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soon2b

Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 9:37 pm

http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Downlo...an-02-27-07.wmv

QUOTE

Bush Nominates Swift Boat Veterans Donor to Ambassadorship
By: Nicole Belle @ 4:15 PM - PST
Slated for discussion today with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the nomination of Sam Fox to the Ambassador post for Belgium.
Who is Sam Fox? Well, according to WhiteHouseForSale.org, Sam Fox is a Bush Ranger, responsible for millions of dollars of donations to both the Bush/Cheney campaigns and the Republican Party. He's also a charter member of the Libby Defense Fund. In other words, this guy is neck deep in the Bush/Cheney circles.
But Bob Geiger points out that some of Fox's support really can only be categorized as unsavory:
(W)hat's especially interesting is that if you really look under the hood of where this guy's political heart is at, you find that in late 2004 he gave $50,000 to no less solid citizens than the Swift Boat Liars who made it their mission to discredit a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran in John Kerry.
Now if that won't buy you an ambassador's post from George W. Bush, nothing will.

soon2b

Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 5:54 pm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255341,00.html
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

WASHINGTON —
A Senate hearing that began with glowing tributes to a St. Louis businessman and his qualifications to become ambassador to Belgium turned bitterly divisive Tuesday after he was criticized for supporting a controversial conservative group.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., grilled nominee Sam Fox about why he donated $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential race. The group of Vietnam veterans made unsubstantiated allegations against Kerry — then the Democratic presidential nominee — and charged that Kerry did not deserve the medals he won in the Vietnam War.
"Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?" Kerry asked near the end of the hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Fox, one of the nation's most generous contributors to Republican candidates and causes, said he shared Kerry's concerns that politics "has become mean and destructive."
Fox said he didn't recall who asked him to give to the group and blamed partisans on both sides for contributing to so-called 527 groups that are not subject to conventional campaign finance rules.
"So is that your judgment that you would bring to the ambassadorship, that two wrongs make a right?" Kerry asked.
"I did it because politically it's necessary if the other side's doing it," Fox said.
Fox said he played no part in crafting the Swift Boat message and called on Congress to ban or more carefully regulate 527s.
But Kerry said the incident raised questions about Fox's fitness to serve as an ambassador.
The back-and-forth overshadowed the early part of the hearing, in which a bipartisan group of lawmakers offered glowing reviews of Fox.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a presidential hopeful and chairman of Tuesday's hearing, said he found Fox's responses "unsatisfying." He said he would have preferred if Fox admitted it was a mistake to contribute to the Swift Boat group.
Fox, 77, is founder and chairman of the Clayton, Mo.-based Harbour Group. He was deemed a "pioneer" by President Bush's campaign for helping to raise at least $100,000.

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