Swift Boat Vets Revisited: The McCain Factor

I stupidly forgot about this angle. The Prickly Princess is, of course, calling these Vietnam Vets liars because they have the audacity to call another Vietnam Vet a liar. Yeah, it's confusing, but that's McCain's brand of Straight-Talk (TM).

This will of course be used by the media to refute the charges (despite the fact that John McCain is, at best, a character-witness and not a fact-witness), or ignore them entirely, if they can get away with it.

And there's a limit to how much Bush can silently embrace the ad before we start hearing about the possibility of a McCain flip. So far, he's refused to condemn the ad. I think it's time to use the liberals' ridiculous non-sequitor answer to calls for condemnation of a statement: "I defend their right to express themselves..."

If that works for liberals as regards any statement no matter how outrageous, I don't see why it shouldn't also work for Bush.

Oh, wait. I guess I do see why: the liberal media has a rule that this non-sequitor dodge can only be used by liberals defending other liberals.

It's trickier than I first thought.

Update-- The O'Neill Factor: Beldar has done something few others have: he actually cross-examined John O'Neill during his testimony at a (non-political, non-sexy) trial. His conclusion:

But from my own first-hand experience cross-examining John O'Neill under oath, I can say that I fully believe that John O'Neill fully believes what he's saying — and that he's a damned credible witness in my opinion.

We'll see, I guess.

Liberal Hypocrisy Watch: Wizbang reports that the favored liberal counterattack consists of branding this ad illegitimate because it's being funded by an anti-Kerry 527 group.

He notes that the same liberals seem pretty rah-rah, "You go girl" when it comes to the $15 million spent in the past three months by anti-Bush 527's.

Hat tip to AllahPundit.

Update: Aaron fisks Salon's attack on the Swift Boat Vets.

posted by Ace at 02:16 PM

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