I’m no big city lawyer, but man to masses, pseudo-Texan to internet, we here have a word to describe people like Texas oil magnate and Swiftboat Veterans for Truth financier T. Boone Pickens: coward. See, Mr. Pickens promised to fork over $1 million to anyone who could disprove any of the allegations posed by Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the 527 group that slandered Senator John Kerry and cost him the 2004 presidential election.
Now, having been disproved not once but ten times over, Pickens has moved the goalposts, saying that his “challenge” only applies to the television ads his group ran. The television ads were the tip of the iceberg of lies – the spark that touched off interviews, books, and other television spots – and were significantly less influential and less viewed than the derivative media frenzy he created. But now Pickens only wants to be accountable for the smallest part of his web of lies. For shame.
The good news is that Pickens will be donating neither his billions nor his talents to deceive to the McCain campaign: he’s sitting this election out, perhaps a sign of the times of conservative disaffection with McCain.
Also on McCain, a random note on a story that slipped through the cracks all over: apparently McCain is still fighting the Cold War, and wants to toss Russia out of the G8, presumably because the best thing you can do for a democracy sliding into dictatorship is alienate it. That’ll show ‘em. I thought McCain was supposed to be good on foreign policy…?
Here was an interesting article on McCain’s Russian stance and it’s possible connection with a lobbyist http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/09/mccain/print.html
I find the whole thing very strange. Of all the nation’s to be playing hardball with, I’m surprised Russia is on the top of his list. While I’m worried about the direction Russia is going, pissing them off probably isn’t the greatest tactic.
Posted by oneiroi | June 26, 2008, 11:10 amI mean I guess the idea is that the threat will endow international proceedings with some (gasp!) consequences and is supposed to scare them into line. I happen to find Russia’s direction disturbing.
And while you can debate how smart this is, I like the idea that, in international affairs, you should have to act like a grown up to sit at the grown ups’ table. The norm for too long has been “sure, Syria! You can be on the security council.”
(Ames, has it become almost impossible for you to type council instead of counsel? Or, even worse, statue instead of statute?)
Posted by Collin | June 26, 2008, 11:16 amI’d also like to thank you for putting the spotlight on the incomparable T. Boone Pickens.
Prof. Viet Dinh (soon to replace Stevens, J. he he) detailed all of T. Boone’s awesome raider / robber-baron tactics in Corporations this Spring. As a result, Pickens has something of a mythic stature in my mind.
Frankly, I think his sitting out is probably a good thing for McCain, even though it might have helped him counter Obama’s massive financial advantage. I don’t think he’d want to be allow people to connect him to a Swift Boat guy, oil man, and corporate fat cat.
However, Ronald Reagan would like to remind us:
“I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.”
Posted by Collin | June 26, 2008, 1:55 pmI can tell you why, although I’m not saying it’s true or not. Because of the idea that Republicans are supposed to be the supporters of deregulation and business…while the Democrats are supposed to be the ones giving hand outs. So one automatically seems out of self interest.
I think this time around it can be exacerbated because of the large amount of small dollar donors to the Democrats. And the questions, valid or not, of McCain’s lobbyist connections. So it’s probably better for McCain to play it safe this time around.
Posted by oneiroi | June 27, 2008, 6:50 pm