Kerry-Kat's cooked, no doubt about it.
Posted on 08/24/2004 3:59:25 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
washingtonpost.com Swift Boat Sniping
WEN WE FIRST wrote about the ads slamming Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam, we said that Mr. Kerry's emphasis on his Vietnam experience had made questions about his war record fair game. But we said that ads by the group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had crossed the line in smearing the service that earned Mr. Kerry three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. Nothing we've seen in the two weeks since has changed that view.
snip
Mr. Kerry's conflicting statements about where and when he was in Cambodia remain troubling. He has backed away from repeated claims that he spent Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia, a memory that, he said in a 1986 Senate speech, is "seared -- seared -- in me." This does not undermine Mr. Kerry's military bravery, but it does raise an issue of candor. It's fair to ask whether this is an episode of foggy memory, routine political embroidery or something more. Indeed, the Kerry campaign ought to arrange for the full release of all relevant records from the time. Mr. Kerry granted historian Douglas Brinkley exclusive use of his wartime journals and other writings; the campaign should seek to be freed from that agreement and to make all the material public. Though the ads are being underwritten by longtime Bush partisans, the Kerry campaign's claim of illegal coordination between the Swift boat group and the Bush campaign is unconvincing.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I have this awful feeling that SECNAV John Lehman *sanitized* Kerry's missing records in the 80s, and Kerry's waiting to play them as the ultimate trump card closer to Nov 2. I sure hope I'm wrong.
I can already hear their response: "That's yesterday's news. Our candidate has already admitted all that. Isn't it time to MoveOn.orgTM?"
Two Sides Kerry. He doesn't know if he's if he's a liberal or a conservative. Maybe he's both. I bet though, he doesn't really know.
Kerry-Kat's cooked, no doubt about it.
Check out this excerpt from an op-ed piece also in today's WaPo. Naturally the Kerry people don't flatly admit he lied, but they're getting awfully close. Here's the URL of the full column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27211-2004Aug23.html
"Two weeks ago Kerry's spokesmen began to backtrack. First, one campaign aide explained that Kerry had patrolled the Mekong Delta somewhere "between" Cambodia and Vietnam. But there is no between; there is a border. Then another spokesman told reporters that Kerry had been "near Cambodia." But the point of Kerry's 1986 speech was that he personally had taken part in a secret and illegal war in a neutral country. That was only true if he was "in Cambodia," as he had often said he was. If he was merely "near," then his deliberate misstatement falsified the entire speech.
"Next, the campaign leaked a new version through the medium of historian Douglas Brinkley, author of "Tour of Duty," a laudatory book on Kerry's military service. Last week Brinkley told the London Telegraph that while Kerry had been 50 miles from the border on Christmas, he "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions." Oddly, though, while Brinkley devotes nearly 100 pages of his book to Kerry's activities that January and February, pinpointing the locations of various battles and often placing Kerry near Cambodia, he nowhere mentions Kerry's crossing into Cambodia, an inconceivable omission if it were true.
"Now a new official statement from the campaign undercuts Brinkley. It offers a minimal (thus harder to impeach) claim: that Kerry "on one occasion crossed into Cambodia," on an unspecified date. But at least two of the shipmates who are supporting Kerry's campaign (and one who is not) deny their boat ever crossed the border, and their testimony on this score is corroborated by Kerry's own journal, kept while on duty. One passage reproduced in Brinkley's book says: "The banks of the [Rach Giang Thanh River] whistled by as we churned out mile after mile at full speed. On my left were occasional open fields that allowed us a clear view into Cambodia. At some points, the border was only fifty yards away and it then would meander out to several hundred or even as much as a thousand yards away, always making one wonder what lay on the other side." His curiosity was never satisfied, because this entry was from Kerry's final mission."
Truth and the Compost are strangers. Notice they don't question Kerry's "truthfulness" as normal people would. They question his "candor". Boy, it's a good thing they have a thesaurus to help them find weasel words when they need them!
These brave Swift Boat Vets for Truth have gone above and beyond the call of duty to right that wrong.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives.
Matthews sunk into the depths of the gutter when he treated Michelle Malkin so poorly and now he is paying the price.
Well, how about a little of every kind of rice, just to be safe!
That's because most of moveon's sponsors vote for the Socialist candididate whenever there's one on the ballot ;^)
that would be: lying
Only when done by a Republican.
Notice how WaPo capitalizes Senator for Harkin and not for Dole. And, doesn't say that Sen. Dole is a decorated WWII hero, while Harkin lied about his military exploits.
Yet, it gives the same credence to both statements. What a joke for the WaPo. No journalistic standards.
There will be justice.
Or is it tushie!
Your statement is unprovable, since the 200,000-plus donations to the SBVT since the first ad's release - and this total is probably much greater now - average, according to the SBVT site, $59. The initial "seed money" certainly was from Republicans, but the many who are now contributing may be nonvoting Vietnam veterans who want revenge for Kerry's lies in 1971, or independents fed up with media bias, people who simply hate Kerry, nonRepublican libertarians, or nonpartisan conservatives.
In any case, a truthful news outlet would not say "funded by Republicans", since that is not verifiable. Oh, never mind, this is ABC News we're talking about, isn't it?
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