"Bill... you're a putz."
Posted on 08/12/2004 9:09:45 PM PDT by Jenya
The Swift Boat Blues
The partisans are running wild over this Swift Boat business, talk radio is crazy with it and the smell of blood is in the air. John Kerry has made a major deal of his Vietnam War record and now his opponents have opened fire on the Senator's experiences. It's all tawdry and distasteful of course, but let's examine things unemotionally.
First off, I believe Jim Rassmann when he says that Kerry saved his life by pulling him out of a Vietnam river while under fire. Rassmann is a former Green Beret, a former police officer and a long time registered Republican until earlier this year. If he says John Kerry is a hero, nobody should doubt it. Rassmann has earned the right to be trusted and insulting his testimony is way out of line.
But I also believe Steve Gardner, a former Navy gunner who was also present on one of Kerry's Swift Boats. He says the Senator wrote up a false report, neglecting to inform the Navy that he, Gardner, had accidentally shot a Vietnamese child during a firefight. This is a tough one. Gardner is implicating himself and has no reason to do so. But perhaps Kerry was looking out for him by not reporting the incident. Only Kerry knows.
It is very possible to perform heroically on some occasions and do less than admirable things on others. All human beings are flawed and we are capable of both valor and deceit. That's what I think happened here. John Kerry was brave, but was also calculating. His heroism impressed most of his Swift Boat mates, but his civilian anti-war activities and perceived grandstanding also alienated many other Vietnam Vets. And so the battle lines are drawn.
What should we, on the sidelines, make of all this? Well, it's a judgment call. It is absolutely wrong for Americans to condemn Kerry's war record because he demonstrated provable valor. However, those who distrust him do deserve to be heard although facts not emotion should be demanded.
I think the Swift Boat political advertisement calling Kerry a charlatan is in poor taste, and if this kind of thing continues it might well backfire on the Kerry haters. Most Americans are fair minded, and bitter personal attacks do not go down well with folks who are not driven by partisanship. Remember, General Wesley Clark was knocked out of the Presidential sweepstakes when he would not disown Michael Moore's insane remark that President Bush was a "deserter." Mr. Bush received an honorable discharge from the National Guard. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt pinned a medal on John Kerry's chest. The record is the record, unless rock solid proof refutes it.
The lesson here is that blind partisanship is not an attribute. No person or candidate is all good or all bad. In America today, with both sides peddling lies and defamation and spin, it is alarmingly difficult just to get simple facts on which to base a responsible vote.
Somewhere Jack Webb is weeping.
O'Reilly must have a boatload of splinters up his ass from straddling that fence.
And liberals think this guy is a conservative?
This idiot knows he has lost us and is going after the stupid people who still buy his BS.
BAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFF!
(I feel better now)
O'Really still thinks the money he found under his pillow as a kid came from the tooth fairy too.
I thought this place was liberal free... O'Reilly is among the worst of them with his "looking out for the folks nonsense."
"Bill... you're a putz."
Let's see if I understand this statement from Mr. Nospin. If an ad is run questioning Kerry's Viet Nam account, those people running the ad are haters?
Well, that's pretty fair and balanced.
All the Swift Boat Vets want is the truth. Nothing but the truth.
O'Reilly is a conservative.
But he's a conservative with a job that requires him to follow a middle of the road "centrist" philosophy.
I think he's waiting for real blood to hit the water before swarming, but at the moment it is a "he said, they say" match.
Everyone else who was there said there was no fire after the other boat hit the mine. Rassman says he swam to the bottom to avoid being hit by a boat (but the other boats did not flee like Kerrys').
Why does the media insist on falsehoods??
O"Reilly is NOT a conservative.
Sooner or later his ratings will shrivel. Tonight was the last straw for me.
O'Reilly is a conservative. He's right of center, anti-liberal. But he has a job that requires him to moderate himself in order to ensure that he keeps his job.
I don't know where your center is, but he is definitely not right of my center.
What a dolt. Maybe Bill can have Mickey Weatherspoon over his house for a steak sometime, and just for safety sake, Dr. McDonald. Both Green Berets, both psychopathic liars and murders. Of course being a police officer and a Republican are irrefutable evidence of honesty and truthfulness.
Maybe his columns are targeted to a semi illiterates and those devoid of history, memory and common sense.
He's hoping. I've really learned to dislike this guy.
60 vets who were with Kerry at one time or another say Kerry is unfit, yet O'Rielly the "know it all" sides with a billion dollar politician capable of buying any testimony he pleases.
O'Rielly lost me a long time ago with his 24/7 Bush bashing. I suppose he thinks it'll boost his ratings. The last thing on his mind is an American success in Iraq. The better Iraq gets, the dumber he looks.
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