The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have formally disbanded and ceased all operations as of May 31, 2008. I repeat. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth no longer exists. Somebody need to send that message to the New York Daily News because they are creating the false impression that 527 group is still out there as you can see in their completely misleading headline, "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth gear up for 2008 White House race." The strangest thing is that the Daily News article contradicts its own headline (emphasis mine):
The swift boats are coming.
They'll go by different names this year, but the largely unregulated interest groups like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - which in 2004 torpedoed Democrat John Kerry with allegations he'd inflated his war record - are gearing up for the 2008 White House race like never before.
So far this year, so-called 527 groups - named for a section of the IRS tax code - have raised a staggering $210 million, up from $182 million at this point in 2004.
But here's the ideological bottom line - roughly two-thirds of that $210 million has been raised by Democratic-friendly groups, according to 527 tax filings compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
"Conservative groups like Swift Boat Veterans got all the attention in 2004, but groups on the left have always raised and spent far more," said Massie Ritsch, the center's communications chief.
So after raising the specter of the big bad Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that no longer even exists, the Daily News admits that the Democrat-friendly 527s have received most of the money that has been raised. In addition, the Daily News claims that the toughest of the 527 ads run so far have been by those same liberal groups:
But most outside money - and most of the toughest ads - has come from liberal groups.
That includes a recent spot depicting a small boy sitting in the lap of his mother, who asks McCain if he is counting on her son to help fight an endless war in Iraq. "Because if you were, you can't have him," the mother says.
The ad was paid for by the political action committee of MoveOn.org, the Democratic activist group, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest unions in the nation.
However, the Daily News does conclude on a laughably ominous note. Apparently some guy in Gilbert, Arizona with no phone number who seems to have an impish sense of humor has started a 527 group just recently with a name that haunts both liberals and the Daily News:
It's also true that, while Democratic-leaning 527s have raised more, GOP-friendly 527s are growing at a faster rate this year. Their ranks include a new outfit ominously named Swift Boat Obama.
The group's IRS filing traces to a Gilbert, Ariz., address with no working phone number.
Mighty thin gruel there, Daily News. Mighty thin gruel.
