Zell to Honor Swiftless

[DebinTx]

This has my blood boiling!!!

December 16, 2004
Miller to Honor Swift Boat Vets' Group
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - For one night only, it'll be spitballs and Swift Boats together on the same stage - a who's who of Sen. John Kerry bashing.

The American Conservative Union on Thursday announced it has tapped Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., to present the "Courage Under Fire" award to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Feb. 18 banquet.

Miller and the group of Vietnam veterans were behind perhaps the campaign's two fiercest and most memorable attacks on Kerry's unsuccessful presidential bid.

Miller, who is retiring next month, scorched Kerry in a Republican National Convention keynote address in which he suggested the four-term Massachusetts Democrat had voted to cut so many weapons systems, it appeared he wanted to send the military to war with only spitballs.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran ads after the Democratic convention questioning whether Kerry was in fact the decorated Vietnam War veteran that he claimed to be.

"The swift boat veterans performed an invaluable service to America," Miller said in a statement. "These veterans took a lot of undeserved criticism for daring to speak the truth."

Official military records and even statements from Swift Boat veterans in Navy documents raised questions about their largely unsubstantiated claims, but the political damage had been done. At a post-election forum Wednesday in Boston, Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager, said she regretted underestimating the impact of the Swift Boat ads.

Roy Hoffmann, the retired Navy rear admiral who founded the Swift Boat group, said he didn't know much about Miller but was pleased with the honor. The real goal, he said, was to ensure that Kerry didn't become commander in chief.

"We achieved our goal," Hoffmann said. "That was our primary concern, and we are pleased someone recognized the effort - or at least the impact - we had on the election."

Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, said Miller had spoken at a previous banquet and "lit up the crowd."

Democrats shrugged off the choices of both honorees and presenter.

"It seems fitting that a Republican in Democratic clothing is recognizing the work of Republican agents, namely the smears that the Swift Boat veterans launched against John Kerry," said Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee

[tmooses]

1. This is utter and total bullshit. These guys are psychopathic liars and

are being honored by another nut case. How can Mary Beth Cahill say she underestimated these attacks. We all knew they were coming and should have been ready for them. Doesn't anybody know the history of these
scumbags? They will do anything to win including creating outright smears of a war hero. The campaign should have been ready for this. I remember getting e-mails from Cahill during the campaign almost daily
asking for donations and saying the Repub smear campaign is in full
swing. As for Miller, he should have been drummed out of the Dems along time ago.