[governsleastgovernsbest]

When the Washington Post comes close to accusing Kerry of lying about Cambodia, is the goose cooked? Well, she's certainly warming up her voice - to mix metaphors just slightly!

[NavySEAL F-16]

former senator Bob Dole saying this weekend that "there's got to be some truth to the charges" against Mr. Kerry, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calling the vice president a "coward"

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.

[nathanbedford]

Odd that the Washington Post is "troubled" by proof that Kerry lied about wassailing in Cambodia but remains serene about the proof of cowardice and lying associated with the Rassman river rescue.

John O'Neill has pointed out that Kerry has not only changed his story about Cambodia but he has changed his story about fleeing the scene of the mine explosion on March 13, 1969. Originally, Kerry had maintained that all 5 boats had fled the scene of the explosion. Of Course, the damaged boat - number 4 - could not possible have fled, it later had to be towed, and Kerry has now been forced to the admission that he alone left the scene. This comports fully with the Veterans version and marks a climbdown on Kerry's part. So even if the Washington Post remains untroubled in the face of persuasive logic that there was not hostile fire, it is guilty of willfully missing this act of cowardice which distinguished Kerry's behavior from the other skippers - even if there was actually enemy fire. More, his reversal on this issue is more troubling to me at least than his fibbing and confessing about Cambodia.

The Washington Post also fails to deal with the matter of the purple heart. Was it garnered for a bruised arm or was it awarded for rice in his ass as the medical report suggests? No matter. I have read somewhere by some apologist that he did not claim the rice, only the bruise so he is exonerated for falsly claiming the rice. Does the Washington Post really expect us to regard Kerry's exploitation of two bruises and "rose thorn" wound into three purple hearts to be gallantry? Heroics which justify him in deserting his men in theatre just as he did his comrades that day on the river when he fled and again when he rode off alone leaving his boat and crew behind to go to the hospital ship to have his bruise documented?

No man left behind, indeed!
These are matters which obtain even if the boats were taken under fire. The Washington Post has cannily resorted to an old trick out of the Lanny Davis bag, set up a strawman, destroy it and divert attention from the real issue.

[sr4402]

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.

Here the Washington Post says it is not 'convinced' by Kerry that Bush is behind the swift boat vets. Kerry is in trouble if even liberal bastions don't buy his spin.

[tuesday afternoon]

From The Swifties are gettin' to Kerry

The Swifties have provided evidence that Kerry spent Christmas eve in Sa Dec, 55 miles from Cambodia. None of the sailors who served with Kerry on the two swift boats he commanded, PCF-44 and PCF-94, have supported his claim, though Mike Medeiros, a crewmate on PCF-94, said they may have strayed into Cambodian waters inadvertently.

But this was impossible, according to Doug Regelin, a swift boat commander in 1969, but who is not a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. PCF-94 was part of Coastal Division 11, which was stationed at An Thoi.

"There is no way to enter Cambodia from the An Thoi patrol area," Regelin wrote in the Augusta (GA) Free Press. "That patrol area started at the coastal fishing village of Ha Tien and ran parallel to the Cambodian border, but there was no way into Cambodia. Any good map will show this to be true."

Regelin also dismissed the possibility that Kerry's boat could have wandered into Cambodia by accident: "The claim that there were so many rivers and canals, and that no one knew where they were, is ludicrous. We had detailed maps and overlays that showed everything right down to movements in fishing stakes."