"Obama Highlights Swift Boat Funder's Hypocrisy"

Run Obama Blog:

Blogger Bob Geiger highlights a story that was overlooked by many yesterday.

The Bush administration has nominated Sam Fox to be the Ambassador of Belgium, who among other things, does not speak French or Flemish, the two dominant languages in Belgium. The Ambassadorship is not an inconsequential one either, as Brussels is the home to NATO Headquarters. But Fox is perhaps best known for the key financial role he played in funding the notorious Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group which were responsible for devastating (false) attacks on 2004 Democratic Nominee John Kerry.

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who was chairing the meeting, told Fox that he found his answers to Kerry "somewhat unsatisfying" and said that "The swift boat ads were of a different degree, even in the ugly arena of politics. They were extraordinarily well publicized, that there was essentially a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. It had a profound impact on the election."

And Obama tied a nice bow around the whole afternoon by basically calling Fox, who spent the entire time disavowing any knowledge of the Swift Boaters' mission or methods, a liar.

"To say that you gave because it's ugly out there and somebody asked you to give. I mean, it sounds to me like you were aware of it -- that this was not the best of political practices -- and you thought it was OK to go ahead and contribute to that," said Obama. "By the time you contributed, it was pretty widely noted -- it would have been hard for you to miss the fact that there was something particularly nasty and insidious about these ads. It had been well publicized at this point."

"I don't think you necessarily crafted the message but you certainly knew at that point what the message was."