Bush boards Swift boat convoy

New York Daily News ^ | 8/21/04

[kattracks]

President Bush has described John Kerry's service in Vietnam as "noble," yet he's letting supporters wage a highly effective campaign to discredit the same service with accusations that Kerry faked his way to some heavy medals. The attacks leveled against Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in TV ads and a best-selling book are eating at the Democrat's support while in large measure lacking credibility. For Bush to gain advantage this way is to reap the fruit of a poisonous tree.

Kerry yesterday complained to the Federal Elections Commission that the Swifties, supposedly independent, are illegally collaborating with the Bush campaign. Whether that's so or not, the assault has been financed and directed by a boatload of longtime Bushies, as vividly documented yesterday in The New York Times. The ties are so close that, for all intents and purposes, the Swifties are a wholly owned subsidiary of Bush-Cheney '04.

The group consists of Vietnam veterans who have been steamed since their comrade-in-arms came home to become an anti-war activist who spouted accusations that were exaggerated, if not slanderous. They have every right now to present their unflattering version of the truth, even if that conflicts with other evidence and even if many of them had previously spoken glowingly of Kerry.

But Bush is being thoroughly disingenuous in going along for the ride. Come to think of it, political candidates should live by the following standard: If you're not willing to say something yourself, don't let anyone else say it for you.

As for Kerry, he might ask why the Swifties' attacks have been effective. The answer is his propensity to exaggerate. Kerry exaggerated about "atrocities" in testimony before Congress. And it's looking more likely that he exaggerated, if not worse, when he claimed through the years that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. He has said the memory was "seared" into him, but it's now clear Kerry was elsewhere, at least at that time. He has yet to explain. Until he does, the Swifties will have a powerful weapon in their arsenal.

[snip]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Unfit for Command [Excerpt] Kerry's testimony to the Fulbright Committee was a carefully orchestrated piece of political theater. Fulbright wanted a presentable, young Kennedy-esque face to put on the antiwar effort, and Kerry wanted a national forum from which to launch his climb to political celebrity. Ted Kennedy helped arrange Kerry's testimony with Senator Fulbright at a private fundraising event held at the home of Democratic senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan.

………Once Kerry learned that he would have the chance to give testimony before the committee, he recruited the assistance of Adam Walinsky, a speechwriter noted for his work with Robert Kennedy. Walinsky drafted the speech and coached Kerry on its delivery. The only image Kerry wanted us to see was a myth: a young man with a burning passion for the truth, the leader forced to sleep on the ground, the man answering his country's call to be where he was urgently needed, before a committee of the United States Senate where the senators and America were urgently waiting for his firsthand criticism of the war. He porceeded to level his charges: [End Excerpt]

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I'm beginning to wonder how long this political theater was in the making.

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Kerry's World: Father Knows Best****……….As early as prep school, John Kerry showed signs that he shared his father's suspicions about America's cold war foreign policy. In a debate at St. Paul's in the late '50s, he argued that the United States should establish relations with Red China. During his junior year at Yale, he won a speech prize for an oration warning, "It is the specter of Western Imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating." And, when he was tapped to deliver a graduation speech in 1966, he used the occasion to condemn U.S. involvement in Vietnam, intoning, "What was an excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism."……….***

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John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by William Fulbright, in April 1971. Photo UPI

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New Swift Boat Ad

A frame grab shows Vietnam war-era Swift boat veteran Ken Cordier speaking during a television commercial over Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry 's war record. Kerry asked the Federal Election Commission August 20, 2004 to force Republican critics to withdraw the ads challenging his military service, and accused the Bush campaign of illegally helping coordinate the attacks. Photo by Swiftvets.Com/Reuters

[kattracks]

My, my, the Dems have suddenly decided that candidates should accept responsibility for what others say in their behalf.

Where was this concern when Moore distributed his garbage? Where do they stand on MoveOnOrg?

Or is this just one more example of do as I say and not as I do?

[Prime Choice]

President Bush has described John Kerry's service in Vietnam as "noble," yet he's letting supporters wage a highly effective campaign to discredit the same service with accusations that Kerry faked his way to some heavy medals.

Oh how horrible! Bush is actually letting other people exercise their First Amendment rights! Stop the presses!!

*rolling eyes* Amazing how the media can spin things, ain't it?

[blanknoone]

Hey, NYDN AH's, the President is not 'letting' anyone do anything. He can't stop them...it would be coordination and illegal.

BTW, where is your denunciation of all the slime ads that Kerry is 'letting' Moveon, the Media Fund, ACT, etc etc etc etc etc airing?

President Bush in particular, and Republicans in general, have denounced 527s and tried to close the loophole. Kerry has not denounced 527s and democrats are fighting to keep the loophole open.

[Prime Choice]

Where was this concern when Moore distributed his garbage? Where do they stand on MoveOnOrg?

They believe Moore's trash and MoveOn.org's filth are the champions of Free Speech. But anyone who speaks in less-than-glowing terms of their Benedict Arnold boy wonder is part of that Evil Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Or is this just one more example of do as I say and not as I do?

That's the way Leftists like it...just like their idols Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Minh preferred it.

[goldstategop]

The libs are panicked and their response is to accuse Bush of profiting from something he doesn't have a hand in. Man, that is lame. They are so knee-jerk anti-Bush that they can't see past their hatred and look at a campaign that's imploding around them. I hope they continue to live in their little make-believe world right through Election Day.

[GeronL]

yet he's letting supporters wage a highly effective campaign to discredit the same service with accusations that Kerry faked his way to some heavy medals

He cannot make them stop and he cannot legally demand it under CFR

[nopardons]

And Kerry's own wife, HIS WIFE,funds 527s,who have and are bashing the president,through the TIDES foundation.Maybe wee Johnboy needs to rope in his wifey,before he starte crying like a baby to the FEC!

[goldstategop]

And if he did fake his way to heavy medals, that should be a *news* story. All we see here is the mainstream media clymers continuing a Kerry Ass Cover Mode mission.

[Prime Choice]

And if he did fake his way to heavy medals, that should be a *news* story. All we see here is the mainstream media clymers continuing a Kerry Ass Cover Mode mission.

That's what chaps my hide. If Bush's National Guard doctor had had anything untoward to say about him, the so-called "unbiased" press would have been all over that story like stink on s***. But when Kerry's attending doctor says anything, it's poo-poohed as "partisan attacks."

I for one am glad to see the Swift Vets' ads are hitting Kerry in the breadbasket. God knows he's had it coming for months.

[oolatec]

The Liberals are dying for Bush to disavow the Swifties... then they will be able to say "See! Look! Bush is ordering them to stop! They were Republican operatives after all!"... And the Liberals call President Bush the dumb one? lol

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

President Bush has described John Kerry's service in Vietnam as "noble," yet he's letting supporters wage a highly effective campaign to discredit the same service with accusations that Kerry faked his way to some heavy medals.

He CAN'T interfere. That would be "collusion". It's like the Prime Directive in Star Trek.

[Salamander]

Pants-wetting panic *is* the appropriate response when faced with the omnipotent power of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy®, doncha know...:)

[DaveMSmith]

Yo Lefties... over here!

Leave George W Bush out of this. He's just doing his job.

I'm the guy you're looking for. I'm a New Jersey republican who supports the swift boat vets. I contributed $25 and carry their book everywhere.

Respectfully,

David M Smith

Chairman, VWRC

Riverton, NJ

[Salamander]

It would also be tyrannical censorship.
[note that kerry is all for *that*]

[Salamander]

Ha.
You just proved my post...:))

[Prime Choice]

And Kerry's own wife, HIS WIFE,funds 527s,who have and are bashing the president,through the TIDES foundation.Maybe wee Johnboy needs to rope in his wifey,before he starte crying like a baby to the FEC!

The Heinz-Kerry connection to the Tides Foundation has me stymied. I've yet to see any "mainstream" [sic] media pick up on that, and I've even come across a number of (otherwise reliable) sites that proclaim themselves to be "impartial fact checkers" who dismiss the whole Heinz-Kerry/Tides connection.

This whole thing with Heinz-Kerry is just too damned squirrelly for my liking. Somehow we got to get to the bottom of their abuse of 527s and make it stick.

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

It might even be seen as "unilateral".

We know the libs HATE that.

[Casloy]

What an absolute total crock of #$*&. When did the Dems ever disavow anything done by MOVEON.ORG or Michael Moore's filthy propaganda piece? How is it not one of these MSM ever said a word about this before now. It isn't till these sycophantic, lap dog, brown nosing MSM monkies see their boy in trouble that they scream foul. It makes me gag.