Matthews: Kerry Has 'Hanoi Jane' Problem

Newsmax.com ^ | 2/10/-4 | Carl Limbacher

[truthandlife]

MSNBC "Hardball" host and longtime Democrat Chris Matthews said Tuesday that a photo showing Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry protesting the Vietnam war with "Hanoi" Jane Fonda is a real problem for his party's top candidate.

While offering sharp criticism of President Bush for not serving in Vietnam, Matthews told radio host Don Imus Tuesday morning, "You've got the Jane Fonda problem on the other side. The thing with her is, she was on the other side - she was on Hanoi's side during that war.

"And I'll tell you," Matthews continued, "everybody I knew, including me, who was against the war - I wouldn't have anything to do with a person who supported Hanoi."

Kerry, then head of the radical anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, worked closely with Fonda on two war protests; a Sept. 1970 rally in Valley Forge, Penn., where Fonda and Kerry spoke from the back of the same pick-up truck. And a Jan. 1971 protest they called "The Winter Solider Investigation," where fabricated testimony of U.S. war atrocities was presented.

Asked about the NewsMax.com photo showing Sen. Kerry protesting the war with "Hanoi" Jane at Valley Forge, Matthews observed, "That will be in the Republican [campaign] ads."

[InvisibleChurch]

yes, let's dispose of kerry, let xxxillary run, crush her, and we'll be done with her forever

[Piquaboy]

Big Mouth Matthews fianlly got something right.

[50sDad]

If this is about the photo on FR from yesterday, we are being set up. The one I saw had a different morie pattern over Kerry than the rest of the picture. If this is a new picture, crush him. If it is the one with a recent pic of him put in behing 1960's Jane, we are being set up to look like idiots.

[EllaMinnow]

Are you talking about the black-and-white photo or the color one?

The black-and-white is a fake and looks it, and it has disappeared. The color one looks real.

[freeperfromnj]

While offering sharp criticism of President Bush for not serving in Vietnam

This from a jerk who joined the Peace Core.

[StriperSniper]

where fabricated testimony of

I guess that makes Tawana Sharpton the logical choice for his VP.

[freeperfromnj]

oops - Peace Corps

[Frank_Discussion]

Hold On. I know the pic you're talking about, and that was someone's attempt to sharpen his face in the picture. The original picture is still pretty clear, though the background is just a little out of focus, since the objective of the photo was MIZZ Fonda. The pic is real, AFAIK.

[theDentist]

This is going to turn out a whole lot of nothing. It's like the photo of Mrs. Carter and John Wayne Gacy; just because you're in a photo together doesn't mean you agree 100% on any issue. And they aren't sitting right together either, so there's nothing to it other than they both attended an anti-war rally at the same time. LOTS of people attended those rally's.

We need to go after this horse-face for his stands on taxation (never met a tax he didn't favor), his votes against military and intelligence, and his extremist views.

[AfghanIraqVeteran]

Rush has a good picture of Jane and John on his website.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I've seen that pix. What are the letters superimposed over Fonda's face ?

[Mike Darancette]

"The Winter Solider Investigation,"

This is the Winter Soldier I would follow.

[fatal]

AMEN TO THAT

[Frank_Discussion]

Corbis. I believe it's the company that owns the rights to the pic.

[Frank_Discussion]

IIRC, Fonda bankrolled VVAW, KErry's gig, so seeing them at a rally together is more evidence of his leanings at the very least.

[mattdono]

Well, even a broken clock...

[truthandlife]

This is going to turn out a whole lot of nothing.

We will see, but there is a lot more than just a picture (see below)

Kerry Kin Denies 'Hanoi Jane' Connection

....Ms. Fonda and Sen. Kerry worked together on at least two anti-war protests in the early 1970s.

In September 1970, both Kerry and "Hanoi" Jane addressed a widely covered protest rally at Valley Forge, Pa., where Fonda denounced the Nixon administration as "cold-blooded killers."

According to Douglas Brinkley's Kerry biography "Tour of Duty," Fonda's celebrity and Kerry's performance helped turn the Massachusetts Democrat into a star of the anti-war movement.

From there, the Democratic presidential front-runner collaborated with "Hanoi" Jane on the "Winter Soldier Investigation," which encouraged Vietnam veterans, some of whom later turned out to be impostors, to detail war crimes they had committed.

During Monday's broadcast, Thorne became a bit more candid about Kerry's ties to Fonda when Sean Hannity asked him if he would "be surprised if there were pictures of 'Hanoi' Jane and John Kerry together."

Sounding suddenly nervous, Thorne admitted: "Not at all. John was pictured with a lot of different anti-war people at that time."

Asked specifically about Kerry photos with Fonda and Ramsey Clark, Thorne sheepishly acknowledged, "Yes, he was pictured with all those people."

[G.Mason]

Chris Matthews, first, last, and always, is a piece of media garbage.

"Asked about the NewsMax.com photo showing Sen. Kerry protesting the war with "Hanoi" Jane at Valley Forge, Matthews observed, "That will be in the Republican [campaign] ads."

What I was unaware of was that Matthews was clairvoyant.

[GraceCoolidge]

I can't agree that this photo is going to be a "whole lot of nothing," because it significantly undermines one of Senator Kerry's big issues, i.e., his war hero status. Given Senator Kerry's emphasis on his military background, he really invites an inquiry into his post-war activities relative to that background. I do think the photo would be largely irrelevant if Senator Kerry wasn't so deliberately and repetitively playing the Vietnam/military service card. I also believe that this situation is very different from the Mrs. Carter/Gacy photo. My recollection is that event was just a photo op, "wait on line and stand next to Mrs. Carter" type of thing where the subjects of the photo did not necessarily even know one another. In this instance, it's not as if Senator Kerry was a fan who saw Jane Fonda on the street outside a restaurant in L.A. and asked someone to snap a photo. Jane Fonda and John Kerry are at a specific political event that highlights their shared viewpoint (even if they didn't agree fully on every point, the main thrust of the event has been pretty well documented). John Kerry and Jane Fonda, unlike Mrs. Carter and Gacy, aren't together just by happenstance. And while they aren't sitting right together, they are probably within a row or two of one another. It would seem to me that you'd have had to be something of a VIP in the anti-war movement to get that kind of seat in front, near Jane Fonda. Or is that unlikely?