Sen. John Kerry's SWIFT meltdown: Hugh Hewitt on why Dem's campaign, lib pundits are floundering

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, August 11, 2004 | Hugh Hewitt

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

---

---

Kerry's SWIFT meltdown

---

Posted: August 11, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Hugh Hewitt

---

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

At this writing, the Kerry campaign has not yet responded to the media meltdown that is occurring around John Kerry's four decades of stories built on his secret, illegal missions into Cambodia during the four months he skippered a SWIFT boat.

It is impossible to stonewall a story that broke out of the blogosphere and into the major media on Monday night and Tuesday morning, so eventually John Kerry is going to have to stand by his wildly implausible tales of cross-border excellent adventures, or he's going to have to apologize for inventing personal history.

Here are the facts. Not long after returning from Vietnam, John Kerry began telling people he had been sent into Cambodia on an illegal patrol on Christmas Eve 1968. He repeated that story on the floor of the Senate in 1986, to an AP reporter in 1992, and as recently as June 2003 was regaling a Washington Post reporter with a story of how he had ferried a CIA man secretly into Cambodia, and how he'd kept the man's hat as a reminder of that journey.

The Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia story has already been completely shredded by the SWIFT boat vet critics of Kerry, and it is hard to imagine how Kerry is going to defend the CIA man who was never there, given independent testimony from Navy vets that the SWIFT boats never went into Cambodian waters. If Kerry was sent on a secret drop-off mission, he's going to have to come up with some proof, especially with the Christmas Eve narrative now so discredited.

The blogosphere pushed this story forward, with an early flare going up at KerryHaters on May 21, and then a gang tackle of the facts by Instapundit, RogerLSimon, JustOneMinute, Powerline, CaptainsQuarters and, of course, me.

We teed it up after the publisher of "Unfit for Command" released a sample chapter from the new book which brought the Cambodian myth to light. I spent all day Thursday, Friday and Monday on the story on my radio program, and Monday night Carl Cameron ran with a story on "Special Report" with Brit Hume, followed by an "O'Reilly Factor" segment with Steve Gardener, a SWIFT boat vet who served on Kerry's boat. Gardener denied ever having been to Cambodia. The Kerry campaign first denied that Kerry had ever claimed to have been in Cambodia, and then recanted upon being shown the 1986 Congressional record, promising to get back to Fox News with an explanation.

No explanation has shown up more than 12 hours later. In the interim, the New York Post has run a story, as has the London Telegraph, and the Washington Times' editors have produced a powerful editorial on the subject.

Why all the attention? Simply put, if John Kerry can be conclusively demonstrated to have lied about aspects of his Vietnam service, the media has to ask what else has he been lying about. The voters have to ask if he can be trusted. In short: Free fall.

The lefty bloggers and talking heads are stunned into silence, and have gotten no help from the Kerry people. It's hard to spin a story that hasn't been spun by the campaign since Kerry could elect to go in completely different directions. If he hangs tough on the Christmas Eve and CIA man stories, his allies will know to hang tough as well. But they can't do that without a clear signal, because if Kerry comes out and apologizes for a tall tale, the commentators are cut off at the knees.

A nasty dilemma. Perhaps the lefty pundits should try sticking with the truth: It looks very bad for Kerry. It looks like he's been lying and padding his Vietnam resume for decades and that the elite media was so in love with the story they didn't bother to check it out. It looks like Kerry's selective release of his military and health records was smoke, and that the big-time journalists at the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post fell for it.

Now we get to see if there's any pride left in the newsroom. Do any of these writers, reporters and producers resent getting played by Kerry? If so, payback will be stiff. Too early to tell whether Bush-hatred trumps anger at getting suckered. More to follow ...

---

[fatima]

Bump.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

ABC CBS CNN FOX NBC



Why do the TV and Cable Newsrooms
hide Hanoi Kerry's past?

[Soaring Feather]

bump

[bray]

Kerry simply made up this atrocious story to damage President Nixon! He was claiming that Nixon was sending troops to Cambodia when he wasn't. Hanging is too good for this piece of scum!

Pray for W and Our Troops

[absalom01]

Thanks for the ping, Mr. Dog, sir.
You might be interested in this little anecdote: I was phonebanking last night, and deviated from the script once in a while to see if this story was getting out. Most people have not heard, but a couple younger people HAVE followed the story on the internet, and are BENT WAY OUT OF SHAPE by Kerry lying.

I think that this could have an important impact on a subset of the undecideds who have been swayed by the "Bush lied" meme. I don't always agree with HH, but he's dead on right about this one -- the "money quote" is the fact that Kerry has been making stuff up out of whole cloth, and as recently as last year.

Time for a flood of letters to the editor.

[norton]

There are many thousands out there who have repeated imaginary tales of heroism in whichever war they had a role in.
[Note, sometimes tag line is 'safe in Saigon'...honesty is best policy]

"Misremembering" isn't such a stretch but I've met zero vets who have their own home movies of themselves in mismatched combat garb & in a nonsensical situation (looking like an 11-Bravo on speed rather than a Navy Lieutenant responsible for his crew etc.). I did know a couple who wanted a purple heart - one thought the nail scratch obtained in route to a bunker would qualify: such people are loons and to be avoided during any crisis.

The similarities between the first JFK and this one are far too well tuned, too scripted, and too familiar. It's sort of the other side of WJC's Kennedy moment followed by his and Hitlery's more traditional political route to the top. It is as though someone used the same starting point to construct two (or more?) automatons programmed for different routes for the presidency when they grew up.

[SheLion]

FnKerry opened the door and the tide rushed in!

[zip]

Bush-hating will win out every time. Remember Klintoon?? I am getting disgusted with the libs "toe-the-line at any cost" routine. Aren't there any REAL Americans in the media (other than the few we can count on our fingers)?

[teletech]

Try checking out the DUmmie forum.

I wouldn't waste my time reading their hate filled drivel.

[Landru]

"re: Why all the attention? Simply put, if John Kerry can be conclusively demonstrated to have lied about aspects of his Vietnam service, the media has to ask what else has he been lying about."

They do?
Since when?
Really not *trying* { :o) } to be a smartass or anything; but, you know better than that, mamz.

"The voters have to ask if he can be trusted. In short: Free fall. )))"

Sure, *if* the average voter heard the truth concerning -- any one aspect -- of this guy's past, that'd be so.
I think we could all agree if the American people are presented the facts of any issue, they'll make the right decision regardless the issue; and, therein lies the weak link.

Unfortunately the "truth" has never been any more or less than what the lamestream mediot quislings said the truth is.
Add to that a state-of-the-art application of the Sin of Omission & things become quite convoluted & no one can be sure of *anything* anymore, no matter how absurd.
We're seeing the end result -- in one form or another -- of our nation's mediot-quislings ploys played out every single day.

"What if no one is surprised by the lies, and no one really cares that he's a liar?"

Well that's not unprecidented, is it?
In a word: William Jefferson Xlinton.

"We all assume that exposing the knave will destroy him."

Ordinarily that's be a safe assumption & there'd be a lot of truth in what you've said say 10, 15 or more years ago.
When last we lived in a sane world where telling the truth was the name of the game?

"I'm hoping that it works that way."

Yea, including myself.

But to be totally truthful given events of recent hostory?

...my *gut's* telling me, otherwise.

[Nascar Dad]

Kerry campaign-----

[1Old Pro]

a story that broke out of the blogosphere and into the major media on Monday night and Tuesday morning

Once again, the internet and talk rdio are doing the job of the investigative journalists when those liberal reporters refuse to investigate one of their own.

[teletech]

I do not beieve it is hatred of Bush, but that he represents the conservatives of America. And the world Socialists are sinking unless they can get a hold on the US. So their hatred of Conseratives and what we stand for.

Well yes, they hate what the President stands for and believes. They hate conservatives!

[Grampa Dave]

"The similarities between the first JFK and this one are far too well tuned, too scripted, and too familiar. It's sort of the other side of WJC's Kennedy moment followed by his and Hitlery's more traditional political route to the top. It is as though someone used the same starting point to construct two (or more?) automatons programmed for different routes for the presidency when they grew up."

I'm glad that you posted this. I keep thinking of JFK when I read these reality peeks at the real Kerry.

[Cboldt]

I'm afraid that the real result of the Swift Boat Veteran's effort will be to divert Kerry campaign attention into grinding them up.

That is the point of their speaking out. To have a confrontation between Kerry's version (and the media's version) of history, and their version. Why are you afraid of the confrontation?

It can only be because you think the Swifties will somehow lose. If they do, then it is a cryin' shame, because they only want to inform the public.

[PhiKapMom]

Exactly! The media will NOT go down in flames with Kerry even though they don't want Bush. Some will but most will jump up the bandwagon because if they don't their credibility (what little is left) will be totally shot.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!!

[wardaddy]

Bush hatred trumps the pain of being suckered by Kerry and his minions.

In fact, I'm not sure they were suckered....more like willing accomplices.

But, somebody will break rank hopefully.

[teletech]

you assume polls are not manufactured for kerry

Maybe some are, but ALL of them? THAT is a stretch! Kerry's "lead" is well within the margin of error in most of these polls so maybe he isn't ahead of Bush.

[OrioleFan]

If the SwiftVets can pull the rug out from under sKerry's supposed Vietnam heroics, then he has to run on his record in the Senate. At that point he is toast.