a short monthly column on media and politics that Tracy and I coauthored for In These Times:

Swiftboating Murtha

After becoming media darlings in 2004 for their public relations assassination of Sen. John Kerry, the group Vets for the Truth (formerly known as Vietnam Vets for

the Truth) has turned its attention to “swiftboating” a new target–Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Murtha, a Democrat known for hawkishness (and the first Vietnam veteran elected to the House), made waves last November when he called for the redeployment of troops from Iraq, and again in early 2006 when he claimed that there was a cover-up of the massacre in Haditha. Conservatives swung into action.

“Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party,” said former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

Building on the “Kerry Lied,” theme, the online attacks have moved from the now-defunct Murthalied.com to the current BootMurtha.com, where the mission is to “bring Murtha’s outrageous lies to the attention of the voters of the Twelfth Congressional District of Pennsylvania.”

Murthalied.com was the brainchild of Amanda P. Doss, the woman behind Operation Street Corner, a site dedicated to, “The Vietnam Veterans’ Grassroots Campaign Against John Kerry and Jane Fonda, traitors to our country.” Sean-Paul Kelly, editor of the blog, The Agonist, first investigated Doss’ involvement, and then publicly posted her e-mail (which Kelly said was widely available). Doss received many negative responses, and Murthalied.com quickly disappeared. Doss then joined forces with John “Proud to Be Swiftboating” Bailey of VFTT at Boot Murtha. Bailey defines swiftboating in his own special way: “Exposing the lies, deceit, and fraud of self-glorifying public officials or candidates for public office who exaggerate their military service by lying about their feats of heroism and combat wounds.”

As of July 13, the Web site had raised $6,223 in their quest to reach $7,750 by July 14 in order to mail all the veterans in Murtha’s district. To learn more about the Murtha Swiftboating, see blogger Taylor Marsh’s detailed post at The Patriot Project.