November 17, 2007
Via
Jane Hamsher:
T. Boone Pickens boasted that he would give $1 million to anyone who can disprove “even a single charge” leveled by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who he funded to the tune of $3 milion. Kerry offered to meet with Pickens and do so, with the million dollars going to veterans’ charities.
When Kerry said he’d do it, though, Pickens changed the rules, requiring Kerry to provide far more records than the simple proof he originally required.
<...>
So $1 million is 1/2500th of his total worth and he’s changing the rules to protect that. To put that percentage in other terms, if you were worth $100,000, you’d owe Kerry $40 if he proves one of the Swiftboater claims are false.
In addition to being one of the country’s biggest charitable donors, it’s interesting to see his
political contributions. He provided at least $2 million dollars to the Swift Boat Veterans group that helped defeat John Kerry’s presidential bid. He’s provided $9,100 to Rudy Giuliani in the past year. From 1979 to the present, he’s donated to hundreds of Republican campaigns all over the country. He used to provide a little to a few Democrats but that largely dried up after 1993. In the last 29 years, $4,604,750 was donated to political special interest groups, $740,961 has been given to Republicans and a mere $24,250 was donated to Democrats.
But since 1993, only two Democrats got any campaign help from Pickens. In March 2003, he gave $1,000 to Harry Reid’s primary campaign. And in June 2001, he donated $2,000 to the Senate reelection campaign
of John Kerry!
Isn’t it interesting to see how Pickens found Kerry to be one of the rare Senate Dems he’d support, then turn fickle. And now, he’s shrinking away from his original deal, suggesting his word is fickle as well. Either that or he doesn’t want his money going to disabled vets.
moreTypical RW scumbag MO: Token donations to avoid the appearance of being a partisan hack and a record of philanthropy. Giving to charity doesn't make a lying weasel less of a lying weasel!
From
Carpetbagger Report:
This week, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, a major contributor to the swift-boat liars,
offered $1 million to anyone who could disprove any of the group’s 2004 claims. Yesterday, Kerry gladly accepted the challenge.
Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry’s race against President Bush, responded by saying he won’t consider giving Kerry the reward unless he surrenders his combat films, additional military records and wartime journal. <…>
Pickens wrote Friday in a letter faxed to Kerry, “I am certainly open to your challenge,” but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, as well as movies he shot while on patrol and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? It’s not merely enough to highlight the group’s
obvious lies; Kerry needs to let Pickens dig through his personal life from 35 years ago?
Kerry isn’t backing down. “While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false,” Kerry wrote to Pickens. “I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.” The senator will donate Pickens’ money to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Kerry told the AP, “It’s beyond me; it’s important for all the vets who served with me, who cared about it, whose own records were lied about. The problem is, it’s the way they operate on the other side, and we have to end swift-boating forever. The way to do that is to have this public accounting.”
For his part, Pickens said he’ll hold up his end of the bargain, just so long as Kerry turns over everything Pickens demands to see.
“When you have done so, if you can then prove anything in the ads was materially untrue, I will gladly award $1 million. As you know, I have been a long and proud supporter of the American military and veterans’ causes,” Pickens wrote.
That might be more believable if he, you know, didn’t finance the swifties.
Weasel!
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