Military records and glass houses Spin control

While the war was heating up in Iraq, the Bush and Kerry campaigns spent part of the last week arguing over military records from several wars ago. Specifically, on Sen. Kerry's medical records from his time in Vietnam in the late 1960s.

The Bush campaign has some supporters who are questioning whether one of Kerry's three Purple Hearts was deserved, and the Democrat was asked on one of last Sunday's news magazines to make all of his military records public.

Kerry said they were p ublic and available at the campaign headquarters. The following day, when reporters from the Boston Globe showed up at the HQ looking for new documents, they were told, essentially, "There's nothing new, we've showed you everything."

This prompted the Bush campaign to send out e-mail bulletins accusing Kerry of letting a "Boston Fog" roll over the issue. Kerry troops countered with a new round of Navy records the following day, and posted them on the campaign Web site, www.johnkerry.com, for everyone with enough interest and bandwidth to peruse.

That was followed Friday by a report from Kerry's personal physician, Gerald Doyle, describing his review of Kerry's Navy medical records. Those, too, are at the Web site, for anyone interested in reading about such details as the "debridement of necrotic tissue."

But to bring this back to the original point, Doc Doyle describes three separate incidents from Navy records -- Dec. 28, 1968, Feb. 20, 1969, and March 13, 1969 -- in which Kerry received treatment for injuries or wounded in combat actions. Which is the reason military personnel get Purple Hearts.

Taking a chance? There also seems to be something odd about the Bush campaign's call for Kerry to disclose more of his military records.

"When asked by Tim Russert on `Meet the Press' to release all his records, the president did so immediately," the Bush '04 campaign proclaimed this week.

Well, not exactly. It may have released all the records it had readily available. But as Spokesman-Review reporters Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele noted in a story on March 14, the Bush records aren't complete and don't include his medical records. The White House refers any questions about the president's military records to the Pentagon, which didn't respond to inquiries and has ordered the National Guard Bureau -- Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard -- not to respond, either.

"If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk to you," Charles Gross, chief historian of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., told Morlin during research for the story.

So it would seem that the Bush campaign would be wary about getting into a spitting match over disclosure of 30-plus-year-old military records.

Recycling from '94 Speaking of questionable campaign strategies, Kerry on Friday announced his "Contract with America's Middle Class Families," which lists things he would do as president to improve the economy, find peace and help out with other problems.

Contract with America? That sounds kind of familiar. Oh, right. That was what Newt Gingrich and the House Republicans called their plan in 1994, although it wasn't just for one class. Freshman Republicans in the House carried copies of it around in their inside jacket pockets for months, just over their heart.

And they remain so, even though Kerry isn't afraid of borrowing the title. But this contract is different, he insisted. It will "bring us back together by honoring our values, expanding the middle class, making our economy stronger and our nation more secure."

Spin Control appears weekly in The Spokesman-Review, and as a Web log on www.spokesmanreview.com.

This is an earnest request for help. I have limited time for research but am putting together an article to rebutt the original story "Bush's Parial History" that was in the Spokesman and would also like any information or links anyone has regarding the release of Bush's record medical or military and Kerry's. Thank you for your help in advance.

But this contract is different, he insisted. It will "bring us back together by honoring our values, expanding the middle class, making our economy stronger and our nation more secure."

Kerry's idea for expanding the middle class is to tax the well-to-do until they're no longer well-to-do.

I think this reporter is wrong. I think Bush did release his military records in their entirety. Yes, there seems to be some records missing, but that is not President Bush's fault. I seem to remember that President Bush did make his military medical record available for the reporters to look at, but did not make copies for them to take with them.
I think the reporter was implying that Bush did not release his records so his people should not question Kerry not releasing his records.

I don't have much to tell you that will help in any debates on Monday except to say that I did the same thing in the military as did Kerry. I went where they told me to go. Also, as with Kerry, my miltary experience didn't get me any closer to foreign policy credentials needed in handling the military these days.

Most presidents have a trial by fire in this area. It seems to me Bush has had such a trial, one that gave him a second round of military experience, and this time as far more of an inner circle participant than he was in the early 1970's (or that I was at the same time or that Kerry was a year or two or three earlier than that).

The fact is, if it's military experience that makes a man qualify in the presidential sweepstakes, it seems to me that recent military experience (since, say, 2001) makes Bush eminently more qualified than Kerry. Bush has all the expeience and Kerry has none.

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