Dole Questions Kerry's Vietnam Wounds

Yahoo News ^ | 8/22/04 | Pete Yost

[ThreePuttinDude]

Here is what a quick Google produced, first article on page 1

August 17, 2004

POLITICS: Who Is John Hurley?

UPDATE: Not the same guy. A relative? Even so, it kind of moots the point. Consider this item corrected.

So last night, I saw John O'Neill of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on Joe Scarborough's show, debating John Hurley, national director of "Vietnam Veterans for Kerry." (I missed the same duo on Hardball last week, but it sounds like they did the same routine). Some Kerry supporters may wish to know: who is John Hurley? Well, Hurley is obviously a politically active head of a veterans' group, and he has a pretty thick Boston accent. Which leads me to believe that he is one and the same as John J. "Wacko" Hurley, head of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, who successfully fought all the way to the Supreme Court in 1995 to keep a gay group out of the Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Somebody call Media Matters, which tried to discredit the Swift Boat group by dredging up a variety of intemperate and in some cases intolerant quotes by O'Neill's co-author, Jerome Corsi. At least Corsi isn't actually heading a group directly affiliated with the Bush campaign.

(Of course, the merits of keeping gay groups out of the St. Patrick's Day Parade is open to fair debate, depending on one's view of the parade, but what do you think Atrios would say if Hurley was heading a pro-Bush group?)

As for the merits, I gotta say, if this was the first I'd seen of this controversy, I would have started off very skeptical - O'Neill seems so over-the-top in attacking just every bit of Kerry's service record, and his demeanor is very cheesy trial-lawyer. But I was definitely more convinced by the end that O'Neill's charges could have some weight to them. O'Neill just had a whole lot more specifics on his side, and all Hurley could do - besides say he thought O'Neill should be ashamed of himself - was to cite Navy reports that apparently relied on Kerry's own information.

The debate over the circumstances of Kerry's Bronze Star (the rescue of James Rassman) seems particularly stark - Kerry and Rassman say that Kerry came back alone under fire to pull out Rassman, O'Neill cites the captains of several other boats who say Kerry alone fled the scene and came back when the shooting stopped while there were several other boats around pulling other guys out of the water. It's very hard to write this off as a difference in perceptions.

Anyway, I remain open to persuasion on who's right here, and I remain skeptical of how relevant any of this really is to the 2004 campaign. But there's clearly an interesting story here.

Posted by Baseball Crank at 11:29 PM | Politics 2004 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

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[Petronski]

Talk is cheap. I hope someday to be within spitting distance of that lying bitch Barbarella.

[AmishDude]

This is true. It's the reason Kerry can't fly commercial. Can't get by the metal detectors. Same reason he can't perform his duties in the Senate. The metal detectors keep him out.

Excellent!

But . . . does rice show up on a metal detector?

[henbane]

"Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh . . . . " John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, said on ABC's "This Week."

According to Steve Gardner, who was manning the gun tub when Kerry got one of his "ticket-out" cuts, the fragment came from Kerry's own concussion grenade.

Kerry had tossed the grenade into a sampan full of rice and was slow in ducking down. He caught a splinter from the grenade's casing as well as a handfull of rice in the butt.

This type of ordnance contains no lethal pellets and is used to destroy piles of ammo, rations, etc. in one shot. In short, Kerry's ass was sticking up in the wrong place as the rice went flying. Some of the rice grains embedded in his buttocks along with a sliver of the grenade shell. Some unkind souls refer to it as Kerry's "The Uncle Ben" wound.

This event took place in the early morning of the same day he later pulled Rassman off the bow-net onto the deck. Kerry's arm contusion in that scenario came from Kerry being thrown against the pilot-house bulkhead as he panic-floored the swiftboat when a mine detonated under a nearby boat. This is the action that dumped Rassman overboard--who, by one of Rassman's many accounts, was munching a chocolate-chip cookie on deck--sending him head over teakettle into the brown water.

In effect, both of Kerry's "wounds" were not life-threatening, but--most importantly--were caused by Kerry himself--were self-inflicted.

Self-inflicted wounds--no matter how severe--cannot qualify for the Purple Heart.

So John Kerry, running for President on his record as an intrepid Audie Murphy-type jungle fighter, has a big, big problem with that very record now under the brilliant searchlight of public scrutiny.

And another ten weeks or so of very close examination yet to come.

[Kitty Mittens]

I followed your link to DUmmy-Land, and was APALLED at their Filthiness and utter Callousness and Wickedness toward a man they are not worthy to wash the feet of! Oh, I've got to go outside for awhile and cool off, before my mouth says something it shouldn't about those Creatures at Dirty Underwear!

[Jim Robinson]

LOL. I was wondering the same thing.

[AmishDude]

Can somebody forward this to John McCain?

[ErnBatavia]

Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam.

Kerry axed for it. He's brought it to a head with his macho-boy "Bring it on" thing.

...starting to look like it's gonna bite him in the arse.

[SandRat]

I can hardly wait for the DNC or anyone on the left to point their finger at Bob Dole and screech "How dare you?" Uh, Bob Dole really did earn his PH. Wonder when Sen Inoye (D-HI) is going to chime in with his rows of fruit-salad & CIB and ask "Tell me again, truthfully, just how did you earn 3 PH is 4 months and get to go home?"

[AndyJackson]

How many hours in type does John Podesta have?

[AmishDude]

28 minutes? I don't like it. Commercials get people who weren't expecting it. A half-hour presentation will only be seen by people who choose to see it.

[Niks]

Thought I'd share this with my fellow FReepers. This is the message my husband left for Bob Dole.

"Dear Senator Dole,

My wife and I would like to thank you very much for requesting that Senator Kerry apologize to Vietnam veterans for his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.  We have been waiting anxiously for someone of your stature to put this issue into perspective.

In my 10 years in the US Army, I never heard of any "war crimes" being committed, nor did anyone in my unit ever tell me of any, nor did any of my military colleagues ever tell me of any.  If Senator Kerry committed them, he should have turned himself in; if he knew that others had committed them, it was his duty as an officer to report them to higher command; if, in preparation for his Senate testimony, he was told by members of his organization (VVAW) that they had committed atrocities, then he should have produced those people for firsthand testimony at the hearing instead of passing on vile "hearsay" which he himself had not verified.

In conclusion, thank you again for sticking up for the veterans, and thank you also for your own service and sacrifice for the country.  You are a true hero."

[onyx]

Here's what CNN just did:

Announced that Bod Dole had attacked Kerry,
BUT played Kay Bailey Hutchinson's remarks.

Dole is WAY TOO credible and respected to dare play his comments from Blitzer's show this morning.

He nailed Kerry.

[beyond the sea]

Go here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1197034/posts

October Surprise!!!!! (But it willl really happen in September.)

[AmishDude]

Thanks.

[GBA]

"How could he pull out a guy 4 feet down? - He's John Kerry - he can do anything! He can be in Cambodia and 50 miles downriver on the same Christmas eve. He can be a Vietnam war hero alone, while everyone else was committing atrocities."

John Kerry earned not one, not two, but THREE purple hearts in just three months in Vietnam, with one of those months being training.

John F'n' Kerry can do anything. He is Captain America, John Wayne and Superman all rolled into one amazing Heroman. I'm breathless. *gasp* Say it with me now: "President Kerry"...oh my!

[beyond the sea]

You're welcome.

Hey if you're really Amish ...... and you were that Motel 6 guy, Tom Bodett ....... would YOU (being Amish) leave the light on for us?

:-)

[AmishDude]

Yes.

If I were Amish.

[beyond the sea]

Great profile page you have. I see you have Quinn(and Rose) on there. They're my guys here in Pittsburgh. I listen to them every morning. Quinn is the best!

[Mercat]

I wish that Papa Bush would weigh in.