Uncategorized

More Bush Campaign Ties to the Swifty Lies

From Holden:

The chief outside counsel to Bush-Cheney 2004 who served as the senior lawyer for the Bush organization in the Florida recount after the 2000 election and also happens to be a former general counsel to the Republican National Committee is working for the Swift Boat Liars:

The Bush campaign’s top outside lawyer said Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Senator John Kerry’s Vietnam War record and antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and countless appearances on cable news programs.

The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask for his help and that he agreed. Mr. Ginsberg said that he had yet to work out payment details with the group and that he might consider doing the work pro bono.

Other new ties between Bush and the Swifties are popping up all over:

An occasional collaborator with Mr. Ginsberg, Chris LaCivita, is also working for the group, advising on media strategy. Mr. LaCivita was political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002 and now works for the DCI Group, a Washington political strategy firm whose partners include Charles Francis, a longtime friend of President Bush from Texas and Tom Synhorst, an adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000, who was an architect of the campaign’s effort in the Iowa caucuses.

[snip]

On Monday, the veterans’ group acknowledged that a longtime Republican operative, Susan Arceneaux, was working for it and had taken out the post office box listed as the group’s address. The group described Ms. Arceneaux’s role, also, as “compliance.”

Records also list Ms. Arceneaux as treasurer of the Majority Leader’s Fund, a political action committee affiliated with the former House majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, which like the Swift Boat Veterans received significant financing from Bob Perry, a Texan who has long supported Mr. Bush.

Mr. Perry has given $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans. He is listed as co-host on an invitation to a fund-raiser next week at the Tavern on the Green in Manhattan. The invitation list includes President Bush’s chief political strategist, Karl Rove, The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday. Mr. Rove has acknowledged through a spokesman to being friends with Mr. Perry.