KERRY: BUSH GETTING FRONT GROUPS TO DO HIS DIRTY WORK! (AWWWWW POOR WIDDLE KERRY SNIFF SNIFF!)

NY Daily News ^ | 8/19/04

[areafiftyone]

BOSTON - Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush on Thursday of relying on front groups to challenge his record of valor in Vietnam, asserting, "He wants them to do his dirty work."

Defending his record, the Democratic presidential candidate said, "Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts."

"Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam."

Kerry received five medals for his service in Vietnam a generation ago, but his record has come under campaign challenge in television commercials aired by "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," funded by supporters of the president.

Bush and the White House have refused to condemn the ads, despite calls to do so — from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Vietnam prisoner of war, as well as from Democrats.

Senior Democrats, including some inside the presidential campaign, have urged Kerry to respond forcefully to the criticism, fearing that if left unanswered, it could hamper his quest for the White House.

In addition to Kerry's speech before an audience of firefighters, his campaign released a new 30-second campaign commercial that features a former Green Beret saying the young Navy lieutenant saved his life under fire.

Recalling when his boat came under attack more than 30 years ago, Jim Rassmann says, "It blew me off the boat. All those Viet Cong were shooting at me. I expected I'd be shot. When he pulled me out of the river, he risked his life to save mine."

Aides said the commercial would air in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, three battleground states. The decision to advertise even in a limited fashion marked a change in course for the campaign, which had hoped to remain off the air for August to conserve cash for the fall campaign.

In his speech, Kerry employed a wartime metaphor.

"More than 30 years ago I learned an important lesson. When you're under attack the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attack. That's what I intend to do today."

Speaking of the organization airing the ads that challenge his war record, Kerry said, "Of course, this group isn't interested in the truth and they're not telling the truth. ...

"But here's what you really need to know about them. They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know. He wants them to do his dirty work."

Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said, "That charge leveled by Senator Kerry is absolutely and completely false."

"The Bush campaign has never and will never question John Kerry's service in Vietnam. The president has referred to John Kerry's service as noble service," the Bush spokesman said.

Kerry said, "Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'"

Kerry's comments drew boisterous cheers from members of the union that had endorsed him last year at a time his candidacy was struggling.

Rassmann, too, played a pivotal role in Kerry's campaign turnaround last winter. With the kickoff Iowa caucuses days away, the former Green Beret contacted the campaign and volunteered to appear with the Massachusetts senator and talk about his action in Vietnam.

Rassmann has since become the best known member of a group of veterans that Kerry calls his "band of brothers" — a stress on military service designed to erode the traditional Republican campaign advantage on national security issues.

Kerry's response came as The Washington Post reported that a Vietnam veteran who claims Kerry lied about being under fire during a Mekong Delta engagement that won Kerry a Bronze Star was under constant fire himself during the same skirmish according to the man's own medal citation.

The newly obtained records of Larry Thurlow show that he, like Kerry, won a Bronze Star in the engagement and that Thurlow's citation says he also was under attack, the Post reported.

Thurlow, also like Kerry, commanded a Navy swift boat during Vietnam. He swore in an affidavit last month that Kerry was "not under fire" when he rescued Rassmann from the Bay Hap River.

Thurlow's records, obtained by the Post under the Freedom of Information Act, include references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at all five boats in the flotilla that day. In his Bronze Star citation, Thurlow is praised for helping a damaged swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

Thurlow is a leading member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a public advocacy group of Vietnam veterans who have aired a television advertisement attacking Kerry's war record.

Thurlow, a registered Republican, said he was angry with Kerry for anti-war activities after his return to the United States, especially his claim that U.S. troops committed war crimes with the knowledge of their officers up the chain of command.

Thurlow told the Post that he got the award for helping to rescue a boat that was mined. He said he believed his own award would be fraudulent if it was based on coming under enemy fire.

He speculated that Kerry could have been the source of at least some of the language used in the citation.

Members of Kerry's crew have said Kerry is telling the truth. Rassmann said he has vivid memories of enemies firing at him from both banks.

Originally published on August 19, 2004

[Mike1973]

Lets not forget Kerry's 700lb lying nitwit, Michael Moore. Or how about the thoughtful Air America radio network.

[Skip Ripley]

Kerry is claiming that there is at least some level of coordination between the Bush campaign and a 527 organization. That is a violation of the exisiting campaign finance laws.

I'm sure the Secret Squirrel has the evidence to back that claim....

[tomatoealive]

As always, the dirty rats accuse others of exactly what they themselves are doing. kerry had michael moore sitting with president carter at the democrat convention.

Michael Moore Seated In President Carter's Box At DNC

Moore Compared Iraqi Terrorists To American Revolutionary War Heroes.  As for the current situation in Iraq, Moore has written: 'The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win.'" (Michael Barone, Op-Ed, "The Company They Keep," U.S. News & World Report , 7/12/04)

 

[BulletBobCo]

"I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam" Has this ever been verified by x-ray or medical record?

It was so small and superficial...it most likely festered itself out years ago.

[Elvis van Foster]

This happened today !! This is not where the Kerry campaign was hoping to be in August, having to defend his one "strength". Along with the money forced to be spent, this is excellent news. Next, he'll attack the press.

[arkady_renko]

"Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam."

Have you ever seen a less humble "hero"? If he needs to constantly bring up his service he's a little different than my Dad, who served on a mine sweeper in WWII or my deceased grandfather-in-law who served in WW I stringing telegraph wire behind enemy lines on horseback. Or my brother-in-law who worked on F4's in Vietnam.

They were reluctant to bring up their service -- because they considered it a service freely given for their country and nothing to brag about or use for their own gain. Each could point to someone they knew who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

I can't even feel sorry for Kerry anymore. He is so shallow that he has to keep boasting where a man with character would just keep silent and let his character speak out.

While I'm at it - thanks Dad, Al and Tom for your service. I am proud to say that you and the humble majority of veterans are my true heroes. John Kerry threw his right to that title over the wall.

A_R

[maryz]

"I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam"

Has this ever been verified by x-ray or medical record?

The only "verification" by a doctor I've heard about is from the doctor treating the prostate cancer. He did mention it, but it sounded as if he was relying on Kerry's word. (Anyway, wasn't that rice he got hit with?)

[the_gospel_of_thomas]

Billionaire Soros
takes on Bush

Ousting president ‘central
focus of my life,’ he says




.... but the Swiftvets can't speak for themselves ?????????

[cousair]

Yes they are and they are DIRTY DIRTY. I have seen some of President Bush's recent ads and they are fresh clean and uplifting. He is like a breath of fresh air when you compare the Kerry speeches and gaffs. The KErry spin doctors and bomb throwers are out there bigtime. It gets easier everyday to sift out those who lie.

[Howlin]

Per Boston Globe regarding Kerry's request for swift boats - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

[Riley]

KERRY: BUSH GETTING FRONT GROUPS TO DO HIS DIRTY WORK!

Yeah, everything in Washington is a big, dark, vast, well-oiled conspiracy- just like on the 'X Files'. It never occurs to the left that there are people that don't want Kerry to be president, who form groups, and are not 'Republican Operatives'.

Maybe next election cycle, I'll start a group called 'Computer Geeks Against Hillary'. It'll be fun to see how long it takes before we're referred to as a "shadowy cabal of 'hackers' who take their marching orders from the RNC", or some such nonsense.

[pabianice]

Of course, MoveBowels.Org and George Soros are totally separate from the Kerry campaign and are "inappropriate..."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Excerpt from Unfit for Command -***On March 15, 2004, Admiral Hoffmann's telephone rang again. Once again, the caller was John Kerry. Kerry had clinched the Democratic nomination, and he knew that Hoffmann was organizing Swiftees to bring out the truth about him, his exaggerated military record, and his antiwar lies that had slandered his fellow veterans. Kerry made the admiral an offer: If you will back off and drop your efforts, I will ensure that my biography, Tour of Duty, which I know is unfair to you, will be changed to make it accurate in a revised edition. Here is my secretary's number - you can get me anytime.

The offer from the Democratic presidential candidate was an attempt to flatter Hoffmann, a warrior whose coin is not power or wealth, but honnor--an honor deeply impugned by Kerry's book. Hoffman, after all, is a wounded survivor of the amphibious assault at Wonson, Korea, where his minesweeper still lies below the frigid waters of Wonson Harbor. Kerry knew that winning Hoffmann over to his side would thwart the Swiftees' efforts to discredit him. Hoffmann told Kerry that he and the vast majority of his shipmates could never forgive him for his defamation of our Navy and other U.S. Armed Forces by his slanderous and undocumented accusations of unspeakable atrocities in Vietnam before the U.S. COngress in 1971, his leadership in the VVAW, and his association with the traitorous Jane Fonda and others of her ilk. Surprisingly, Kerry responded by simply saying that he "was expressing his conviction."

If Admiral Hoffmann were truly a butcher whose conduct "sickens" John Kerry to this day, an impression one could easily gain from reading Tour of Duty, then why did Kerry offer to change inaccuracies he knew were in Tour of Duty in exchange for Admiral Hoffmann and the Swiftees ceasing their activities? In emails on May 3, 2003, and on May 7, 2004,trying to dissuade Swiftees from joining Admiral Hoffmann, Wade Sanders referred to the group as "bitter drunks," something the sailors involved deeply resented. Moreover, Sanders referred to Joe Ponder, a seriously disabled Swiftee who cried when talking about Kerry's charges, as "a whining crybaby." [End Excerpt]*** - pages 68-69

[smiley]

2 more words: Hillary Clinton. (ACT is her creation).

[areafiftyone]

MoveBowels.Org

BWWAAA HAAA HHAA I love it!! :-)

[goodnesswins]

Soros LOOKS scary! I cannot look at him....he seems as wild eyed and crazy as the rest of them.

[ravingnutter]

We need to hit them with the info I just posted here. Source links are there.

The White House yesterday distanced itself from a political ad that questions John Kerry's Vietnam service and called on the Democratic presidential nominee to join President Bush in demanding an "immediate cessation" of all advertisements by outside groups.

"We have not and will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. "The president is calling for an immediate cessation to all the unregulated soft money activity."

Source: Washington Times

June 23, 2004 - In a major shift in fundraising strategy, President Bush’s finance team has begun asking wealthy Republicans to cut checks as large as $1 million to GOP state parties in key election battlegrounds rather than steering their funds to independent groups created in recent months to support Republican candidates this fall.

Source: Roll Call

They also filed a complaint...which resulted in this opinion...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Election Commission Thursday rejected a proposal to rein in the unlimited fundraising and spending power of independent political groups attempting to influence the outcome of this year's presidential race.

Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot and Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie called the FEC decision "irresponsible" in a joint statement.

Source: CNN

Therefore, John Kerry's argument doesn't wash...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This will give the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth a lot of coverage and get this out to a wider audience!

____________________________________________________

***Some Bush supporters and a few fellow veterans have been raising questions about Kerry's military record, which has been a cornerstone of his presidential campaign. Senior Democrats inside and outside the campaign say they're worried about indications, some based on polling, that the criticism might be undercutting gains Kerry made against Bush in the Democratic National Convention, with its spotlight on his combat record and military honors from the Vietnam War. Some Democrats are urging Kerry to fight back against the criticism, which gained steam this month with a TV ad featuring fellow veterans questioning his record.***Source

[sweetiepiezer]

How long does rice stay in ones skin?

[smiley]

Pray that the swiftees have plenty of hiding places to keep these accurate and factual documents....out of the fingers of the DNC. Offices have been known to be bombed, burgled and yes, helped along with arson.