The Moose warns that it is still not safe to go into the waters. "Taking its cues from the success of last year's Swift boat veterans' campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush's toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security. The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush's plan. "They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts," said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. "We will be the dynamite that removes them." Now you know the social security plan is in serious trouble because the Bushies and their allies are bringing out the goons to attempt to bully their plan through with a negative assault on their opponents. The AARP better be prepared for the political hard ball because it appears that the slime mercenaries are reuniting, "To help set USA Next's strategy, the group has hired Chris LaCivita, an enthusiastic former marine who advised Swift Vets and P.O.W.'s for Truth, formerly known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, on its media campaign and helped write its potent commercials. He earned more than $30,000 for his work, campaign finance filings show. Officials said the group is also seeking to hire Rick Reed, a partner at Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, a firm that was hired by Swift Vets and was paid more than $276,000 to do media production, records show. For public relations, USA Next has turned to Creative Response Concepts, a Virginia firm that represented both Swift Vets - the company was paid more than $165,000 - and Regnery Publishing, the publisher of "Unfit for Command," a book about Senator John Kerry's military service whose co-author was John E. O'Neill, one of the primary leaders of Swift Vets." What's next - a Regnery book titled Unfit to Age? While the Bushies take the lofty tact of an "ownership society", expect the lowroaders to employ every slimy trick in the book to promote privatization. After all, it's only business.
Only months after celebrating their smearing of a war hero, the jaunty crew of the USS Slime is once again venturing out into the polluted waters. The New York Times reports,"
Email
this post
