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Posted on 04/23/2004 4:54:02 PM PDT by jmstein7
John Kerry was denounced as "Hanoi John" in the US House of Representatives on Thursday as Republicans attacked the Democratic presidential candidate's record as an outspoken foe of the Vietnam War.
One by one, several Republicans, many of them Vietnam veterans, stood and challenged Kerry's patriotism. They did so in marking the 33rd anniversary of Kerry's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"On this day in 1971, John Kerry showed his true colours, and they are not red, white and blue," said Rep. Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican.
"Before the Senate, before America, and before the world, he blasted our nation, chastised our troops and hurt our morale," said Johnson, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"Is it any wonder that my comrades from Vietnam and I have a nickname for him similar to 'Hanoi Jane'," the name given to war foe and actress Jane Fonda, Johnson said. "It's called 'Hanoi John'."
Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, added: "We do not need a 'Jane Fonda' as commander in chief."
Democrats were not in the chamber when Republicans began what one denounced as "a sneak attack," but several rushed in to defend Kerry. They noted he won awards for bravery and heroism in Vietnam as well as three Purple Hearts.
Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat, took the offensive in speaking up for Kerry by appearing to allude to questions about whether President George W. Bush shirked his duties while a member of the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
Without mentioning Bush by name, McDermott said: "For anybody to come out here and attack his (Kerry's) war record, you have to have pretty good credentials."
"If served and showed up for drills at your local National Guard, I think those would be acceptable credentials," McDermott said. "But if your were in the National Guard, and you didn't show up ... you have real nerve to start an attack on John Kerry's character."
Rep. Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican, chaired the House at the time of the heated exchanges and repeatedly pointed out that chamber rules do not permit personal attacks on senators.
Yet the drumbeat of criticism against Senator Kerry of Massachusetts continued.
"John Kerry should apologise," said Representative Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican.
Representative John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, said: "What we need is leadership, the kind that John Kerry provided in the fields of Vietnam ... that he will provide as president of the United States."
Let me ask you about a trickier question. And that‘s John Kerry. The Republicans on Capitol Hill are really tearing into this guy for how he behaved after he came back from service. Do you think guy‘s fact that he got three Purple Hearts should immunize him against that attack or is he fair game?
ORIN: I think he is fair game. You have the sort of bizarre conjunction of somebody who was a decorated in Vietnam veteran and he came back and said he committed atrocities and said that American soldiers violated the rules of law and their bosses were war criminals. And just as he gets credit—we‘re responsible for what we do. We‘re accountable. He gets credit for his service. And some people might not find what he said afterwards that pleasing. Of course, he backed away it from last week, said that he thought the language that he used then was a bit inappropriate.
MATTHEWS: Well, you and I are from that generation, from that Vietnam-era generation. Do you think he gets any immunization among men? (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: The fact that he got shot at three times and hit three times and certainly stuck his—here‘s a rich kid, not a celebrity, but a rich kid who chose to go into combat as a judge officer.
SHAPIRO: Which is still so aberrant against the backdrop of Vietnam. And I really think that wallowing in 1971 like the House Republicans were doing yesterday is—it is so irrelevant. I mean, we all in the 1970s and 1960s said things in an intemperate side of Vietnam on either side of the debate that in adult hindsight we regret. So the fact is that Kerry maybe went a bit too far in the early ‘70s isn‘t the issue. What‘s really the issue is that these—the Republicans are trying to make a political issue out of an event that happened before the majority of American voters got out of grade school.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, yesterday, a number of Republican Congress people took to the House floor to criticize John Kerry‘s anti-war activities after he got back from Vietnam. Here‘s what Congressman Sam Houston—Sam Houston—Sam Johnson, who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SAM JOHNSON (D), TEXAS: On this day in 1971, John Kerry showed his true colors. And they‘re not red, white and blue. Before the Senate, before America, and before the world, he blasted our nation, chastised our troops, and hurt our morale. What he did was nothing short of aiding and abetting the enemy. A person like John Kerry does not belong in the White House. Is it any wonder my comrades from Vietnam and I have a nickname for him similar to Hanoi Jane? (END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Well, you got to wonder how much of this has been choreographed, Walter. What do you think? SHAPIRO: Oh (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Is the spontaneous outburst of a former POW or is this a guy who got the call from Karl Rove or somebody at the White House saying, it is your turn to speak up for the president and nail the opponent?
SHAPIRO: Well, I mean, clearly, anything that happens after hours on the House floor is choreographed. It‘s been choreographed since the days you were working for Tip, Chris.
MATTHEWS: I know. Well, I know how it was done, because both sides did it. But go ahead. (LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: But the point here is, bringing up Jane Fonda -- I think the Annenberg Center did a poll and asked Americans how many people remember—what people remember Jane Fonda for. I think it was something like 7 percent still remember that Jane Fonda was an overly militant anti-war activist who went to Hanoi.
MATTHEWS: Well, what do you remember, “Cat Ballou”?
SHAPIRO: I remember “Cat Ballou.” Others remember exercise videos. And the very old remember that she had a father named Hank. MATTHEWS: I remember all her husbands. (LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: She had so many of them, Tom Hayden when she was left-wing. She had a movie star—a European movie director, Roger Vadim. And then she married Ted Turner in her sort of corporate era there. (LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: But what do you think, Deborah? Do you think this is going to be a nail in this guy‘s coffin to be compared once again to Hanoi Jane?
ORIN: No. I think what it does is, for people who don‘t like Kerry, it is another reason not to like him. But the problem for Kerry, it is sort of the Republicans‘ turn at doing what Democrats did by the questioning Bush‘s air National Guard service. Voters don‘t really care all that much about what happened 30 years ago. (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: These are jabs, rather than punches.
ORIN: Well, it is a fog. It‘s what you call in political jargon noise. Nobody can hear what you‘re saying because you‘re busy answering questions about, did you really deserve this Purple Heart or not? And they seem to have committed a real unforced error, according to “The Boston Globe,” which really tracks this stuff. They‘ve posted on the Kerry Web site some heroics of his swift boat, which he wasn‘t the commander. And the guy who was the commander at the time has objected rather loudly, wait a minute. (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: So the pro-Kerry people are bragging too much.
ORIN: Well, they posted up a long list of, here‘s what his boat did. And at one point, some of those heroics, a guy named Edward Peck (ph) has called in and said, hey.
MATTHEWS: We‘re not voting for the boat. Anyway... (CROSSTALK)
SHAPIRO: You mean (CROSSTALK)
SHAPIRO: ... boat didn‘t sink the Bismarck?
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They noted he won awards for bravery and heroism in Vietnam as well as three Purple Hearts
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