The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth funders are back in the political mix, and they’re not fooling around. According to the Nation, they’ve donated and bundled $200,000 for conservative presidential candidates thus far. Romney and McCain have received the most. The fact that McCain is at the top of the list is notable because…
When the Swift Boat ads were first unleashed, McCain was alone among his Republican colleagues to condemn them. A fellow Vietnam veteran, a good friend of Kerry’s and a former target of smears about his own service, McCain called the ads “dishonest and dishonorable,” a “cheap stunt,” and he urged Bush to condemn them. But in pursuit of the GOP nomination, McCain ditched the mantle of maverick for that of hack, and his once-floundering, possibly rejuvenated campaign has been aided along the way by $61,650 from Swift Boat donors and their associates. “There is such a thing as dirty money,” said Senator Kerry in a statement, after The Nation informed him of McCain’s FEC records. “I’m surprised that the John McCain I knew who was smeared in 2000 and thought so-called Swift Boating was wrong in 2004 would feel comfortable taking their money after seeing the way it was used to hurt the veterans I know he loves.”
Read the whole article here. We recently tracked what the GOP’s dirty tricksters are up to; the Swifties are here.
Update: More McCain hypocrisy can be found in the WaPo‘s recent investigative piece titled, “McCain’s Unlikely Ties to K Street.”