Chicken Pickens "weaseling" out of Swift Boat offer

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Fri Nov-16-07 10:57 PM
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Chicken Pickens "weaseling" out of Swift Boat offer

Edited on Fri Nov-16-07 10:58 PM by ProSense

Swift Boat Funder T. Boone Pickens Renegs On John Kerry Million Dollar Offer

By: Jane Hamsher

Rich Texas bastard T. Boone Pickens boasted that he would give $1 million to anyone who can disprove �even a single charge� leveled by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who he funded to the tune of $3 milion. Kerry offered to meet with Pickens and do so, with the million dollars going to veterans� charities.

But now Pickens is reneging:

Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry�s race against President Bush, responded by saying he won�t consider giving Kerry the reward unless he surrenders his combat films, additional military records and wartime journal.

In other words, Pickens was full of bravado when he made the offer in a keynote address in front of a bunch of friendly right wingers at an American Spectator dinner, but when Kerry took him up on it, he was a bit too cowardly to back it up:

�While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false,� Kerry wrote to Pickens. �I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.�

�Just one thing� has turned into more records than George Bush has willingly surrendered under government subpoena:

In his response, Pickens wrote: �I am certainly open to your challenge,� but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, as well as movies he shot while on patrol and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.

Pickens said such documentation, which the group has previously sought, would be needed to disprove its ads.

�When you have done so, if you can then prove anything in the ads was materially untrue, I will gladly award $1 million. As you know, I have been a long and proud supporter of the American military and veterans� causes,� Pickens wrote.

�A proud supporter of the American military� � not to the point of actually, you know, enlisting or anything. More of the �yellow elephant� variety one would expect from a big Rudy Giuliani fundraiser.

He then goes for a Rovian jujitsu move: saying that if Kerry �cannot prove anything in the Swift Boat ads to be untrue,� Kerry should agree to give a million dollars to the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

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What do you expect from a guy who raised a crook:

Billionaire's son charged with burglary

June 16, 2006

CORNWALL, Conn. --An accused burglar whom police say they found groggy and hiding under a table in a fly fishing shop last weekend has been identified as the son of billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

Michael Pickens, 51, was found Sunday under a table inside the Housatonic Meadows Fly Shop, across from Housatonic Meadows State Park, state police said.

Police were called to the store after the owner noticed something wrong and investigators found a nearby stash of items taken from the shop.

Pickens spent three days in jail following his arraignment for burglary Monday in Bantam Superior Court, unable to post a $15,000 bond.

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Michael O. Pickens, the son of the oil tycoon Boone Pickens, pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of securities fraud.

The younger Mr. Pickens, 52, of Nocona, Tex., entered the plea in United States District Court in Manhattan after signing an agreement calling for a prison sentence of up to 5 years and 11 months. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 30.

Mr. Pickens was arrested July 18, 2005, and accused of sending hundreds of thousands of fraudulent faxes to induce investors to buy three stocks.

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Like father, like son!

edited typo