Swift-moving developments

I'm just about sick of this whole Not-So-Swift Boat Liars business, but it's almost an impossible thing not to watch, like that slow-motion train wreck bearing down on Richard Kimble.

So I won't beat this to death, but here are the events as they unfolded today:

First, we learned that John O'Neill, the Nixon hatchet man who's been smearing John Kerry for the past 33 years, told Tricky Dick that he himself had actually been in Cambodia, further weakening his claim that Kerry did not go there.

Next, we learned that the Bush campaign's outside attorney, Ben Ginsberg -- part of the team of shitheads that fought for Bush in the 2000 recount battle -- had resigned, due to his connection to the Swift Boaters (henceforth, NSSBLFB, as in Not-So-Swift Boat Liars for Bush).

Then we learned that even more Navy records back up what the Associated Press mistakenly calls "John Kerry's version of events." Note to the AP: It's actually the Navy's version of events! Anyone could make the mistake, I'm sure.

Then Max Cleland and Jim Rassmann went to Crawford to deliver a letter to Dubya asking him to condemn the NSSBLFB, a well-played PR move, in my humble opinion.

Instead of taking the letter, Bush cowered behind the sofa, sending out Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, himself a Vietnam Vet, to accept the letter.

But Cleland refused to give the letter to Patterson and rolled away from him, prompting Patterson to comment on the wheelchair-bound Cleland's "mobility." [Link via Josh Marshall]

Then Patterson and several other Republican Vietnam vets wrote their own letter to Kerry, trotting out the NSSBLFB claim that Kerry had accused vets of atrocities.

We've already linked to the transcript that shows this claim is misleading at best, but what's notable about this re-hashing of the claim is that it was posted on the Bush web site -- in other words, rather than running from the NSSBLFB claims, the Bush campaign is actually embracing them to some extent.

Finally, as Josh Marshall and others have pointed out, Patterson got some $150,000 in contributions from good old Bob Perry, who also funded the NSSBLFB.

It makes your fucking head hurt, doesn't it?