Posted on 08/17/2004 12:51:59 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
........Kerry's statements about Cambodia do have traction for opponents. He has referred to spending Christmas or Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia and coming under fire. At the time Cambodia was neutral and supposedly off-limits to US troops. "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia," Kerry said in 1986 at a Senate committee hearing on US policy toward Central America. "I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there, the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."
The Kerry campaign now says Kerry's runs into Cambodia came in early 1969. "Swift boat crews regularly operated along the Cambodian border from Ha Tien on the Gulf of Thailand to the rivers of the Mekong south and west of Saigon," Michael Meehan, a Kerry adviser, said in a statement last week. "Many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group."
Answers like that aren't good enough. Kerry put his Vietnam service before voters as the seminal character issue of his presidential campaign. He should answer every question voters have about it -- and he should answer them himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
And that's not the only issue that reporters are curiously incurious about. At least one of Kerry's Purple Hearts has been challenged by his unit's medical officer, who notes that the wound was barely visible and was treated with a Band-Aid. Some questions should also be asked about his Silver Star: Should shooting a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back — as justifiable as it was as an act of war — be worthy of the nation's third-highest award for courage?
To those of you who say such questions are unseemly, consider that John Kerry's principal claim on the presidency is that he served four months and 11 days in Vietnam. OK, fine. Let's examine the records — all the records, which, unlike Bush and contrary to popular perception, Kerry has not released — and have a debate. We would be if it were George W. Bush. The media would see to it.
Cearnal is the special projects editor at the Chronicle. A former Marine helicopter pilot, he served in Vietnam from mid-1968 through mid-1969. Readers may e-mail him at lee.cearnal@chron.com
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam veteran who has endorsed Bush, called the ad "dishonest and dishonorable." He said that "none of these individuals served on the boat [Kerry] commanded," adding that he believed "John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam."
In a lengthy interview between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's first news conference in May and the controversy last week, Kerry called the group's allegations pure "politics."
"Some of them don't like the fact that I opposed the war, and 35 years later some people still want to argue about that," Kerry said in the June interview. "It's way beyond me, can I tell you? It's so far beyond and past now. I feel sad about it."
He said he respected the service all Swift boat crews gave to their country and lauded their courage.
"So I'm at peace with myself, and I'm sorry they feel the way they do," Kerry said, "because I respect them. I really do."***
Are these cracks in the kerry 'press wall' that I see?????
Who exactly is purveying false information here? President Bush never said that the threat was imminent. He said that we must not wait until the threat was imminent. This commentator knows that, yet persists in basing the notion that Bush is a liar on this one, easily-refutable falsehood.
Great find! The knives are out.
Things are cooking!
Why doesn't someone simply ask the crewmates if they were in Cambodia? Oh; pardon me: they've been bought and paid for, and as such, aren't permitted to make statements without the approval of the Kerry campaign.
It's tempting to come out with his bunny suit pic, his motorbike pic, etc. The man not only gets into funny situations, he looks goofy to boot. Kerry is the Lucille Ball of politics.
New tagline...
And the book is barely hitting the street now! The hungry beast is just starting to awake. Hopefully, soon the press will be feeding ravenously off the corpse of John Kerry's political carcass.
______________________________________________ ALL: The entire Boston Globe piece is worth reading.
I wouldn't look for her to press the issue.
But at least she's arguing for the right thing (if for the wrong reasons); she really thinks Kerry could put the doubts to rest if only he would be a stand-up guy and answer the charges himself. Right on, Vennochi! Keep up the pressure! (snicker)
She's been writing a lot of unflattering pieces about Kerry. Perhaps she's in the Clinton camp.
To the Boston Globe....
It is not the Bush administration that has to turn this campaign into a contest between liars.
George W. Bush is NOT a liar, and we all know it. The evidence of Bush's courage, honesty and faith are all around us and only someone wilfully blinded by partisan hate could fail to recognize that.
Kerry, on the other hand, by the Globe's own words, stands condemned as a calculating liar.
Perhaps the most likely reason Kerry does not refute these charges himself is that he cannot.
She's not been a rah-rah Kerry supporter.
Time will tell if this issue attains critical mass, but so far the MSM is doing an excellent job of burying it.
Perhaps she's in the Clinton camp.
Perhaps she just can't stomach Kerry. At least her gag reflex is still working. ;-)
Blood in the water.
I wouldn't say excellent.
If they were doing an excellent job of burying this, there wouldn't be so many storys, editorials and news reports about it.
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