OLIPHANT: I WATCHED KERRY THROW WAR DECORATIONS

Drudge ^

[hope]

OLIPHANT IN COMING BOSTON GLOBE: 'I was 4 or 5 feet behind John Kerry. I watched Kerry reach with his right hand into the breast pocket of his fatigue shirt. The hand emerged with several of the ribbons... There couldn't have been all that many decorations in his hand -- six or seven -- because he made a closed fist around his collection... From what I could observe firsthand about Friday, April 23, 1971, Kerry did not make even the slightest effort to pretend that he was throwing all of his military decorations over that fence.... Kerry had arrived here with only the ribbons he wore on his shirt... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have always found the political junk served up by Kerry's detractors to be undignified as well as largely inaccurate. I write now because the political junk is much higher profile now, though no less misleading -- and not, by the way, because in her fourth job in the public arena, my daughter just joined Kerry's staff. I just happened to be there that long-ago day. I saw what happened and heard what Kerry said and know what he meant. The truth happens to be with him...' Impacting Hard Late Monday...

[O Neill]

Senator Kerry, please understand that we're NOT attacking you. You must be brought down, of course, but only in order to wake up the Democratic Party. Come on now...sing along...

Imagine there's no Kerry...
It's easy if you try.
No medals or ribbons...
Above us only skies.
Imagine all the people...
Heinz ketchup on their fries!
You may say I'm a dreamer...
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us...
And become an American!

[Torie]

How does one throw a ribbon across a fence?

Pray that you are in the becalmed Bermuda Triangle. Becalmed or not, that is what Kerry is currently inhabiting.

[ModelBreaker]

Look at the responses to my earlier post. They clear up the mystery. 'Ribbons' aren't really ribbons and apparently they are quite throwable.

[mass55th]

I agree that Corn & Ellen Ratner are useless, and when they are on, I have to grit my teeth or turn the channel until they're gone, but they are a necessary evil. They reenforce the BS that's a part of the left. Neither of them has any idea what they are talking about, and it shows. They remind people of just what the Dems are all about.

[Stultis]

Kerry has said that he threw others' medals and his own ribbons. If Oliphant is giving us an accurate history here, then Kerry is still lying about the others' medals.

Just for the record, Kerry's (post '96) story is not that he threw his own ribbons and the other medals at the same time. He claims he threw his ribbons during the main "ceremony" (protest), and then went back to the fence a bit later and threw the two medals (that he claims he was given for the purpose).

[savedbygrace]

Slippery little snake, isn't he?

So, that being the case, it seems that what Kerry did was to throw replaceable ribbons over the fence for show, keeping the medals themselves so he could display them later, maybe to impress the chicks, or to later advance his hero image for political gain.

History proves that this is an accurate analysis. ;-)

[afz400]

I think Kerry threw his own medals over the fence in the 1970's protest, and at some later time in the 1980's requested the government issue replacements (claiming they had been "lost") so he could show them off to the union leaders. That's why he isn't releasing all of his military records, IMHO. I also suspect that he wasn't given a replacement for the first Purple Heart because it was a phoney (fingernail scratch) and no evidence to support it.
Has anyone determined exactly how many medals Kerry currently has in his possession? I bet it's one less than he had when he left Vietnam.

[Cooter]