Bush to sue to stop Swifty ads??

[richmwill]

Who'd have thought this would happen? From the Washington Times:

"President Bush yesterday joined forces with Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, to mount legal and legislative challenges to third-party attack ads, including those that question Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam record."

"The president wants to stop the ads, along with other spots by third-party groups, known as 527s because of their tax designation. Yesterday, he telephoned Mr. McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, from Air Force One and enlisted him in a planned lawsuit to force the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to quash the ads."

"Since the FEC failed to act, we would now be asking the courts to force the FEC to act to shut down all this activity," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "There would be a lawsuit."

"The president said if the court action doesn't work, then he would be willing to pursue legislative action and work with Senator McCain on that," Mr. McClellan said.

[Erika]

1. Sure.as he sticks in the knife

Mr. Bush is not a nice man.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. LOL!!

Cackle! Snort! Guffaw!

McCain wrote the freaking legislation that created the 527s, and Bush* signed it into law! Could this be...

...a flip-flop?

[kestrel91316]

3. The courts won't be able to handle this before 11/2

[imax2268]

4. Good point...

n/t

[iwantmycountryback]

6. Aren't these ads legal anyway?

And shouldn't McCain know considering he co-wrote the law? And isn't stopping these ads from airing suppression of free speech? And is Bush just scared because the real 527's are murdering him.

[fearnobush]

5. Will never happen before Nov 2nd. No one believes this man.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. "stop Swifty ads"

It isn't the "Swifty ads" that concern chimp, it's a set of ads MoveOn has prepared for upcoming release.

[imax2268]

9. I wonder if

moveon will get those ads out earlier...?

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. Supposed to be out next week

See the New Yorker Article from last week.

[Kool Kitty]

12. Yep. The Swifties' ads have been out there

for, what, about a month? Now that some really scathing reciprocal ads are about to hit the TeeVee, (along with the ongoing discrediting of the Swifties themselves) now the little Emperor wants ALL the ads stopped. Uh huh. Sure.

[Scooter24]

8. This suit

covers all 527's including MoveOn and American Coming Together among others.

Some are screaming that this infringes on the right of free speech, and you could make a strong argument in favor of that. But this really is troubling some republicans because they will no longer have a platform to voice their criticism. Remember, our 527's have been going strong for months. Both parties will then turn to the media for their "voice" of dissent.

The way it looks to me is that they are timing this lawsuit to give the Swiftvets time to get their message out in the public, then when we try to battle back, they file a lawsuit to stop our 527's from voicing our rebuttal.

[Yupster]

10. McCain and Bush thought

the FEC would rule the 527 ads violated McCain Feingold.

If Bush thought they would have been ruled legal, he would have been ready with 300 million in front groups on day one. Bush never had any trouble gathering money.

[the Kelly Gang]

13. oh yeh but still letting them do their dirty work..slandering all vets

[Leilani]

14. Remember, this is from the Moonie Times

meant to buck up their base.

[Elidor]

15. He sues his pals who eventually roll over-he looks good

He can claim the high road for having Karl place a phone call calling off the attacks. Rove is still in good form.

[EST]

16. All hype, no substance

Nobody should panic. Remember crooked, liars, image. They can never win in an honest campaign. They can and will win, unless we stop them, because they ALWAYS cheat, then squeal that it's us; they always lie, even if it looks like the truth. Look deeply enough and I can guarantee you will always find false-to-fact. They will always stomp you if you are down. They will always have the pig made up and lipsticked before it is led into the room. They are very shrewd and their plans are normally constructed as though you are going to use the same tools they do. If you simply tell the truth and refuse to play on their level, you will be seen as weak and will be destroyed. Total fools mate unless they need you on the board for use in a bigger game. The way, the only way, you can win is to unerringly tell the truth-no shading ever-and attack, attack, attack, from every direction on multiple fronts.

The way a fifty pound dog can attack and overcome a 250 pound armed man is through an all-out attack and give no quarter. If your enemy shows a sign of weakening, attack harder, if he starts crying and whimpering, begging for mercy, redouble your attack. No pity. We will lose without a remorseless, relentless, no holds barred utterly destructive attack and follow through.

[radfringe]

17. ummmm -- just asking

what happened to his slam about frivilous lawsuits and bashing lawyers?

meanwhile, it gives me fodder for a new toon -- will be doing that one up later today

[capaylib]

18. Fact and Fiction

I certainly hope they aren't able to stop these adds now....I've seen some snippets of really good ones from MoveON etc.

Shouldn't the issue be whether or not the content of the commercial is true or false? Defensible or not defensible? With all the reigning in and political correctness that we seem to require from our candidates...it would be pretty dull without these third party intrusions.

It seems clear to me that people on our side are held to a higher standard of proof. However unfair that is...people at this forum and others seem to have accepted that and are providing the proof by the truckload.

The hard things for us will be avoiding information overload and accusations that we are "Conspiracy Theorists', which will allow them (the others)to marginalize us. The most important points, unfortunately, have to be distilled to a level that can be understood and propagated to those that are still confused, uninterested or uninspired in our country. "The truth, you can't handle the truth". We know W. can't handle the truth, but he is masterful at mishandling it. If we do this right, we are going to win and win big!!!

[smada]

19. Don't cheer. The ends do not justify the means

You may be happy that it might kill the Swift Vets ads. But you know what else it kills? Free speech.

If this is true, I'm not cheering. I hate to think that I can't be outspoken. I hate to think that my right to air my opinion can be "shut down" by Presidential directive. I hate to think that an executive order is all it will take now to silence dissent.

Think about it.