Edwards lays down the gauntlet

Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards called on Saturday for President Bush to condemn the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad campaign, which attack's John Kerry's Vietnam war record and antiwar activities on his return to the United States. "This is a moment of truth for George W. Bush. We're gonna see what kind of man he is and what kind of leader he is," Edwards said while campaigning in Virginia.

A little smackdowncoming down here , and it  sure is nice seeing some press on it, and seeing Edwards coming out front on it in his intelligent, articulate way.

Especially seeing it on CNN's front page.

I also been noticing MSNBC.com giving a lot of positive press to Kerry on this issue, and I sure like to think the tide is turning..  I'm just hoping that now that we're getting nearer and nearer to the election, all these pundits and chickenshits are finally again finding their voice again, and getting less scared of any retaliation against them by the slime machine in the WH.  

•  yeah I'm not 100% sure myself theoria

  but I just really believe this administration has pissed off and fucked with so many people, its just that so many of them and people in the press I think have been too scared to do their job and go after these pricks of misery. But if they really sense Bush is gonna lose, they may  feel safer in jumping on the bandwagon of truth and honest reporting.    Knock on wood.........

  by mickey on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:29:28 PM PDT

•  Hedging their bets.

  Much like the lobbying firms who are now hiring Democrats again.  They know they need to make nice.

  by Drew on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:32:37 PM PDT

  •  that could be Drew

    and in some cases is probably most certainly true, but I still believe these pricks have fucked with so many people and used intimidation in so many places, theres gotta be a lot of people waiting to jump on the payback wagon.

    by mickey on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:36:41 PM PDT

•  Yeah, playing both sides now...

  because these guys are lazy, but they aren't dumb.  The Republicans will lose the WH and may very well lose the Senate.  The old guard press corps is becoming irrevelant, outmoded and outdated, and the new guard isn't about to wait for them to catch up.  It's time to fish or cut bait boys.  You don't need a weatherman to know which way the winds are blowing.

  by SME in Seattle on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:36:30 PM PDT

  •  I wouldnt be dismissing the old guard press

    so quickly. The majority of Americans still get the vast majority of their news in headlines and little soundbites on the nightly news, and they still determine what gets out there and how its heard.

    by mickey on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:39:25 PM PDT

•  Wow...

  This isn't the "you and I," "help is on the way" John Edwards.  This is the kick ass and take names John Edwards, who can lay waste to Bush and smile at the same time.

  For me, even more important than Edwards' zinger on the SBVT campaign is his recent attack on Bush's new overtime policy, which becomes effective this week.  As Dancing Larry pointed out on another thread, this should be issue number one, the first harsh indictment the Dems throw out in any critique of Bush's domestic policy.  It threatens one of the cornerstones of labor law in modern industrialized countries.  At the same time, it utterly makes a mokery of Bush's claims to "compassionate conservatism," an old chestnut that he's gonna trot out again this week, if the media is any guide.

  This "moderate" face he's supposedly putting on for the RNC convention makes me angry every time I think about it.  Not only does it willfully contradict four years of decidely uncompassionate domestic policy, it also insults Americans' intelligence.  Bush's gonna show us popular Republican faces like Schwarznegger and McCain, whisper sweet nothings in our ear, and sing Kumbaya.  Well, the second that that convention is over, Kerry, Edwards and every Dem within a hundred yards of a television camera has got to start howling about how singularly disingenuous those claims to "compassion" really are.

  by Dale on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:37:27 PM PDT

  •  Not to mention

    the attorney-at-law circularity of Edwards' recommendation for a Bush response.

    Let the declined invitation for the high road be public acknowledgement of Bush choosing the low road - for his campaign and for America.

    by dotpeople on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:45:11 PM PDT

    •  yeah its a beautiful thing

      backing Bushco into a corner. He's a loser either way in this one, at least as long as the press keeps being honest and front page with it.

      by mickey on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:50:21 PM PDT

•  Yeah

  its not so much that they lost their "voice" (they've never been shy about speaking) as much as they adopted a rather truncated (and flawed) sense of their own profession.  

   

  by a gilas girl on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 06:57:07 PM PDT

•  training their guns

  they're saying: no George Bush, you're the pussy

  by praktike on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 07:01:01 PM PDT

•  BushCo. can't tell SBVT to stop

  To tell them to stop running the ad would be to coordinate their campaigns, which is illegal. The Bush camp must pretend to be an innocent bystander and maintain plausible deniability, or they face a fine and the SBVT loses their 527 status. Bush could, however, denounce the ad. They wont.

  by mrboma on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 07:03:18 PM PDT

  •  That's an excuse.

    I'm no lawyer, but I find it very, very hard to believe that it is illegal to critique the content of an ad, simply because it's from a 527.  It's not coordination when Kerry condemned the MoveOn ad; it's not coordination when Republicans everywher criticize other pro-Democrat 527s.  Why would it be coordination for Bush to attack this 527?

    It wouldn't be.  I'm thinking that's an excuse.

    by Drew on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 07:09:54 PM PDT

  •  Wrong.

    He can get on television and ask the Liars to take off their ads.

    Just like Kerry did.

    That's not coordination, in the legal sense.

    by Maryscott OConnor on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 07:58:47 PM PDT

    •  Didn't you read...

      ...the last line of my post? "Bush could, however, denounce the ad. He wont." If he made a public statement that said something like, "I call on them to stop running the ad" or, "I ask them to please stop running this ad," it probably would not count as coordination. But what Edwards said is he wanted Bush to say, "Stop this ad." That is a direct order. That IS coordination, according to NPR.

      My point was, Bush has a built in excuse for NOT telling them to stop. I don't agree with it, I was playing devil's advocate.

      by mrboma on Sun Aug 22, 2004 at 12:01:11 AM PDT

•  CNN

  It is a thing of beauty to see this on the CNN front page.  It seems to me that the Bush strategy of allowing surrogates to mount a disgusting and false attack on Senator Kerry's heroism in Vietnam is on the verge of backfiring.  Is this really the type of attention Bush wants just before his convention?  24/7 coverage of Bush's cowardly association with a group of liars vs. Kerry's honorable military service to this country? I think not.  And that, in my opinion, is where this Swift Boat story is heading.
  

  by taylormattd on Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 07:14:46 PM PDT