by Frank James
Sen. John Kerry is fighting back against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Some observers might say that this is about four year too late, but so it goes.
Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, has accepted the challenge of wealthy oil man T. Boone Pickens, who provided cash to the Swifties four years ago for ads that had the effect of torpedoes on Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. The ads, as you’ll recall, questioned the circumstances surrounding the wounds Kerry received during his service in the Vietnam War and other aspects of Kerry’s biography.
Pickens recently said he’d give $1 million to anyone who could prove that one fact in any of those ads was wrong. Kerry is taking him up on it. Here’s Kerry’s press release:
Kerry Answers Pickens’s Wager to Debunk SBVT Smear
Kerry Asks Pickens to Join Him at Appropriate Forum, Seeks Million Dollars for Veterans Charity
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry wrote a letter to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth financer T.Boone Pickens today, accepting his million dollar challenge to give $1 million to the person who proves wrong a single fact asserted by the right wing smear group. Kerry does not seek the million dollars for himself, but rather for the Paralyzed Veterans of America to help veterans returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pickens keynoted a dinner recently, sponsored by the American Spectator in Washington D.C., at which he announced that he would pay $1 million to anyone who could prove wrong a single allegation asserted by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004.
Today, Kerry is taking Pickens up on his offer.
Please find the text of Kerry’s letter below:
T.Boone Pickens
8117 Preston Rd
Dallas TX 75225
Mr. Pickens,
It has come to my attention through the accounts of individuals who were in attendance at the American Spectator’s Robert L. Bartley Dinner & 40th Anniversary Gala as well as through the public accounts, that you personally “staked one million dollars” that “no one” could “prove anything the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said in 2004 was false” (RedState.Com) and offered “a million dollars to anyone who could prove wrong anything the Swiftboat Veterans charged about Kerry.” (AmericanThinker.com)
I welcome the opportunity to prove that you are a man of your word and that the so-called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” lied. While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.
I would request that your check be made payable to the Paralyzed Veterans of America which is doing incredible work every day to meet the needs of veterans returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan. My hope is that by sending this money to such a dedicated organization – founded for veterans, by veterans – some good can come out of the ugly smears and lies of the orchestrated campaign you bankrolled in 2004 in an attempt to discredit my military record and the record of the men who served alongside me on the Swift Boats of the Mekong Delta.
I would be more than happy to travel to Dallas to meet with you in a mutually agreed upon public forum, or would invite you to join me in Massachusetts for a public dialogue and then together we could visit the Paralyzed Veterans of America in Norwood and see firsthand how we can put your money to good work for our veterans.
I look forward to setting up a visit at the earliest possible, mutually convenient time. I trust that you are a man of your word, having made a very public challenge at a major Washington dinner, and look forward to taking you up on this challenge.
Sincerely,
John F. Kerry
United States Senator
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