Rick Reed, who crafted Swift boat ads attacking John Kerry, dies at 69

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Washington Post

Rick Reed, a Republican media strategist who helped create one of the most scathingly memorable ad campaigns in recent history, writing and producing commercials during the 2004 presidential race that accused Sen. John F. Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record and betraying his former comrades, died Aug. 17 at his home in Alexandria, Va. He was 69.

-snip-

A longtime partner at the political ad firm Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, Mr. Reed worked on campaigns for numerous Republican candidates, including senators George Allen and John W. Warner of Virginia, Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina and Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois. He also made ads for John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000 and served as a senior media adviser to Donald Trump in 2016, after launching his own consulting company in Alexandria. By then, he was being hailed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson as “the smartest political consultant I know.”

Mr. Reed remained best known for his work with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of about 200 former Navy officers and enlisted sailors who alleged that Kerry, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, had embellished his record during the Vietnam War, when he captained Swift boats in the Mekong Delta and was awarded honors including the Silver Star. Among other claims, they asserted that Kerry received his first of three Purple Hearts for a minor, self-inflicted wound, and said that he was unfit to serve as commander in chief because of his statements as an antiwar activist.

Their claims were fiercely disputed by the Kerry campaign and later undermined by news reports, which revealed that some of the men criticizing the senator had previously filed written reports lauding his heroism. Many of the veterans who spoke in the commercials did not serve on the same Swift boats as Kerry, and other veterans questioned the accounts of some who said they did.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/23/gop-strategist-rick-reed-dead/

---

They say you should always speak good of the dead.

Rick Reed is dead, good.

[Sky Jewels]

1. Rick got rolled.

Buh bye.

[3Hotdogs]

10. .

[usaf-vet]

17. THE COUNTRY got rolled by Rick Reed.

[Roy Rolling]

42. Remember the Motivation

Money. He sold out a war hero for money.

These people are fucking clueless about the political implications of their actions, they just collect a salary.

It’s the same excuse ordinary Germans gave for why so many of their countrymen worked for the Nazis. “It’s just a job”.

[onetexan]

64. Its all about the $- they psid handsomely doing what

They do and hence why they do it. Greed rules, conscience be damned.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. Enjoy the HEAT rickreed.

[Hekate]

3. Condolences to his friends, if he has any

[Demovictory9]

4. Evil ahole

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Good riddance.

[PlanetBev]

6. So, Rick, what was the point of your life?

Lying like a rug to destroy a good man?

So long, asshole.

[blm]

7. Burning in hell for eternity.

[machoneman]

45. Brun in Hell motherfucker!

[captain queeg]

8. Hope they are keeping his seat in hell nice and hot for him.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

9. Purple BandAids.

No blow too low for pukes.

[AZLD4Candidate]

11. There aren't enough onions in the world. Or horseradish either.

[catbyte]

12. ...

[Upthevibe]

15. catbyte............

Sooooooooooooooo good!

What was done to John Kerry during that campaign was horrible...

[catbyte]

18. What they did to John Kerry was criminal. Straight out of the Lee Atwater

playbook. They did the same thing to Max Cleland in Georgia. Painting patriots as cowards and cowards as patriots. It makes me sick. And they're still doing it, gleefully.

[LT Barclay]

33. The most disgusting image from that campaign was the fat losers at the republican national

convention with those childish purple heart bandaids on their face. Sick chickenhawks.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

59. Not just Lee Atwater,

This was straight from the Karl Rove playbook -- Take the opponent's greatest strength, weaponize it and turn it into a point of attack. No shame. No remorse. Just go for the juglar.

John Kerry was a true American hero. A selfless warrior who saved others from death or (worse) detention by the enemy for later interrogation and torture. That he came home a changed man and spoke out about the horrors he had witnessed and why Americans should not be dying on foreign soil for a civil war, was perhaps an even braver demonstration of how much he loved this nation and wanted to see an end to the carnage and death thousands of miles away.

Unlike Atwater, Rove will not make a death bed apology to those who assassination of character he oversaw and the gloated about. A vile, despicable man.

John Kerry would have served this nation with dignity, honor and not launched a phony 20 year proxy war in the Middle East.

[ailsagirl]

13. A pretty disgraceful legacy

[Owl]

14. Good.

[thomski64]

25. F em...

[MontanaMama]

16. Glad this POS has left the planet.

Bye Rick.

[Upthevibe]

19. Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin.............

Thanks for the post.

I guess he's having his life review about now. I wonder how that's going for him?

[gay texan]

20. I've never seen my Vietnam vet dad more upset

Dad always had a lot of respect for the "Brown water Navy"

They were bad asses in his book.

So good riddance Reed, I hope you suffered on the way out.

[gopiscrap]

21. Fuck him no sympathy

glad he's dead...one less piece of shit polluting the earth and taking up air

[dalton99a]

22. I hope he suffered.

[UpInArms]

23. All people bring joy, some when they enter, some when they leave

I am happy he is gone

[orleans]

24. he fucked this country

fuck him--the piece of shit

he's dead? GOOD!!!

he should've died years ago!

[BradAllison]

26. Rest in piss.

[Aristus]

27. As a veteran myself,

I hope it was prolonged and very painful, asshole.

The world is immeasurably better without you.

Your stupid, pathetic, empty life was of absolutely no value.

[calimary]

28. And another one bites the dust.

Poor dust...

[ZonkerHarris]

29. Fuck that guy. And I hope Lee Atwater is rotting in hell too.

[kimbutgar]

30. I hope he is burning in hell for being such a liar !

John Kerry Is a good man who served our country honorably .

[NBachers]

31. Roast in hell, you piece of shit

[Brainfodder]

32. Is the devil ready for his replacement yet?

Never heard of before, glad.

[BigmanPigman]

34. I hope he suffered...

if anyone deserves it he does and in spades!! Fuck that bastard. Rot in Hell!

[Efilroft Sul]

35. Satan called him home.

[HardPort]

36. Some days one wishes hell were real ... n/t

[yaesu]

37. Rot In Hell. nt

[diane in sf]

38. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Pepsidog]

39. The news keeps getting better. Burn in hell.

[ShazzieB]

40. .....

[Trueblue1968]

41. GOOD ,,, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

[SouthernDem4ever]

43. Say hello to Satan rick

hope you can handle the heat.

[rownesheck]

44. Good.

Hope he suffered like hell.

[rpannier]

46. 20 years too late

Shame Satan didn't send the Reaper for him in '02

[DenaliDemocrat]

47. They were not "fiercely disputed". Kerry mostly ignored

This idiot - and it hurt him badly. Kerry took the high road. He should have come unglued.

[keithbvadu2]

48. Is this the clown who received the same medal(s) for the same combat acton but denigrated Kerry for

Is this the clown who received the same medal(s) for the same combat acton but denigrated Kerry for accepting the medals for 'insignificant' action?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

49. Can't say I'm sorry.

It was all bullshit and the right bought it big time. Disgraceful.

[CBHagman]

50. "Scathingly memorable" is an awfully positive spin...

...on a destructive practice in American politics.

[Paladin]

51. Fuck him. (nt)

[MarineCombatEngineer]

52. Good fucking riddance,

As a Vietnam Vet myself, it pissed me off to no end how this POS went after fellow Vietnam Vet, John Kerry, who served very honorably as part of the US Navy's Riverine Patrol on the rivers of S. Vietnam, a very dangerous job.

[BlueIdaho]

53. I'm only sorry I can't dance on his grave.

He’s not worth wasting the gas to get to the cemetery.

[LiberalFighter]

54. Not soon enough.

[BigDemVoter]

55. Motherfucker. . .

It isn't that I'm glad he's dead. It's just that I really don't care. What an awful person.

[sybylla]

56. There are very few people in this world whose demise I would wish for.

But there are numerous obits I look forward to reading, including this one.

[tonekat]

57. No Tears Here

He's on the Swift Boat to Hell. Rotten S.O.B..

[TexasBushwhacker]

58. The Hill says he died "unexpectedly" a week ago

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3613693-rick-reed-gop-strategist-behind-kerry-swift-boat-ads-dies-at-69/

[Martin68]

60. Good riddance.

Sliming a decorated Vietnam vet for political gain. May he rot in Hell.

[John Ludi]

61. He died relatively young...

good.

[PCIntern]

62. Donations in his memory may be made to the :

I’m A Lying SOB Organization
c/o Donald J Trump, Treasurer

[andym]

63. Thye needed to neutralize Kerry's advantage over GWB: military heroism and ethics

versus escaping Vietnam service by GWB. What better way than to call Kerry a coward/false hero using lies? Lies do work and the GOP are masters of lying and false equivalencies. Mr. Reed had no qualms about slandering Kerry. Lack of integrity seems a prerequisite to working for the GOP.