Knox Attacked For Goombah Affiliation

Appropriate since — as you undoubtedly know if you have a TV, or have passed by a TV store, or you know someone who has a TV — he worked odd jobs, left home at 16 and joined the Navy, a group of Philadelphians are attempting to Swift Boat Tom Knox.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a 527 political action group, attacked John Kerry in 2004 for… I dunno. He hated the Vietnam War or something, which was America’s greatest and most successful war after the War on Drugs. Or apparently he killed Vietnamese children and drank their blood. But, anyway, people bought it, even though the Swift Boaters weren’t exactly telling what we like to call “the truth.”

The anti-Knox group is headed up by Alex Talmadge, who apparently stood in for Bob Brady at a forum recently. It’s called Economic Justice Coalition for Truth. (Note: not all 527’s have to be “for Truth.” Sometimes they’re for lying.)

But the Swift Boat story doesn’t mean the Tom Knox 527 is going to lie or anything, as these groups can — amazingly — attack candidates for things they actually did. As you may know, Tom Knox was poor until he robbed poor people of their money, then he got rich. Or maybe he stole the Liberty Bell and sold it on the black market. Oh, here it is: He headed up a bank that made payday loans, which charge like a billion percent interest. And the new scandal is he keeps a guy on payroll who was a convicted felon.

Knox, a multimillionaire businessman, said he still keeps David S. Fishbone on his personal payroll three years after Maryland insurance regulators fined his company $125,000 for employing the disbarred lawyer as a compliance officer for Fidelity Insurance, a company he bought in 1999 and sold in 2004.

Because if there is one thing the public won’t stand for, it’s convicted felons working as compliance officers for insurance companies! However, the always great Kate Philips, Brady’s spokeswoman, chimed in: “Cronyism got him into that mess. He took one of his old goombahs and gave him that job.”

Political group targets Knox [Inquirer]
Knox defends hiring of felon at his Md. HMO [Inquirer]
We said the Swift Boats were coming [The Next Mayor]