the '06 election it will be synonymous with liars and scoundrels. By '08, if not sooner, the SBLs will have no credibility whatsoever. Then we can just shoo them away like the pesky little insects they are if they decide to turn up again.
I just hope it's not too painful for the Senator. I know he's using it, but it's gotta hurt.

I think the term "swift-boating" has found at least a semi-permanent place in the political lexicon.

Here are a couple Public Citizen "Stealth-PAC" pages for AJS:

http://www.stealthpacs.org/profile.cfm?org_id=41

http://www.stealthpacs.org/notebook/page.cfm?pageid=21

(edited to correct links)

What a smarmy character. If he's connected to any group going after Casey, look out. He's a viper.

at Wikipedia.org.

Swiftboating is American political jargon for character assassination through distortion and innuendo, as in the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth organization's ads against Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry in the 2004 election campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiftboating