Posted on 08/22/2004 1:59:13 PM PDT by kattracks
CRAWFORD, Texas - Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry (news - web sites) apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam.
Separately, President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign continued to deny links to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an anti-Kerry group running ads in three states, after the resignation of a campaign volunteer who appeared in the group's new ad.
With Kerry taking a break from campaigning, running mate John Edwards (news - web sites) said Bush needs to tell the group to pull its ads, a step the White House and the Bush campaign refuse to take. The White House and Bush's campaign note that Kerry has benefited from more than $62 million worth of similar advertising against the president.
"This is the moment of truth for President Bush," Edwards said in North Carolina. "The American people have to hear directly that these ads need to come off the air." Kerry also fought back in another new ad.
Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for the current situation, in which polls show him losing support among veterans.
"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, `I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.
"Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.
Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."
Kerry's supporters rose to his defense.
"Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh as distinct from President Bush who carries two fillings in his teeth from his service in the Alabama National Guard, which seems to be his only time that he showed up," John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, said on ABC's "This Week."
Bush served stateside in the Guard during the Vietnam years. Podesta's reference was to the White House's release of documents earlier this year showing Bush's dental visits during his Guard years after questions arose about whether he had always reported for duty.
Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman also blamed Kerry for the ongoing debate, complaining on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "Kerry himself has attacked the president for his service during the Vietnam years," while the Republican's campaign has "so strongly praised" Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam.
The Bush campaign also said the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) should immediately dismiss what it termed a "frivolous" complaint by Kerry's campaign alleging coordination between the re-election effort and the Swift Boat group.
The White House and the Bush campaign for weeks have denied any connection to the Swift Boat organization, whose early financial support came largely from a prominent Texas businessman with longtime ties to the state's top Republicans, including Bush.
The group's latest ad includes a Bush-Cheney volunteer, retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier, condemning Kerry's 1971 congressional testimony that Dole spoke of. Cordier was a prisoner of war during Vietnam.
"Colonel Cordier did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement," a Bush campaign statement said. "Because of his involvement Colonel Cordier will no longer participate as a volunteer for Bush-Cheney '04."
A new Kerry TV ad urged the president to "denounce the smear" and 'get back to the issues" because America deserves better." The 30-second commercial, to air in the same three states as the Swift Boat group ad — Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin — compares Kerry's situation to the 2000 primary campaign when "Bush smeared John McCain."
McCain has condemned the ads and called on the president to do so, too.
In response, Bush's campaign released a copy of a letter it was sending to television station managers on Monday defending itself from the claims in the new Kerry ad.
Questions mounted over the motives of Kerry's critics, two of whom had praised his service in 1996, even as Kerry's supporters faced questions about the candidate. Among the allegations is that Kerry lied about being in neutral Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968.
"I don't think anyone knows for sure whether or not they were in Cambodia that night, but they were near Cambodia on Christmas Eve," John Hurley, who heads a pro-Kerry veterans group, said on "Fox News Sunday." "He was five miles into Cambodia on a different occasion."
Another allegation is that Kerry was not under enemy fire as after-action reports say he was, an incident for which he received a Bronze Star, one of five medals earned in Vietnam.
"The after-action reports were written from Kerry's spot reports from that day," said Kerry critic Van Odell, also appearing on the same program. "None of us knew he even got the Bronze Star until more recently."
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.
Talk is cheap. I hope someday to be within spitting distance of that lying bitch Barbarella.
Excellent!
But . . . does rice show up on a metal detector?
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.
LOL. I was wondering the same thing.
Can somebody forward this to John McCain?
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.
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?"
How many hours in type does John Podesta have?
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.
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.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1197034/posts
October Surprise!!!!! (But it willl really happen in September.)
Thanks.
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!
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?
:-)
If I were Amish.
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!
I wish that Papa Bush would weigh in.
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