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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