What the Swifties Cost Us, Campaign 2004 gets mired in the Mekong Delta

TIME ^ | 08/29/04 | JOE KLEIN

[Pikamax]

Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004 What the Swifties Cost Us Campaign 2004 gets mired in the Mekong Delta By JOE KLEIN

On the day that the swift boat controversy reached a rabid apogee—that would be the day a Bush campaign lawyer resigned because of his ties to the Swifties, and Max Cleland made the stagy delivery of a protest letter to the Bush ranch—a woman named Elba Nieves stood at a town meeting in Philadelphia and told John Kerry that she had recently been laid off. The candidate proceeded to ask her a series of questions. She answered with quiet dignity. She had worked in a ribbon factory for four years.

She said the company was having trouble keeping up with foreign competitors and was forced to close when it was refused a new bank loan. She was given no notice of termination, no severance package. Her shift—about 300 people—was simply called together at the end of a workday and dismissed. "They were changing the locks even before we left," she added. The audience, composed mostly of trade unionists, gasped and groaned.

I called Nieves the next day to check the details of her story, and, as it happened, there were some complicating factors. First, she admitted that her question had been precooked—her union had asked her to come to the event and tell the story. Kerry turned to Nieves immediately; her question was the first.

This, in itself, isn't a terrible thing: George Bush constantly manages to "find" small-business people at his town meetings whose companies are booming because of his tax cuts. But Nieves went on to tell me that she recently had been called back to work at the ribbon factory and refused to return, on the advice of her union, because the company wouldn't continue her health insurance.

Hmm, I thought: If I were a coldhearted political operative, I could get some rich friends to finance a group of Nieves' fellow employees—perhaps those who had returned to work without health insurance—call them Ribbon Workers for Truth and make this poor woman's life a trial. (As it is, I've acted as a Not-So-Swift Columnist for Truth by revealing some of the more problematic details of her story.) Ribbon Workers for Truth would be a nasty bit of business. It would purposely elide the most important fact—the larger truth—of Nieves' story: that she was laid off, and in a particularly brutal way.

As she left the factory on Aug. 4, she had no idea how she would support her three children. She still doesn't know. And the uncertainty of her fate is a question with enormous political ramifications: What do we, as a nation, do about the downside of economic globalization? In fact, the real reason why Ribbon Workers for Truth would exist would be to divert attention from that question.

The Ribbies would also turn Nieves' refusal to return to work without a health plan into a "character" issue—and thus evade the essential ridiculousness of a health-insurance system that would usually provide Nieves care (through Medicaid) if she were on welfare but doesn't if she is working a full-time job for an employer without a health plan.

But we're not talking only about Elba Nieves here, are we? Now that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have turned out to be anything but—the only "lies" they've turned up are a mistaken date or a mild Kerry exaggeration about operating in Cambodia and a Purple Heart received for a minor wound—we are told their real gripe is that Kerry protested the war after he came home and sullied their service by testifying to atrocities committed by American troops in Vietnam.

These are heartfelt gripes, perhaps, but wrong on the merits. Kerry's protest was not only honorable, it was accurate. The war in Vietnam was an unnecessary disaster, entered into under false pretenses—the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident—and fought because of a mistaken intellectual theory: that the Vietnamese national liberation movement was part of an international communist conspiracy to overwhelm Asia. (The subsequent war between Vietnam and China put a crimp in that one.) And, yes, there were atrocities aplenty.

I spent three years in the 1980s writing about a platoon of former Marines, men I consider heroes, and several unburdened themselves of awful memories before we were done: tossing a Vietnamese prisoner out of a helicopter, shooting an obviously innocent woman civilian in the back, collecting the ears of enemy dead. It was a meaningless, despicable war, and insane brutality was not an uncommon reaction.

But we're not really talking about Vietnam here, are we? We are talking about the politics of misdirection, about keeping John Kerry on the defensive by raising spurious questions about his "character."

We may also be talking about Iraq—and limiting Kerry's ability to question the President's decision to go to war. If so, the Swifties need not have bothered. Kerry hasn't shown much inclination to raise the real question about Iraq: Was it the right thing to do? And Bush hasn't shown much inclination to talk about the mixed, confusing effects of globalization on people like Elba Nieves. Which means there are nondebates on the two most important issues facing the nation. Not-So-Swift Columnists for Truth is appalled.

[Tribune7]

a woman named Elba Nieves stood at a town meeting in Philadelphia and told John Kerry that she had recently been laid off. . . .She answered with quiet dignity. She had worked in a ribbon factory for four years. . . She was given no notice of termination, no severance package. Her shift—about 300.

I can't think of any recent major textile factories in Philly that would have a 300 person shift. Anybody know what she's talking about?

[cyncooper]

And I'm wondering if a call to the company wouldn't possibly offer a different take on the "wouldn't continue her health insurance" business.

Now that we have been presented with creative story telling by this woman, it is possible that the company offered her her job back but without any health coverage. Or it is possible they offered her her job back but with a different plan and perhaps her paying more of the premium.

[shiva]

I sent them $25.00 and another $25.00 for the window sticker I saw here in Freerepublic. Can't wait to get it.

[lastchance]

I wonder if the " Vets" he spoke to in the 80's were the some of the same " Vets" that testified in Detroit. Under all the hoopla about the Swift Boat Vets one thing stands out. The MSM views those who truly care about this Country and think that Truth and Values matters and should not be abandoned for expediency as brain deficient morons. Who need the Wise Sages of the MSM to lead them into seeing the correct vision for America. I don't know why they even bother to pretend any sort of objectivity. Like yip yip dogs all they do is bark and piddle when overly excited.

[Elvis van Foster]

The agony is Klein's words makes my heart soar like an eagle.

[lastchance]

Well of course. Silly of us to forget. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
I once worked as a check out clerk ( non Union) people would buy the National Enquirer and say in all seriousness "They wouldn't be allowed to print it if it wasn't true ". Well there ya go- proof in the pudding right cher.

[Nick Danger]

On the day that the swift boat controversy reached a rabid apogee—that would be the day a Bush campaign lawyer resigned because of his ties to the Swifties

I had to stop reading right there. Any Democrat posing as a journalist who talks about Ginsberg without mentioning Sadler, is a DNC shill, and he's lying by omission to his readers.

The Democrats have multiple lawyers in exactly the same roles, they have not resigned, and for some reason this is never mentioned by the Ministry of Leftist Truth that passes for the media in this country.

I will assume that this goes on to recite the rest of the Democratic Party's talking points, and this so-called "reporter" presents them all as revealed truth. I'm not going to bother to read it to find out. The press is full of these rabid Democrats pretending to be reporters. That's why half the country doesn't listen to their crap anymore.

If you see it in Time, or Newsweek, or in an Associated Press story, it's probably not the whole truth. It might even be a total lie. For sure it will be pro-Democrat propaganda, fashioned by "reporters" who think their role in our society is to enlighten the poor masses to the wonders of Democratic Party politics, and to the evil deeds of Wascally Wepublicans.

When this election is over, these so-called "journalists" are going to get a pounding. Never in our nation's history has the press been so blatant and so shrill in advocating for one side. They don't seem to 'get it' that half the country is getting angrier by the minute, not only at the way they are abusing their so-called "profession," but at the way they are pretending to do something else.

If Time wants to register as a 527, declare itself to be a partisan advocate on behalf of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates, that's fine. Then it's all up-front and on the table. But this business of pretending to be a "news" organization when all it does is mouth DNC talking points and throw spears at Bush and the GOP, has to end.

If campaign finance reform can be upheld by the Supreme Court to restrict the political speech of individuals, then political speech by the press should be under the same restrictions. Let's have these political reporters register as lobbyists, disclose all telephone calls, emails, and other communications with either party, either campaign, and any other PAC or 527. If they're going to act like lobbyists, we should treat them like lobbyists. This business of giving a self-appointed cadre of Democratic Party activists special immunity from restrictions imposed on everyone else, has to end.

[marty60]

Amen to that.

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

"the only "lies" they've turned up are a mistaken date or a mild Kerry exaggeration about operating in Cambodia and a Purple Heart received for a minor wound"

Thus assuring himself of a place at Lehrer's table.

[Plutarch]

…the only "lies" they've turned up are a mistaken date or a mild Kerry exaggeration about operating in Cambodia

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

(The text of a cable sent by Mark Twain from London to the press in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published.)

Mr. Klein fancies himself a professional writer. He surely knows, therefore, that like being dead or pregnant, being in Cambodia is not something you can “exaggerate.” The border between Cambodia and Vietnam is an imaginary line of infinitesimal width upon which not even Kerry can straddle. Likewise, there is nothing mild about it. Kerry fabricated an element of his biography to advance first his Leftist agenda and later his lackluster record. If it is not incredible audacious lie, I would like to know what is.

[knarf]

"What the Swifties Cost Us, Campaign 2004 gets mired in the Mekong Delta"

heh heh heh ... Joe, Joe, Joe ... Why don't you just say it like it is ...

The Swifties have cost us socialists plenty by flinging us back into our own morass, the Mekong Delta re-visited.

There, that's better.

[ottothedog]

I guess my point is that they can't supress information anymore. Klien can wave his hand and pretend that Kerry's lies about Cambodia, etc. are little fibs, but people know the whole story. There is a large group of people who get their information from FR/Rush/blogs, and theny go talk to all their coworkers around the water cooler. The media no longer controls information, and that is what they are in denial (maybe moving toward the anger stage -- I forget the order) about.

[NYCVirago]

I guess this column is supposed to be a defense of Kerry. But the details of the woman asking the question (she actually got her job back, etc.) make it an inadvertent slam of the Kerry campaign.

[PhilipFreneau]

I spent three years in the 1980s writing about a platoon of former Marines, men I consider heroes, and several unburdened themselves of awful memories before we were done: tossing a Vietnamese prisoner out of a helicopter, shooting an obviously innocent woman civilian in the back, collecting the ears of enemy dead. It was a meaningless, despicable war, and insane brutality was not an uncommon reaction. Joe Klein is a liar. The entire purpose of this article is to provide some cover for his buddy, John Kerry.

[Oztrich Boy]

a mistaken intellectual theory: that the Vietnamese national liberation movement was part of an international communist conspiracy to overwhelm Asia.

That was the plan. it was just after the falling out between Chian and the SovUnion in 1961, there was some disagreement on who was to be in charge.

(The subsequent war between Vietnam and China put a crimp in that one.)

Like The subsequent war between Germany and the Sovunion put a crimp in the mistaken un*intellectual theory that Hitler and Stalin had conspired to overwhelm Poland.

* intellectuals believed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was a step forward to World Peace.