McCain Pockets $70K From Swift Boaters

John McCain has taken nearly $70,000 in donations from top funders of the notorious Swift Boat Vets for Truth, the group that assaulted John Kerry’s military record in 2004—prompting censure from McCain at the time as “dishonest and dishonorable.” A rep was coy in response, telling USA Today the backers supported the Republican's “agenda of reform, prosperity and peace.”

In another twist yesterday, a man who appeared in the Swift Boat ads showed up as a McCain surrogate, Talking Points Memo adds, defending the candidate from Wesley Clark—and noting that “John was slandered and reviled in the 2000 campaign in a way that denigrated his service enormously.” Bud Day defended his 2004 work as “laying out the truth.” (More John McCain stories.)