Kerry should be wary of dredging up past

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | February 15, 2004 | Mark Steyn

[Puzzleman]

If you own a computer or listen to talk radio or read the British or Australian papers, you'll know that John Kerry is currently beset by rumors of interns. By the time you read this, it may be that America's genteel broadsheets and network news shows will have overcome their squeamishness and tiptoed gingerly down the path blazed by Drudge and Fleet Street, or it may be that they decide to investigate it a bit longer, just to get chapter and verse nailed down, which means you may not get to read about it till, oh, midway through President Kerry's second term.

[Puzzleman]

Great Mark Steyn article.

[dirtboy]

A keeper of a closing paragraph:

Next to these deceptions -- and self-deceptions -- what are Dems hoping to pin on Bush? Thanks to Kerry in his Hanoi Jane period, Vietnam was a disaster for America that gave the establishment a wholly irrational fear of almost every ramshackle Third World basket case on the planet. Look at what everyone from Arthur Schlesinger to Chris Matthews wrote about the ''unconquerable'' Afghans only two years ago. That defeatism was the Kerry legacy from the '70s: a terrified, Kerrified America. If he wants to fight Campaign 2004 on Vietnam, then, as he would say, bring it on.

[Common Tator]

If Kerry wore lipstick Theresa Heinz's butt would really be RED!!

[jocon307]

I read Mark Steyn and I think, every time, here is the smartest man alive today.

I read him, and I want to quote every line, and say "hear! hear!"

So I will only quote two from this latest:

"As Sam Goldwyn said, 'I'm sick of the old cliches. Bring me some new cliches.' And few people are so in need of some new cliches as the Democratic Party." (My favorite)

And this:

"Thanks to Kerry in his Hanoi Jane period, Vietnam was a disaster for America that gave the establishment a wholly irrational fear of almost every ramshackle Third World basket case on the planet." (The absolute truth)

Steyn is wonder, and if we ever have cloning he's about the only person I can think of of whom we need more than one.

[martin_fierro]

Mrs. Invisible-For-The-Past-Few-Days

[angkor]

In yesterday's DC area Vietnamese language newspaper Pho Nho, a front page story (which includes the Fonda/Kerry crowd photo) repeatedly refers to the good lieutentant as a "phan boi," or traitor.

My wife, who is Vietnamese, never once heard of these alledged atrocities on the Delta. How is it that Kerry knows of them, but the Vietnamese both here in the U.S. and those still living on the Delta have not?

[Chi-townChief]

Personally, I believe that Ketchup Boy has no vision for America beyond his next haircut.

[Thebaddog]

"phan boi,"

I like that one.

[The Wizard]

we don't want no 1st lady with a foreign accent

[P.O.E.]

Please do not photoshop this into a Kerry/Fonda picture

[A.A. Cunningham]

Likewise, Max Cleland, the former Georgia senator turned cable show hit man for the Kerry campaign on the Bush National Guard ''scandal.'' He's untouchable because, as Terry McAuliffe likes to say, he's a ''triple amputee who left three limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam.''

As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column, it wasn't on the ''battlefield.'' It wasn't in combat. He was working on a radio relay station. He saw a grenade dropped by one of his colleagues and bent down to pick it up. It's impossible for most of us to imagine what that must be like -- to be flown home, with your body shattered, not because of some firefight, but because you made a stupid mistake. Once upon a time, Cleland loathed the Silver and Bronze Stars he'd been given: He was, in his words, ''no hero'' -- which is true. He was a beneficiary of the medal inflation that tends to accompany unpopular wars. But Cleland learned to stop hating himself to the point where he's happy to be passed off as a hero wounded in battle because that makes him a more valuable mascot to the campaign. Sad.

McAwful, aka "The Punk", never mentions that Cleland did something incredibly stupid.

[RayChuang88]

Just wait till someone does some serious digging on Senator Kerry's Vietnam service record. They might find out that most of the decorations Kerry got were undeserved, and boy, will things hit the fan if that is true!

[VadeRetro]

If I were his age and had a woman with her looks and money, I'd behave myself. Kerry is too stupid to be President, never mind all the other stuff.

[prairiebreeze]

Setting a bookmark for later read

[angkor]

most of the decorations Kerry got were undeserved

It's been documented: three minor shrapnel wounds (in four months), only one of which kept him out of service for "a day or two" (by Kerry's own admission).

He applied for reassignment to the States one week after the third paper cut.

[TheGeezer]

As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column

Man, do I love that woman!

[Williams]

Just a comment on how ruthless the Democrats are. Cleland lost an ELECTION, but they trot him around claiming he is the victim of some terrible rebublican evil plot. I think the people of his state know he is a triple amputee from war time. They were convinced he was too liberal. Period. Yet the democrats have turned a loser politician into an issue.

I know republicans locally and observe them nationally. They do not exploit issues even when the democrats drop the dirty laudry in their lap! The republicans need to start thinking and arguing faster.

[jimbo123]

Teresa Heinz
Chairman
The Heinz Endowments
30 Dominion Tower
625 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Phone: 412.281.5777
Fax: 412.281.5788
info@heinz.org

[LibLieSlayer]

Thank you for posting the link. It was indeed enjoyable. This is my first reply on FR, although I have been reading here for awhile. I feel like I have found my home!

"Unfortunately, most politicians who say ''this election is about the future'' haven't given it a moment's thought".

True Words. With the dims in power, we would have NO future!

"As Ann Coulter pointed out in a merciless but entirely accurate column, it wasn't on the 'battlefield'."

I just love Ann! I have noticed that whenever a Republican uses absolute "facts" or "truth" in THE debate, dims decry "They're going negative, attack-dog politics, politics of personal destruction. Don't impune my partiotism, Kerry is a War hero, how dare you try to paint him as anti-defense etc".

We need to borrow a phrase (slightly modified) from Harry Truman. "We point out his record and the facts, and THEY just think it's attack politics. His record is what it is".

LibLieSlayer

[cwb]

I agree. McAwful has been trotting out Cleland as an example of the way republicans treat "war heros," implying that his service was somehow impugned. It had nothing to do with his service...but specifically his voting record. Cleland was one of the Dems who held up the Homeland Security Act because he supported the unions rights over the Presidents obigation to defend the nation. The Democrats are using Cleland in the same way they will attempt to defend Kerry...claiming that a "war hero" can do no wrong when it comes to policy issues.