Remember the Swift Boat

Wounds from the 2004 campaign still cut deep. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) rebuffed oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens when he tried to introduce himself to Franken at a weekly policy lunch Thursday. Instead of standing to greet Pickens, Franken reportedly launched into a verbal attack, criticizing the business magnate for financing the Swift Boat ad campaign in 2004 that doomed Kerry’s bid for the presidency. “It was a lively conversation,” Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said. And where was Kerry? The senator sent word through his staff that he was all tied up with a lunch with his interns and couldn’t attend.