THE WASHINGTON POST

By Matthew Mosk
Another veteran of the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry has indicated he will not participate in financing ads attacking Democrat Barack Obama.

Already, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said in interviews that he would bow out to pursue a campaign to end the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Now a second major donor, Texas billionaire Sam Wyly, who has given about $10 million to Republican candidates and causes since the 1970s, has said publicly he will not participate in independent group efforts to tarnish Obama this year.

A number of veterans of the withering ad campaign against Kerry in 2004, which was sponsored by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, are trying to reorganize in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign through the American Issues Project, The Post reported over the weekend. But in an interview with the Associated Press published this morning, Wyly was asked if he would finance another Swift Boat-type campaign this year.

"No, no, no," Wyly said. Laughing, he said, "I've done that, and other people can do that now."

One clue as to why he might be sitting this election out can be found in his 2000 campaign efforts. Wyly gave $2.5 million to a group that favored then-Gov. George W. Bush over Sen. John McCain. McCain complained bitterly about the ads, calling on the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the group, which went by the name Republicans for Clean Air. ****Personal note: ROFLMAO


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/15/another...