The veteran on Fox who is “outraged” the VFW endorsed Boxer? A Fiorina flack

Given their record, it shouldn't really come as a surprise. This morning, Fox & Friends purported to discuss the Veteran of Foreign Wars (VFW) PAC's endorsement of Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer with a veteran who is “outraged” by the endorsement. He's outraged, according to co-host Brian Kilmeade, because Boxer has “hasn't always been a stunach supporter of the military -- to say the least. She voted against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” and she once asked a general to call her “Senator,” instead of “ma'am.”

Now, the very idea that Fox sought to paint Boxer as anti-military for opposing the Iraq War would be noteworthy enough, not wanting to overextend our troops by sending them into a second war -- especially one that we recently learned the Bush administration planned that war long before there was any question of Iraq's connections to Al Qaeda -- hardly means Boxer opposes the troops. Nor does does it really hold water that asking someone to use her proper title makes her anti-military. Also, Kilmeade -- naturally -- used the segment to dredge up the old falsehood that Boxer did “not condemn that MoveOn.org ad that said Petraeus, Betray us” -- in fact, she sponsored her own amendment condemning the ad. Moreover, it's just not true that Boxer “voted against” the war in Afghanistan.

But those issues don't even come close to the biggest problem with this segment. It turned out that the guest in question wasn't just an “outraged” veteran who felt compelled to speak out. Orson Swindle, the veteran Fox hosted to attack Boxer and suggest people vote for her opponent, is actually a part of the campaign to elect Boxer's opponent, Carly Fiorina. You didn't hear it from the morning crew, but the on-screen text -- for about ten seconds -- let the cat out of the bag:




Yup, Orson Swindle is the honorary chair of Republican Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina's veterans group, Veterans for Carly. Incidentally, Swindle was also active in John McCain's 2008, even speaking at the 2008 Republican National Convention, and was the national volunteer coordinator for Ross Perot's 1992 campaign.

Now this is hardly the first time Fox has blatantly campaigned for Fiorina, but with 22 days until the elections, it looks like they're abandoning all pretense.