Sam Says

Author: Sam Wilson

Do you remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? They were the anti-Kerry group during the campaign that had utterly nothing to do with truth, but everything to do with rather slanderous attempts to discredit a decorated war veteran.

Well, they are back - not the Vets themselves, but the politicos who designed their shameful smear. These consultants and strategists have been hired by a right-wing group, USA Next, to help the President sell his Social Security reform. USA Next is not planning on researching Social Security or trying to contribute in any meaningful way to the debate, but rather the group plans on barfing lies upon those that oppose the president's plan, namely the AARP. The AARP is a huge advocacy group for seniors. It does things like lobby lawmakers on behalf of the elderly, and provide benefits for its members, like discounts at hotels. It thinks that the President's Social Security plan is a bad idea, so it opposes the plan.

USA Next has decided that the best way to deal with this dilemma is to do everything it can to destroy the AARP. To do this, the group hired the Swift Boat consultants to concoct schemes to smear the AARP until the AARP becomes a filthy taboo, thus negating the AARP's power.

The early signs indicate that this campaign will have all of the integrity of the Swift Boat campaign. USA Next ran an Internet ad on the American Spectator's Web site that pictured a U.S. soldier, and two men in tuxedos kissing. The ad declared it showed "the real AARP agenda," as a red X flashed over the soldier and a green check mark flashed over the presumably just married homosexual couple. It also said you could click on the ad to learn more.

I do not know much about the AARP, but I was pretty sure that the group did not actively oppose our troops, and that it probably took no official position on gay marriage since that issue has little to do with seniors. So, curious, I clicked the ad and arrived at the USA Next Web site (www.usanext.org). I poked around for a bit but found neither anything about the AARP hating the military nor about the AARP supporting gay marriage. Mostly, the site seemed concerned with media coverage the group had received and a petition to get the Motion Picture Academy to name The Passion of the Christ best picture.

Still interested, I went to the AARP's Web site (www.aarp.org) to look for anything about these issues. Everything about veterans made it seem like the group support our troops and vets. And, as expected, I found not a thing about gay marriage.

I was forced to conclude that these Swift Boat strategists have not changed a bit, the ad was entirely without factual worth. It was telling in one way though - this Social Security debate is going to get ugly.

Incidentally, the American Spectator must have realized the obnoxiousness of the ad, because they have replaced it with another, less nauseating one.