More on that anti-McCain mailer
Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:28 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Ads
From NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann
The mastermind of the anti-McCain veterans mailer, Jerry Kiley of the group Vietnam Veterans Against McCain, told NBC News/National Journal that he created the ad, and it was printed and mailed by a group that publishes the like-minded journal US Veteran Dispatch.
According to Kiley, who ran a similar group in 2004 that opposed John Kerry, the flier was distributed to 80 editors at newspapers throughout South Carolina, and that it was not mailed to any households. Kiley says he was not in contact nor did he accept any funding from any political campaign, but said that the total cost of publication was "very little."
Among Kiley’s claims is that McCain gave his captors information about U.S. flight paths in exchange for better medical care after being shot down in Hanoi. He added that a similar effort to discredit McCain will be made in other states in the future.
Attorney General Henry McMaster, a member of the McCain Truth Squad, confirms that the source of the flier they received was from a local newspaper -- The Chester News and Reporter in Chester County, S.C -- that received it in the mail.
McMaster had never heard of Kiley or the US Veteran Dispatch. Of them he said, "Get a life."