Posted on 08/28/2004 5:10:14 PM PDT by NavVet
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman's signature.
"It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Or maybe he was dating the Navy Secretary's secretary, or maybe he got one of his vietnam brothers to take the signature stamp and file the citation, he was after all a sitting US senator and they are "gods".
We all know now that LEHAMN did not sign it himself!
Holy Smokes!
As usual, the mainstream press will say, "SO WHAT".
If Lehman's memory is accurate, this means that this entire thing was fabricated and THAT is big.
PING!
Hard to say. The signature scandel was first noiced by Moondoggie back in April. But its a printed stamp, not a signature. The real question is wheres Kerry's original one signed by John Chaffey?
I've posted similar comments before, but what is BIG on FR does not necessarily translate to BIG in the world.
During the Clinton era, Foster's death was BIG, Travelgate was BIG, Lewinsky was BIG, but nothing was that BIG with the populace at large.
Morally this is BIG, practically ???
Herman J. Munster
Yet another reason Kerry needs to sign Standard Form 180 and release ALL of his records.
With all the truly legit criticisms of Kerry -- the Cambodia fabrications, the testimony before Congress, etc., adding this kind of misleading, petty stuff just detracts from the weight of the legit criticisms.
Yep. In a field of lies, this is a little one. This subject, FWIW, was covered today on another thread ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201664/posts <-- clinical analysis
What about the added language to the text of the citation?
He had to do something during those 19 years in the Senate during which he never sponsored one bill that passed.
And during the times when he couldn't attend security council meetings.
Now we know what it was... he was taking photoshop classes from Registered.
Yeah, I had a rude awakening regarding the general populace.
I hadn't watched Channel 5 (NBC) news for years. I, like Pauline Kael about Nixon, assumed no one else did.
The domestic partner was interviewed about a local election. He was on screen for maybe 30 seconds. Everyone I ran into mentioned it to me, and he was accosted by neighbors he didn't know asking him about it.
I guess people do still watch mainstream news media.
Well, duh!
Replacement Certificates almost twenty-years later normally do not have different language. If this was a replacement certificate, it should be generated from the original in his service record. The fact that there are three different citations, all with different language and no record of a request for a replacement citation, makes Lehman's lack of knowledge important.
I can guarantee you that if a sitting Senator wanted a new citation with new wording, he would have done more than call BUPERS and ask for a copy. Of course, the SECNAV doesn't personally, sign these things, but the question this really raises is who did? Altering the wording on a citation isn't something that would be done by a duty YN at the Navy archives.
Kerry MIGHT have asked for a replacement.
Are not the "replacement" certificates done up identical to the original ones, including the "autopen" signatures? That is why the auto pen exists. That way the certificate is truly a "replacement" and time frame signed.
What is more telling to me isn't the fact that this MIGHT be a "replacement" certificate.
Lehman says he didn't ADD THE EXTRA NOTES, which praise Kerry. This is a smoking gun, to me. Someone didn't just put together a "replacement" certificate. They embellished the new one to make Kerry look even better. This has all the hallmarks of Kerry and his MO. He always has to put frosting on his cakes.
Kerry has been building this story, brick by brick since late 60's. Now the story is unraveling, and he is blaming everyone for pointing out the flaws in his house of cards. He isn't taking any blame for building the house of cards in the first place.
Kind reminds me of the 3 little pigs, with the houses getting blown down.
I don't feel one bit sorry for Kerry. I want this story to get fleshed out and the details of when he asked for the replacement and WHO handled it brought to the light of day.
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