Swift boats and briar patches
/George W. Bush's tepid protestations this week against "that ad, every
other ad," those political attack ads run by supposedly independent
committees, have all the authenticity of Brer Rabbit's anguished
supplications of "Please, whatever you do, don't fling me into the
briar patch."Dubya's presidency was as much as birthed in that thorny
jumble of plausibly deniable negative smears. If his once-removed
operatives had not tarred and feathered John McCain as a traitorous
coward in the South Carolina 2000 primaries, the Prince of Crawford
would likely have never been as much as nominated. Just as his father
was only too happy to exploit the boost offered him by the
"independent" peddlers of the Willie Horton smut. Those so-called 527
committees, like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, unregulated vessels for
barrels of partisan cash, and suspended in the disbelief that they are
not coordinated with either candidate's official campaign, are, in
fact, indispensable weapons in each party's armory. [more 
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