Swift Boat Ads Trigger Al Franken Confrontation with T. Boone Pickens

The Swift Boat ads created a firestorm all their own in 2004, as the Swift Boat ads legacy is still referenced today. The Swift Boat ads even became a point of debate during a lunch time speech about wind energy, since a Swift Boat ads mastermind was giving the speech, according to Al Franken. T. Boone Pickens is credited with helping to fund the Swift Boat ads, but is now best known for trying to make wind energy popular in America. But bitterness over the Swift Boat ads was the main order of the day for Al Franken, according to sources.

Politico.com reported that Al Franken got into a "heated confrontation" with T. Boone Pickens after a luncheon on Thursday. Pickens was addressing the Senate Democratic Policy Committee about his campaign to make wind energy replace oil and fossil fuels.

However, the Swift Boat ads were the main campaign that Franken attacked T. Boone Pickens over. Pickens financed the infamous Swift Boat ads that sunk John Kerry's Presidential campaign in 2004, and accused him of being less heroic in Vietnam than everyone thought he was.

The accusations gained enough traction - while Kerry took so long in denouncing them - that the Swift Boat ads became a main reason for Kerry's defeat to President Bush. Since then, "Swift Boat" has become the dominant catchphrase for a questionable political ad, and for attack campaigns on certain issues.

Al Franken was apparently not ready to forgive or forget about Pickens' role in the Swift Boat ads, which excited the liberals who were not comfortable with Pickens being on the Hill in the first place.

However, although Pickens helped defeat the Democrats in 2004, his work in trying to get America off fossil fuels and oil has won him some support in other liberal circles - at least among those that invited him to the lunch.

Just a few weeks into his term as Senator, Franken has already shown his devotion to the left - and given further fodder for conservatives to say he is one of the "looney left."

As for the Swift Boat ads themselves, they still remain a hot-button issue five years later. They are also still a common term to use for Democrats when they accuse Republicans of derailing the health care debate - or to warn Obama to be more angry and forceful with said Republicans than Kerry was.

Sources

Politico.com- "Franken feuds with T. Boone Pickens" www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25667.html

UPI.com- "Franken rakes Pickens on Swift Boat ads" www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/31/Franken-rakes-Pickens-on-Swift-Boat-ads/UPI-38331249083699/

Huffington Post- "Jackson Williams: August May Be 'Swift Boat' Health Care Month" www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-williams/look-out-mr-president-aug_b_244161.html