Via ABC News.com:
A Vegas gambling expert counts himself among those questioning Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens' refusal to pay $1 million to Swift boat veterans who claim they won Pickens' challenge to disprove political claims he made in 2004.
[...]
Pickens' wager originated when he offered $1 million to anyone who could find falsities in the claims made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group he had financially supported during the 2004 presidential election. He issued the challenge during a November 2007 dinner for the American Spectator magazine.
But whether Pickens had offered the monetary reward for falsities found in the campaign as a whole or just in the televised ads came into question when Kerry himself answered the call, offering to meet Pickens and provide him with information that Kerry said would debunk the allegations.
Pickens refused to meet with the Massachusetts senator because, as his spokesperson Jay Rosser told ABCNews.com, "none of the material Kerry or the crewmen provided was germane to the ads."
Wow, is this like how the White House refused to open the EPA’s e-mail so it could claim no knowledge that greenhouse gases are pollutants? Is “la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you” the best the conservative movement can offer? How ... how ... sad. But back to our story:
But when Pickens was sent a letter and photocopies of evidence supporting Kerry's military record by veterans last week, it was yet again not enough to seal the deal.
"[Pickens] sent us a brief letter back saying the same thing [that he said to Kerry]," Del Sanudsky, a Swift boat veteran who served alongside Kerry in Vietnam, told ABCNews.com.
In the June 25 letter sent from Pickens to Sanudsky, Pickens thanks the veterans for their research but still denies any obligation to pay them the $1 million.
[...]
"We have 11 different falsehoods that the [Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] came out with in 2004. We have documents, videos, editorials and depositions not just by my boat crew but other eyewitnesses who were involved in the operations."
Sanudsky added that while his group has come up with "everything Pickens asked Kerry for in November," it has all been for nothing.
Quit yer complainin’! That was last election, I tell you! There’s a new Swift Boat smear coming out targeting Barack Obama, this one has something to do with bizarre kerning on a Hawaiian birth certificate or some such. Which is strange, since John McCain is the guy who wasn’t born in the United States.
Of course there's no more substance to this bizarre smear than there was to the Kerry attacks. But that won't stop partisan moneybags like Nashville’s own Lee Beaman from ponying up for this sleazeball campaign, too. Just like they did the Swift Boat smearmongers. Hey, ends justify the means! It doesn't matter which gutter they have to swim in, as long as we can keep Republicans in power.
As good a reason to boycott Beaman Automotive as any, in my book. I know I bought my Toyota hybrid elsewhere. Suck on it, Lee Beaman.
