Kerry campaign's quick response to Swift boat vets

Washington Times ^ | 8/5/2004 | Marie Horrigan

[ArcLight]

The campaign for Democratic Party presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts issued an exhaustively researched and extensively sourced 36-page refutation Thursday of allegations Kerry lied about events during his service in Vietnam, including how and why he received medals, and had fled the scene of a battle.

[maryz]

it can be very hard to document things years later.

Is it especially true in the armed services? I have a friend who was in the Army during Vietnam (cryptology, not combat); he took to demanding copies of his immunization records after he got a second tetanus shot months after he'd had one because the records weren't there.

[maryz]

exhaustively researched and extensively sourced 36-page refutation

From what the article said, it's not a "refutation" of any charges -- just an "exhaustively researched and extensively sourced" of the swift vets' connections to Republicans.

[maryz]

Then the SBV should sue Kerry and the DNC for what is said of them in that fax.

I thought that myself when I read the fax, especially the part about the doctor -- what did they call him? Purported? Pretended?

[HenryLeeII]

Thank you both for your input. The Kerry/DNC warnings to the media outlets are probably bluster to scare them, plus as maryz points out it gives them an excuse not to run the ads. Hopefully there are enough independent stations left, run by small businessmen who are either conservative or principled enough to call their bluff and run the commercial.

[IamConservative]

Anyone that reacts with a cabal of lawyers and 36 pages of "refutation" that focuses only on identifying those exercising their 1st Amendment rights as belonging to or being supported by the opposition party has clearly recognized what they are saying is true. You can almost smell the fear, either that, or John John need to change their drawers.

"Me thinks he doth protest too much!"

[AmericanInTokyo]

Good morning.

Take a Google search this Friday a.m. of American news articles on the John Kerry Swift Boat issue appearing this morning:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=UTF-8&newsclusterurl=http://money.cnn.com/cnn/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/05/kerry.veterans/

Sheesh, it's nearly 1/3rd "Sen. McCain..this and that" either in the headlines or in the first few paragraphs. Rather than the seriousness of the charges, the nature of the charges themselves. The lib press is so blatant.

Of course, they cannot allow this to grow legs, because it will indict the press as not having done their job, i.e., in researching this, months and years ago. So defacto, not only wanting to defeat Bush, they need to save their own face in the whole rotten thing, by causing it to "disappear" just as they did with Sandy Berger's crimes and the Kerry Staff Sex Scandal.

[HenryLeeII]

Well, unfortunately, the press just got some help from one of the SBVs who is now saying he shouldn't have signed the affadavit regarding Kerry's shooting of a Viet Cong. George Elliott is retracting his criticism of Kerry allegedly shooting a fleeing, wounded, VC in the back and said it was a mistake to sign the affadavit. His story is up on Drudge right now.

Unfortunately, between this, McCain's hectoring, the money-connection between SBVs and a Houston developer who is a big Bush supporter, and the threat of lawsuits for libel against any TV station that plays the group's ad, there are now several impediments against this thing growing legs. Hopefully, it will be shown enough that the overall message gets out to middle America.

But, gee whiz, I'm really, really shocked that the media hasn't asked Kerry to release all of his records to put this thing to rest. I'm sure if there were allegations about President Bush's service there would be questions asked, wouldn't there?

[Nita Nupress]

You can bet the SwiftVets didn't put the ad up without some serious legal consultation on all aspects of what the DNC attack teams would hit them with.

You can also bet that each one of those SBV's lives are being scrutinized for potentially embarrassing information the DNC could threaten to "leak."

I wonder who is the Lenzer-equivalent for Kerry?

[Eva]

My guess is that the brief was prepared to counter the book and was just brought out early for the ad.

If you notice no one in the media has bothered to ask Kerry exactly what he was doing on the morning of 9/11 and how he reacted. I read that Kerry said that he sat a table in stunned silence until the third plane hit the pentagon. Now, there's a real sign of leadership.

[maryz]

because it will indict the press as not having done their job, i.e., in researching this, months and years ago.

The Boston Globe and at least one other outlet (Time, maybe?) asked Kerry to release his military records months ago, but he refused. Granted, there's no indication that they really pressed him on it.

[Eva]

The VA is a notoriously poor record keeper. Nothing is computerized and records are just kept in huge wherehouses. Once the records are pulled for any reason, they may never be seen again.