Chapter 6: Swift Boats(The Vets Attack)

Newsweek ^ | 11/06/04 | Newsweek

[Pikamax]

Nov. 15 issue - The attack of the Swift Boat vets did not catch the Kerry campaign by surprise, not entirely at least. Kerry's operatives had worried from the beginning that some right-wing group would try to use his old Vietnam antiwar speeches against him. In the summer of 2003 the Kerry campaign had quietly made some inquiries with C-Span, asking the cable network not to release old videotapes of Kerry as an angry young vet fulminating about war crimes and atrocities. Portions of his sometimes overwrought testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 could be twisted into an attack ad, the Kerryites feared. They were told not to worry: the rules prohibited the use of the tapes for political advertising. (When the Swift Boat vets made ads attacking Kerry with images from his 1971 testimony, they used a voice-over, an actor reading Kerry's words.)

[hershey]

Of course not a word about the Swift Boat ads telling the truth. Newsweak doesn't venture down that road, no sirree.

[calex59]

I like the way they say his old anit-war rhetoric could be "twisted" into an attack ad. It didn't need to be twisted, it was all true. The truth would do nicely for an attack ad. Why do they think he snuck and asked them not to run them? If that had been Bush they would have had that stuff smeared all over the news.

[kingu]

Delusional denials continue to float around the MSM... "How dare they use his words against him! He's a liberal! You can only do that with conservatives!"

[Freee-dame]

The word "twisted" really jumped out.

[jocon307]

"Delusional denials continue to float around the MSM..."

After listening to President Bush's press conference of the other day, I concluded these people are HOPELESS!

They have learned NOTHING! Their audience will continue to dwindle until they are swept away entirely by new technologies.

And they are a bunch of vicious dogs, I am very happy Kerry lost (happy, relieved, ecstatic, you name it) but I'm sorry, the Newsweek story really is piling on. They should have either told the country what a complete jerk Kerry was before the election, or shut up about it afterwards. And I can only wonder how their regular readers will feel about seeing the "f---" word so frequently.

[StJacques]

"Of course not a word about the Swift Boat ads telling the truth. . . ."

Actually, the article says almost exactly the opposite. I quote:

". . . The Swift Boat ads—a first round charging that Kerry had lied to win his medals, then a second batch accusing him of betraying his mates by calling them war criminals—were misleading, . . ."

Notice how the article does not deal with SO MUCH of the controversy. What they're referring to is the dispute over the very first batch of Swift Boat ads in which numerous witnesses told differing versions of the same events. They still refuse to deal with the later information about Kerry's testimony before congress, his visits to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegates to the peace talks, the clear problems with his discharge from military service, and the recently-uncovered information from military intelligence documents that shows the groups Kerry either worked with or led outright were cooperating with the North Vietnamese.

This all made me sick enough during the campaign. I have the feeling I'm about to become ill all over again.

Guys, we must continue to press the issue of getting out the truth about John Kerry. This is not over yet.

[Cicero]

The way to deal with evidence "twisted" out of context is to release the whole transcript and allow it to be made public. Needless to say, the MSM refused to allow this to be done.

Nor did kerry release his military records, in spite of his frequent demands that Bush should do so, and in spite of the fact that Bush had already done so.

More delusion and lies from the spinmeisters.

[dennisw]

Good account here of John Kerry's campaign being torpedoed by the righteous Swift Vets. Sorry but I liked how Kerry was emotionally rocked by the Swifties ...... Assuming this account is true.

We needed this boastful faker in the White House like we need a hole in the head.

[Pikachu_Dad]

"Portions of his sometimes overwrought testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 could be twisted into an attack ad, the Kerryites feared. They were told not to worry: the rules prohibited the use of the tapes for political advertising. (When the Swift Boat vets made ads attacking Kerry with images from his 1971 testimony, they used a voice-over, an actor reading Kerry's words.)"

Don't you just dislike it when the liberals try to use the rules to cover up stuff?

[hang 'em]

I predict that Kerry will soon be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

[doug from upland]

I just read the whole thing. Good stuff. Kerry still tries to convince himself that the SwiftVets are lying and he isn't a traitor.

[Trippin]

The whole problem here is that what Kerry said is a matter of public record. He CAN'T run away from it or deny it. He said what he said. He just didn't want to be held accountable for it and now he's ticked off that someone would actually have the nerve to challenge him on his treachery. Hello!! What an arrogant SOB. Bush's national guard stuff is fair game, but Kerry's diatribes against his fellow soldiers is not? This article shows that the media remains out of control.

[stop_fascism]

Untwist this newsfreak:

Historian Douglas Brinkley, author of a wartime biography of Kerry, cautioned that Kerry's diary included mention of a meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris. Edwards was flabbergasted. "Let me get this straight," the senator said. "He met with terrorists? Oh, that's good."

[Eastbound]

"Nor did kerry release his military records, . . . "

Is there a possibility that Kerry couldn't release all his records because some of them were expunged?

Question Number Two: Expunged for what reason?

But while we're here, let's consider the truth of the matter: The admissions committee at the University which rejected Kerry's application to enter law school did so on the grounds that they KNEW Kerry had a less than honorable discharge. They said, why admit him if he can't practice law after he graduated.

So instead of trying to get a confirmation from the former SecNav, why doesn't someone just ask the committee to sign a statement confirming what they knew in 1973? Seems to me this info should be part of a case to get him dis-barred, impeached, convicted and removed from congress.

[SteveH]

It says (can't access it at the moment due to a refresh problem on the net) that some anonymous blogger revealed problems with the phony Bush military service documents. For an article chock full of low-level details, they seem to go suddenly into soft-focuse over this particular event, and who actually deserves the credit ... ;-)

[LS]

"The old media may have been more responsible than the new media, but they were also largely irrelevant."

Part one of this statement is crap, part two is right on.

[CyberAnt]

"they used a voice-over, an actor reading Kerry's words"

WHAT ..?? IT WAS KERRY'S VOICE - not some actor! These people just keep lying .. and they just keep getting caught.