Kerry: Let's Push Back Against The "Smear Machine"

Sen. John Kerry today announced he is "launching a new website that empowers you to fight back" against the Republican "smear machine."

"The Republicans have nothing to run on, no ideas to push, no solutions for America," Kerry writes. "They'll run a campaign of laughable gimmicks and outright distortions and lies. But we can fight back with the truth - and the truth can win this time."

The Web site, TruthFightsBack.com, allows people to "report smears when you see them to keep us on track on what the smear machine is up to at every moment."

Kerry ties the launch of the site to a New York Times report today that Jerome Corsi's "The Obama Nation," which paints Obama as a radical liberal with ties to Islam who may presently be using drugs, will soon come in at #1 on the Times bestseller list. Corsi wrote "Unfit for Command," which attacked Kerry's military record when he was the Democratic nominee in 2004.

"The book is being pushed along by a large volume of bulk sales, intense voter interest in Mr. Obama and a broad marketing campaign that has already included 100 author interviews with talk radio hosts across the country, like Sean Hannity and G. Gordon Liddy," according to Corsi, who told the Times, "The goal is to defeat Obama."

As the Times notes, Corsi's book on Kerry "included various accusations that were ultimately undermined by news reports pointing out the contradictions." As for the new book on Obama, the newspaper writes that several of its accusations are "unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate."

"We've seen this movie before," Kerry writes in his release. "The Republicans, without ideas, start running a negative campaign filled with personal attacks and misleading ads. The attacks get condemned, but they get lots of attention and get played on TV endlessly. We've got to fight every way we can."