We keep hearing about the Republican slime machine. Why doesn't anyone talk about the Democrat's slime squad? They've been working overtime. First the NYT has a piece finding connections between the SwiftVets and Bush. It then gets picked up by other news outlets as a big story.

Here's a couple of tidbits from MSNBC.COM

The veterans' group behind the controversial TV ads that question Sen. John
Kerry’s Vietnam war record has extensive ties to President Bush and his family,
other high-profile Texas politicians and Bush’s chief political aide — ties that
have raised questions about possible illegal coordination between Bush’s
re-election campaign and the group.

But later on in the story comes the kicker (emphasis added):

“Out of desperation, the Bush campaign has picked the wrong fight with the wrong
veteran,” said Jim Jordan, former Kerry campaign manager who now runs an outside group airing ads against Bush.

Kerry's former campaign manager runs a 527 and he complains about ties between Bush and the SwiftVets?

For that matter, why is it so sinister that conservatives have pushed the SwiftVets? Anti-Bush 527s have gotten many times the money as pro-Bush ones. I bet that George Soros has given money to lots of liberal causes before.

The double standard here is amazing. The SwiftVets are being portrayed as underhanded for getting a fraction of the financing that the anti-Bush groups have gotten.

What about truth? I heard someone on Nightline say that the anti-Bush ads are truthful but the SwiftVet ad is full of lies.

Look at the two ads running currently. One run by the MediaFund says that Bush is in favor of off-shoring jobs which he never said. It also implies that Bush created tax breaks for companies that off-shore. In fact, these tax breaks are decades old. The other which is run by MoveOn uses big graphics saying "GROUNDED" and "MISSING" while describing Bush's time in the Guard.

There is enugh truth in the SwiftVets' story to get the Kerry campaign to admit that Christmas in Cambodia never happened. If the press dug into Kerry the way that they are digging into the SwiftVets, who knows what else they will find?