Posted on 08/31/2004 12:31:12 AM PDT by demlosers
Democrats: GOP 'mocking our troops'
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.
Morton Blackwell, a prominent Virginia delegate, has been handing out the heart-covered bandages to delegates, who've worn them on their chins, cheeks, the backs of their hands and other places.
Blackwell is president of the Leadership Institute, a nonpartisan educational foundation he founded in 1979. According to its Web site, the institute prepares conservatives for success in politics, government and the news media.
Kerry was a decorated Navy officer in Vietnam who became a prominent antiwar activist upon his return home. A group calling itself "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" has accused Kerry of lying to win combat decorations in Vietnam, including the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
And last week, former Sen. Bob Dole, the party's 1996 presidential nominee, brought more attention to the allegations when he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "With three Purple Hearts, he never bled that I know of. And they're all superficial wounds."
Dole apologized for the remark the next day after a personal call from Kerry, saying that before taping the interview, "maybe I should have stayed longer for brunch somewhere."
Donna Cain, an Oregon delegate, wore a purple heart bandage on her wrist.
"Probably a lot of people are handing them out because they are very symbolic," she said. Kerry, she said, "has made the war that he served in far more important than his recent records of the last 18 to 20 years."
Kerry's campaign has denounced the allegations as a smear.
Other veterans and military records from the time have contradicted the swift boat group's allegations.
Kerry's campaign
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Red
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I think this is too serious to joke about. A lot of men died for the purple hearts, and not just in Vietnam.
If Kerry falsified batle accounts to get his it's not funny. It's fraud and its deadly serious and it demeans the the service of everyone who has ever put on the uniform.
So far the SBV have done a good job (I think personally) of keeping this above the fray and have conveyed the serious nature of the charges they're making very well. This does not help.
Heck,it's right out of Alinsky's book..."RULES FOR RADICALS" and a ploy the Clintons have used countless times;ridicule is a great way to destroy one's opponent,according to Saul.They just can't stand having their own tactics used against them,is all.
Yeah, they're spin doctors. But they do the most damage when our guys give them something to spin.
It's good if Dole is hanging tough on talk radio. But what he says on the Big Three and CNN is more important.
Red
I'm going to make some too. I think it's a VERY clever idea and one that will make Dems go nuts;without having to say a word. LOL
I agree 100%. This is well-intentioned, to be sure, but it gives the issue an air of frivolity that is entirely inappropriate. I joke about my own PH (I was sitting on my ass at the time, and WHAP!) but (A.) it is mine to joke about and (B.) its authenticity is not in doubt (it took a lot more than a band-aid to treat it).
Red
Red
Red
Someone's gonna make a fortune selling these things. I know i want one for my Homeland Security first aid kit..LOL!
That feeling happened to me while watching the convention tonight. That wonderful NY policeman was singing Amazing Grace, so beautifully, and the crawl information at the bottom said something to the effect that Terry McAwful thought it was simply UNCONSCIENable that people were wearing bandaids with purple hearts on them.
Oh, dear, LOL
Morton Blackwell ping
I wonder if they'll show up with rice sticking to their butts tonight?
GOD BLESS MORTON BLACKWELL AND GOD BLESS THE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE!!!
Ping to some of the Leadership Institute crew...
Thank you again, Firebrand!
Bump and support the SWIFT VETS...see the new ad here http://swift3.he.net/~swift3/medals.mov
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