The story that didn't exist and now they don't want you to hear

I linked it before, but it bears repeating - watch the latest Swift Vets ad and then read about the veterans in the ad at the Mudville Gazette. Stand up guys commenting on John Kerry's own words. Think about it when you spot the Flying Monkeys in the press or Kerry's campaign trying to prevent these guys from speaking their minds.

Update: Hugh Hewitt is all over this. The numero uno flying monkey talking point seems to be that it's yet another Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:

CNN has been reporting that the Kerry campaign is scampering off to the Federal Election Commission with a complaint of illegal coordination between the Swift Boat Vets against Kerry and Bush-Cheney '04. Of course it is a nonsense complaint, but it will give the Kerry surrogates something to change the subject to when the new ad gets discussed this weekend, and provide friendly editors at the big papers something else to write about other than the new ad itself, which to repeat from this morning's post, is simply devastating to Kerry.

The Kerry campaign seems to be headed by incompetents, moving at every turn to draw more attention to the worst aspects of their man's flawed character. Now they are resorting to absurd charges as a means of trying to do anything but confront Kerry's lies about his own service and his slanders about the service of others.

They sure had the talking points on the network morning shows today:

So long as the Kerry campaign chose to largely ignore the charges of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), the morning shows dutifully imposed their own blackout on the story.

But when Kerry broke his silence on the campaign trail yesterday, dusting off his hackneyed "bring it on" boast, it was clear that the honchos at the morning shows got the word from the DNC: start covering the story - using our talking points, of course.

And so each of the morning shows, for the first time to my recollection, had extended pieces on SBVT. Flipping madly among the channels, it is difficult to distinguish which network said what, but the basic approach was - predictably - consistent throughout.

Rather than focus on the substance of the charges, the emphasis was to suggest that this was effectively a Bush campaign plot.

And another post from Hugh:

Mudville Gazette has a must-read post on the disgust that met John Kerry when he appeared before the VFW in Cinncy. Surprised that you didn't read about this in your daily paper? Do you suppose the Kerry campaign will be filing a complaint with the FEC about illegal coordination between the VFW and Bush-Cheney '04?

It's being reported that Lurch decided to try to shut down the Swift Vets in the evening when he got home from the VFW convention. I guess he'll show those lousy veterans who's boss!

The Bush campaign has responded to Senator Sybil's absurd FEC complaint: "This is a frivilous complaint that even John Kerry's chief strategist has said they have no evidence to support. Real coordination is what John Kerry's campaign has been engaged in with the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org. The revolving door of personnel, coordinated strategies and overlapping fundraising between the Democrat 527s and the Kerry campaign is a flagrant disregard of the spirit and the letter of the campaign finance reform law."

Which reminds me of ole Jim Jordan opening his piehole:

"Out of desperation, the Bush campaign has picked the wrong fight with the wrong veteran," said Jim Jordan, former Kerry campaign manager who now runs an outside group airing ads against Bush. "Today's the start of the mother of all backlashes."

Shh, Jim. You're supposed to be "uncoordinated" so you're not supposed to mention Lurch! But that "mother" line has a certain ring to it!

Of course it goes the other way too, like ole Zack Exley, a graduate of MoveOn.org who is now Lurch's Director of Online Organization.