Posted on 08/07/2004 8:16:33 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
It’s been a LONG time and almost everything has changed. So there’s not much left that can make me think back to my college years. But John Kerry forced the issue last week by siccing his attack lawyers on assorted TV stations. Say what?
Here’s how it happened. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth started running an ad in which several of their members stood up, faced the camera, gave their name, rank and serial numbers, and called John Kerry a liar about his service in Vietnam. This veterans’ organization has 260 members and Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (ret.), is its Founder and Chairman. In response to the first broadcasts of the Swift Boat ad, two lawyers jointly sent a threatening letter to TV stations across the country, seeking to make the program managers afraid to accept payment and run the ads.
But what does that have to do with “bright college days” so long ago? The most challenging and interesting debates we had were in the Yale Political Union. These were Oxford-style debates, under a detailed structure. A proposition is put before the House – one I remember was, “Resolved that the United States should use military force to defend Quemoy and Matsu.” To realize how little progress is made in some conflicts, that old subject is new again. Quemoy and Matsu are islands belonging to Taiwan that China will necessarily attack if and when it decides to “reunite” with Taiwan by force.
An Oxford debate consists of two debaters for each side. The first one to speak favors the proposition. The second is an opponent, and so on. What makes Oxford debates interesting, though, is that every speaker after the first one should be well enough prepared, and quick enough on his/her feet, to set aside part of the prepared speech in order to attack points just made by the speakers for the other side. The one set speech is the first debater. The most challenging and free-form speech is the last one, because that is the synopsis of everything before.
Well, that was vaguely interesting, I hear you cry. But what does it have to do with the truth about John Kerry’s service in Vietnam? John Kerry came into the Yale Political Union when I was already an officer of the Union and an experienced debater. As I recall, Kerry preferred to be the first (or second) debater, so he could boldly state his points. I preferred to go last, or next to last, because the extemporaneous counterattack on the views of the other side was more interesting.
Here’s how a team of two would prepare for a debate. You would discuss and decide with your partner three points: 1) What are the main issues we want to make? 2) What are the main issues the other side it likely to make? And 3) What counterattacks can we expect from the other side, and how do we counter those? It is the last point which is most difficult to prepare for.
It’s also the point at which even veteran debaters can lose the whole contest. John Kerry may have just made just that fatal mistake on the subject of Vietnam, and it may be the final nail in the coffin of his campaign for President.
I have a number of friends who were “in country” when John Kerry was. A couple were in the Swift Boat service. Before Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, I already knew the kind of charges of dishonesty that were possible. They were already being made, but well below the radar of national media. No one in the broader audience was listening.
Then Kerry decided, and it was obviously a deliberate and calculated decision, to promote his four months of service in Vietnam as the centerpiece of his campaign. And as I watched him do that, I knew he’d made a serious mistake right from our old Political Union days. Out of either arrogance or ignorance, Kerry did not anticipate the reaction that his Vietnam-centric speech would generate. As of this week, the proof is in that Kerry was not prepared to respond to what he should have known was coming, the truth squad of many more Swift Boat veterans than the dozen he featured on the stage in Boston.
The letter of 5 August is written by the “counsel for the Democratic Committee and for John Kerry.” It accuses Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as running a “dishonest” ad by fake crewmates and a “doctor.” Well the doctor is a real doctor, and none of the men on screen claimed that they were in his boat, only that they saw what happened. (The Kerry lawyers knock down a straw man by saying that they weren’t “in Kerry’s boat,” and blithely ignore that Swift Boats usually operate in flotillas of three or more boats.) And the letter implicitly threatens the station managers with lawsuits if they don’t back off.
Marc Elian, General Counsel, Kerry-Edwards ‘04, and Joseph Sandler, General Counsel, DNC, were the signers of this 2 1/2-page attack on the Swift Boat Veterans.
The tactics of Kerry’s (and the DNC’s) lawyers amount to this: They unfortunately paint Kerry as a small child in the backseat of a car with his siblings, headed for the beach. It’s been a long ride; the kids are getting fractious. And suddenly one of them whines to the mother, “Ma, he’s touching me.” That wussy tactic may work in the back seat of a Buick, but it won’t work in a presidential campaign. A man who cannot stand up to a vigorous debate conducted in English can hardly be expected to stand up to foreign enemies who are willing to kill Americans at any time and who speak the language of explosives.
If John Kerry had not put his Vietnam “service” at the very heart of his campaign, the counterattack that has come would not have occurred. Or, more accurately, it would have remained underground, known to only a few. It was Kerry’s choice to make Vietnam a front-burner issue, and that put the counterattack on the front-burner as well.
Now that the issue is joined in public, with the book-length treatment of this subject, Unfit for Command, coming out in a week, there’s only one way for Kerry to deal with the subject. He must give permission to make his Vietnam records public. That means ALL records – the ones concerning his Purple Hearts, and the ones concerned with the missions he did, and did not, take part in.
The best proof of what happened in Vietnam almost forty years ago does not rest on the memories of men who were there then, whether they support or oppose Kerry for President. Records made at the time are a far better indicator of the truth because those records were not generally made to influence an election four decades yet to come.
So far, Kerry has refused to release those records, which he could do at the stroke of a pen. George Bush has released all of his military records. As long as Kerry keeps his heels dug in, and withholds his records, it’s a reasonable conclusion that there are details buried in those old files which will harm Kerry if they get out.
And every bit of this was entirely foreseeable by Kerry before he decided to feature Vietnam. He forgot, or he never bothered to learn, the lesson from the Union debates so long ago. If you can see a counterattack which you cannot answer, then drop the initial argument like a hot rock. Don’t start down a path on a subject which you cannot win. I knew that when I was 20 and debating in the Union. Kerry doesn’t know it when he is 60 and running for President.
And that’s one more reason why John Kerry shouldn’t wind up in the White House. He’s a wuss.
While we’re on that subject, my profound thanks to Hershl Hartman, Faculty, International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism vegvayzer/Leader, The Sholem Community, L.A. He wrote to me about my column on “The Wussification of America ....” He’s the expert, and he properly corrected my mistaken claim that “wuss” was a Yiddish word. I had the meaning right, but not the source. And I appreciate rather than resent it, when my readers are smarter than I am and correct what I have written.
Post Script: This week’s employment figures generated much press dishonesty and demand a mention here. The Corporate Survey reported a job growth of only 32,000 last month. But the Employment Survey, also from the Department of Labor, reported a job growth of 629,000. Only the latter is consistent with the drop in the unemployment rate from 5.6% to 5.5%..
I covered the reasons for the difference between these two numbers about six months ago. Any competent and honest reporter can read the official report from the Labor Department and get this story straight. The only reason why any reporters (and their editors) get this story wrong is that they WANT to, because the false story plays into their biased view of the American economy.
Here are three groups who are NOT in the Corporate Survey, but ARE in the Household one. These total more than a million employees: domestic and medical workers in homes, military Reservists whose salaries are continued while they’re on duty, and self-employed workers in all careers.
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About the Author: John Armor is a civil rights attorney who lives in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. CongressmanBillybob@earthlink.net
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Yep, now that you mention it, you're right. Time to change the old tagline....
I agree. John Kerry has decided to make his Vietnam story the centerpiece of his campaign, and he's ridiculed GW's service in the process. Nevertheless, GW has made his records public, so it's only fair Kerry does the same.
In reference to your Post Script, Billybob, on the radio earlier this afternoon, I heard someone mention the "Iraq-ization" of financial news. Just as the media only report the bad news out of Iraq, thus distorting the picture drastically, they are reporting only the bad news on the economy.
Sorry, but I don't believe Algore is finished. I see a 3 way race between him, Edwards, and the Witch in 2008. Of them, the Tree would be the most disastrous to America, IMO.
Not to say that Hitlery or Edwards wouldn't do incalculable damage, but Algore would be devastating...
What?? Just because he's a deranged communist??
Senator Kerry is on our turf, now...
Seriously, I don't think Breck Girl or Hitlery(maybe) have the hatred built up for America that he does. He blames everybody for losing in 2000, and given his wacko-environmental beliefs, he'd sell us out in a second. It's gone unreported, but several RAT pols were said to have thanked the Good Lord that GW was in office on 9-11, as opposed to Algore.
I don't think I could make a choice between algor and her as to who is more dangerous.
But KERRY scares the life out of me as a military mom......
Actually, if it weren't for Algore being so insane, I'd say Hillary is the most dangerous person in the country. If they do both run in '08 though, sit back and enjoy the fireworks. It's going to be a bloodbath for the libs. They hate each other, and the loser is going to be a MUCH BIGGER pain in the *ss than McLame is for Dubya.
Nicely done Congressman BB. I wonder how the tv station executives are reacting to these strongarm DNC tactics? Do you suppose they feel they've been bitten by their own snake?
Prairie
Oh, yeah. Only fair. Of course, 99% of the time the Democrats can't be accused of being fair . :^)But I agree. Jean Keri is the one making his 4.5 months the centerpiece of his campaign. He made his bed, and now he'll have to sleep in it.
Cough up those records, dirtbag !
After Clinton, I wouldn't be so quick to determine what will or won't work in a presidential campaign. Not that it really matters. He's doomed, regardless.
Later
Gosh....I'm a confused Freeper, and need some help with a question.
kerry "served" for 132 days in S.Viet Nam.I was led to believe that while in the service, you serve 24/7/365,or until your commitment was up, or you were no longer physically able to complete your commitment.
From listening to the lib-kerry-defendants arguements against the Swift-Vets,if you were not ON kerrys' boat, then you can't comment on him while he was there for his 132 days.
kerry should have gotten another medal,IMHO.He should have gotten a medal for the "Longest Continual Length of Time Spent on a Swift Boat By US Sailor Serving Durring the Viet Nam War WITHOUT Ever Getting Off the BOAT" medal......kinda like if you ride a roller coaster for 10 days straight to break a record,etc.
...but what about that picture that he was using on his web site with all those other sailors?....boy somebody must really know "Photo-Shop", cuz I can't even tell that they are standing in kerrys' boat.
...and boy did Spielberg do a GREAT job with that "movie" he made for kerry for the DNC convention !! The first time I saw "ET", he made that creature look real !!....But it was NOTHING compared to the kerry "movie"!!
Spielberg ACTUALLY HAD ME believing that kerry was WALKING ON LAND !!....And how he made all that jungle looking stuff and those other soldiers with him not look like they were still on kerrys' boat, will forever amaze me !!
kerry is a SUPER-HERO!!!....ALL THOSE MEDALS, an NEVER LEFT THE BOAT ONCE !!......(although I would have found it hard to have to work,sleep,eat,fight, and take care of all bodilly maintainence on that boat for 132 days STRAIGHT)
Maybe the reason his fellow shipmates LOVED him SO much was because kerry let them use his kitchen,bathroom,shower,living room area, and ESPECIALLY his ON-BOARD refrigerator,(to grab a cold beverage from on those really hot days) which the other Swift Boats didn't appear to have.
Even the Swift Vet who was 14 feet above the water watching kerry pull rassman back into the boat,says that incident MIGHT HAVE HAD THE CHANCE of disqualifing kerry for the 132 boat stay record, but lucky for kerry, he simply had to lean over the side to grab him and assist him in getting back aboard.
...(just did a search...shouldn't kerrys' 132 boat-stay-record, be on the "Guinness World Records" site ??....
I'm having trouble finding it......help????)
Nice work. Thanks for sharing your unique insight.
Around 1970, there was a short lived comic strip (don't remember the name) where one of the characters combined wimp and pussy to call weaklings he disliked 'wussies'.
The comic strip is forgotten, but the term lives on. Or so I've read...
And now one is running for President!
Maybe in your neighbourhood.
The lewder suggestions seem more likely in the rest of the world.
In any event, Kerry is a wuss of the first water(he can take some distinction in that).
I have a vision of Kerry selflessly jumping overboard to tow his boat through the reeds, and coming up with leeches all over his body, "Filthy little beggars." Nope, I had that wrong. That's how Kerry referred to his shipmates then, and voters today. That's the ticket.
John / Billybob
Well said, my FRiend, and timely! Thanks.
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