Double standards any…

Double standards anyone?

The Bush campaign has suggested that Sen. John Kerry join President Bush in calling off the dogs — those “shadowy” 527 groups that run ads for and against Bush and Kerry.

The liberal group MoveOn.org and the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are both 527s, named after a section of the tax code.

But on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign backed away from the suggestion. She said what MoveOn.org is doing is perfectly fine, while what the Swift Boat Veterans are doing is “dishonest” and “dishonorable.”

Debra Deshong of the Kerry campaign told Fox News there’s a difference between MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: “MoveOn.org is an independent organization that existed well before the Kerry campaign,” she said, whereas Swift Boat Veterans for Truth “is not an independent group.”

Kerry wants the Swiftie book banned, but MoveOn.org’s Hitler ads are fair game? For the love of all that is political, how can you possibly defend this position? Let’s parse a later paragraph:

“Again, we (the Kerry campaign) have nothing to do with these independent ads, like MoveOn.org. That is an independent organization that existed well before the Kerry campaign. They have every right to be running what they are under the campaign finance laws.” According to Deshong, “This is about the Swift Boat Vets that are running dishonorable ads that Bush refuses to condemn.”

The Kerry campaign has “nothing to do with these independent ads, like MoveOn.org”. Fair enough, but by their protestations the implication is that the Bush camp is fully involved with the Swifties. Strategically, Ms. Deshong doesn’t actually say that, but heavily implies it.

And she says that MoveOn.org has “every right to be running what they are under the campaign finance laws.” The same could be said about the Swifties, but again she doesn’t say that. Also by implication she’s suggesting that the complaints about MoveOn have to do with their ads being supposedly illegal, but no one’s saying that.

And finally, “This is about the Swift Boat Vets that are running dishonorable ads that Bush refuses to condemn.” There’s a host of news articles citing Kerry’s challenge to Bush to condemn these ads, but what you’ve heard virtually nothing about is that the first ad and first chapter released of their book “Unfit for Command” hit the mark dead on, and caused Kerry to retreat from his “Christmas in Cambodia” story. What exactly is there to condemn? And is Ms. Deshong, by implication, calling the MoveOn.org ads “honorable”? That would be overly kind.

The left is coming unhinged, and the press is doing their utmost to bury, spin and/or ignore the bad news unlike they ever have before. Well, let me qualify that. They might have done it this blatantly before, but they didn’t have the blogosphere to contend with in the past as the do in this election cycle. “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one”, goes the old saying. But now, for a pittance, anyone can own a digital press.

John Gilmore, a founding member of the Electronic Freedom Foundation once said, “The Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it.” Dean Esmay has updated this for the old media. “The Internet has detected the mainstream media as a form of censorship and simply routed around them.” Indeed it has. Let’s hope the word of this gets out to those who are still under the influence.

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