White House refuses to disclose contacts with Swift vets

[rawstory]

Don't know if this was here before -- I certainly didn't see it.

On Thursday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) received a letter from the Executive Office of the President denying CREW’s Aug. 24 request for records detailing White House contacts with individuals connected to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT). As grounds for the denial, the White House claimed that it was exempt from having to disclose the information.

CREW had asked the White House to release information regarding contacts between the Executive Office of the President and members of SBVT and others associated with the group, including public relations, advertising, detective and fundraising organizations.

CREW decided to file the FOIA after learning that President Bush’s political advisor Karl Rove had claimed not to have spoken with his longtime friend and primary SVBT donor Bob J. Perry, in over a year. Yesterday, Rove had changed his tune, telling FOX news: “I don’t want to leave any misimpression. But he’s (Perry) not somebody that I’ve had, you know, any extended conversation with in years . . .” Rove denied, however, speaking with Perry about SBVT.

Rove’s comments were made the same day CREW discovered that a Republican party Committee website in Collier County Florida was soliciting donations for SBVT and showing the group’s ads, something clearly not allowed under the Federal Election Campaign Act.

Story: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=257
Site: http://www.citizensforethics.org/

[movonne]

1. So where do we go from there....

[Trillo]

2. While the White House is increasingly "exempt" from disclosure,

the rest of us are being subjected to increased sharing of information for surveillance purposes.

[comradebillyboy]

3. we are there, the white house refusal says it all

all kerry and his surrogates need to do is publicize the wh stonewalling as clear evidence of the coordination and linkage

[havocmom]

4. No, we should be the ones publicizing it. LTTE, calls to radio/TV shows

Emails to every media outlet we can think of. Bring it up whenever possible in casual converstation.

Let Kerry take the high road and spend his time/energy talking about the issues America needs to address and his solutions for the mess bush*s failed policies have put us in. The rest of us can be the baying hounds hounding the junta propaganda machines.

[rawstory]

6. I dunno. The damage is already done.

the polls show it.

[Prodemsouth]

5. I heard somerthing on the way back in a Taxi Cab about Nader putting in

his two cents on the swift boat lairs on the radio. Anyone know what comment he made? Cab driver began talking could not make out the rest of it.
Announcer said he had something flashing on his web site - went there and saw nothing but the pictures of ugly people and the standard propaganda

[krkaufman]

7. Ha! What a dodge

ROVE: "... any extended conversation with ..."

Ha! What an artful dodge. From "no contact" to no "extended conversation with" in just a matter of days.

It all depends on the meaning of "extended", eh? It doesn't take too long to utter the phrase "turn the dogs loose, all of 'em, even the most rabid. we've got no chance otherwise."

[Moderator]

8. Duplicate and not LBN

From August 24th

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=773496