Traitorous B*tch!
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."
Tell him so here at his site: bobdole.org.
I just did.
AV
Yep. All this trashing of Bush and the National Guard is particularly outrageous when we have Guardsman in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.
I bet you that Rush and Sean will will push this tomorrow, big time. Senator Dole is a repectable man who served his country, and paid a hard price. Lurch is nothing more than an empty suit. A Clinton clone.
Traitorous B*tch!
I'll see if i can find the quotes from rassman about grabbing onto something but being to weak to pull himself over the railing
A new Kerry TV ad urged the president to "denounce the smear" and 'get back to the issues" because America deserves better.".....If Kerry's all distressed about this, let him demand MoveOn.org to stop running ads against Bush.
Title: Kerry/Bush; The ad from MoveOn.org shows the differences between the military records of George Bush and John Kerry. It opens with scenes from the movie Brothers In Arms, a documentary about Kerry and his crew. The ad mentions that Kerry braved enemy gunfire to rescue one of his men. It then shifts to Bush?s record with the National Guard, pointing out that he missed physicals, wasn?t seen for several months and was released early from the Guard to attend business school. The ad cost $115000 and airs nationally on Fox News Channel and on CNN in the New York and DC metro areas.
http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527events.asp?orgid=41
Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh
This is a lie, the official report says lower buttock. (or his ass, if you want to be medically correct.)
YES!!!! It's the records!!!!
This is fascinating. Dole's grievous wounds are the kind of thing the Purple Heart was meant to honor, IMHO...
Oh, there are *lots* of significant things about this story, including that it is the one area where draft-dodging Bil Clinton can't lend his voice to help out Senator Kerry, nor can war protesting Hillary help out...and it is on the very topic in which fair-minded, good-reputation Dole *can* blast away at Kerry with impunity...and it is a story with an all-Kerry angle, leaving President Bush untouched by any flailing jabs.
Notice that rather than apologize and try to move on - that the Kerry Camp keeps injecting more attacks. Each of those attacks gives this story *more* airtime as our side gets to respond to them.
It's all negative for Senator Kerry. Now he's defending his purple hearts from war hero Bob Dole, defending his silver and bronze stars from the swiftvets, defending his Christmas in Cambodia tall tale from the news media itself, and he's about to be hit with new charges in ads that use his *own* words against him from back in his anti-war days.
...And we haven't even gotten to his years under Dukakis as Lt. Governor, much less his pitiful Senate and defense record.
The GOP has only just begun its own pro-Bush ad blitz, and our Convention hasn't even started yet, as well.
In the meantime, Senator Kerry has taken yet another vacation. He's made more vacation trips than Senate votes this year alone.
It's pure meltdown time for the Kerry Campaign. Watch for a personnel shakeup in the next two weeks.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Thank you so very much. You will never know how much I appreciate this. Thank you again.
Excellent from Bob Dole. This will be hard for Kerry to swallow!
Didn't he just take a break last week! Not that I mind but does this guy ever work? If he was president how many day a week would he work? I think he needs to move to France where laziness is acceptable.
You know, simple fact of the matter is that these guys were probably just being respectful in "praising" JfK in 1996.
They had no idea that the stupid party would actually nominate this idiot for president one day.
The AP changed the title on this article. It originally was, "Dole Wants Kerry to Open Vietnam Records", but I guess they thought that wasn't "mean" enough.
Did you or anyone hear George Will tell the country and George S. on ABC earlier that the Swift Boat Vets are going to put out a 28 minute piece in September on the POW's and John Kerry?
I'm surprised that is not a big deal here yet. That 28 minutes will bury the hairy Kerry.
Headline refers to Dole's doubts about the significance of Kerry's bandaid wounds, but I think what's far more significant is:
1) Dole calls upon Kerry to APOLOGIZE to all Vietnam era vets!!!
2) Dole calls upon Kerry to release ALL of his military and medical records.
Those two points are far more significant than debates about how minor Kerry's wounds were, for if the media were to hold Kerry's "feet to the fire" on those two points (highly unlikely, I know) Kerry would truly, finally be in deep doo-doo. If Kerry did release all of his records and apologize to vets, his campaign would be toast. If he doesn't, the media refrain for the next 9 weeks should be "Why won't you respond to Bob Dole's call for you to apologize to vets and release all your records?"
I verbalized this back when this first came out (not on FR), without knowing the facts, that Kerry got his ass blown off, (well, pricked) because he wasn't facing the enemy but running in the opposite direction away from the action.
Kerry is roast turkey. Stick in the fork!
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