Editorial: Kerry takes up the Swift Boat charges (Major Barf Alert)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ^ | June 3, 2006 | Minneapolis Star-Tribune Editorial

[Phil Harmonic]

Editorial: Kerry takes up the Swift Boat charges

He deserves this opportunity to set the public record straight.

Most of the controversies from the wild 2004 presidential campaign have long been forgotten. But one is coming back, the New York Times reported this week, and we're glad it is: Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is joining an effort to debunk the many attacks on his service in Vietnam more than two decades earlier.

[snip]

Although they had little bearing on Kerry's qualifications to be president, his young-man's sentiments on Vietnam were a legitimate issue. But that's not where it stopped. Reprising a campaign tactic that had worked well against Sen. John McCain in 2000 and Sen. Max Cleland in 2002, White House political strategist Karl Rove went straight at Kerry's most significant strength: his war record. In the following months, Kerry was accused of shooting himself to get the purple hearts; of having political plans even at that young age that fueled a cynical plot to get medals any way he could; of fabricating, lying about and exaggerating his military experiences. The tactic worked; people began to think maybe Kerry was "Unfit for Command," the title of an anti-Kerry book. Eventually, and bizarrely, people were arguing about whether Kerry took his boat into Cambodia on one occasion. To us the story sounded quite plausible (a number of Americans made clandestine trips into Cambodia during that time), as well as irrelevant to the campaign.

[Phil Harmonic]

The Swift Boat Veterans...yet another Rovian plot

Any similarity between this editorial and swill from the DUmp is entirely probable...

[A CA Guy]

Kerry never signed the form to release all his military records though, did he?

He's still hiding after all these years, just being loud about it.

[bitt]

'Eventually, and bizarrely, people were arguing about whether Kerry took his boat into Cambodia on one occasion. To us the story sounded quite plausible (a number of Americans made clandestine trips into Cambodia during that time), as well as irrelevant to the campaign.

No candidate should have to endure what Kerry got. Some wanted him to sue, but he is a public figure, which complicates matters, and any lawsuit would have taken too long to work its way through the courts, in the meantime highlighting the accusations.

But now Kerry and a group of supporters are seeking to disprove them. Researchers are poring over naval records; Kerry has asked that his entire Navy file be released, and other veterans are giving their recollections.

We're glad Kerry is undertaking this effort. So many of the accusations hurled at him were demonstrably false on their face. It's time the record were set straight. '

[hsalaw]

We're glad Kerry is undertaking this effort.

And so am I! That idiot Kerry is going to suck all the air out of the dems' room - they'll throw him under the bus before too long.

[bitt]

Surrender Monkey

[marron]

I hope Kerry digs all this up again. I'd love to see him go another round with the Swift Vets.

Kerry versus the Vets, Clinton versus Gore, Gore versus rationality, this is adding up to be one of the greatest political seasons of all time.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Kerry really needs to run for president of France in the next election.

He's a total discrace to this country as an american politician.

[Brad from Tennessee]

John Kerry would be a cheap, lying whore with or without Vietnam. He even lied for many years about being Irish.

[bpjam]

This exact same 'story' ran in the NYT about a week ago. Kerry is dragging reporters and presumably others into his office to meet the 'researchers' he hired to create his new legacy sans Swifties. He is working the editorial circuit in friendly venues (which isn't an option for GOPers who have no friendly editorial boards for the most part). Kerry did the same thing a year before he ran last time by trying to personally meet with every reporter he could find and 'prove' to them that he did actually have friends and was a 'likeable' guy. It was perverse in its obscene naked ambition to convince people that he was not who they already knew he was (an elitist whose only resume item was 4 months in Nam and being Dukakis' Lt Gov.)

[Earthdweller]

The only thing admirable about Kerry is his bank account. Other then that he's just another ugly, social moron with an expensive education trying to get all the attention all the time. The Dems need to oust him, but that might effect their "winning streak" so if there are any Dems out there lurking...please do not take my advise. LOL.

[Echo Talon]

I cant believe all the disaffected people on this site want all these wacky libs to win... :\

[JennysCool]

He signed it. Only certain individuals got to look at it.

[A CA Guy]

I thought if you signed that form, it was open to the public?

How did he get a restricted use of the form?

How does he explain away the limitations he placed on his records now?

[The Shrew]

You might want to write an editorial to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. They obviously haven't been to your website:

WinterSoldier.com

Regards,

TS

[Tut]

In the following months, Kerry was accused of shooting himself to get the purple hearts; of having political plans even at that young age that fueled a cynical plot to get medals any way he could;

Well actually, it is true he had "political plans even at that young age". That is the only reason he went into the Navy and the only reason he went into the swifties. None of it had anything to do with duty or honor.

It was purely designed to give his self maximum chance by following in the footsteps of John Kennedy.

This from a puff piece from the Boston Glob at Click here

Upon his graduation in 1966, Kerry was given the honor of delivering the class oration. Many at Yale noticed that this young man, on his way to becoming a commissioned officer in Vietnam, was critical of the war -- and the use of American military might against communist regimes.

``What was an excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism,'' Kerry said in the oration. ``And this Vietnam War has found our policy makers forcing Americans into a strange corner . . . that if victory escapes us, it would not be the fault of those who lead, but of the doubters who stabbed them in the back -- notions all too typical of an America that had to find Americans to blame for the takeover in China by the communists, and then for the takeover in Cuba.''

Then, in a sentence that harkened back to the Nazi aggression that his mother had fled, he said: ``The United States must, I think, bring itself to understand that the policy of intervention that was right for Western Europe does not and cannot find the same application to the rest of the world.''

In what may have been an allusion to his own plans to enlist, Kerry added: ``We have not really lost the desire to serve. We question the very roots of what we are serving.''

Kerry's critique of American policy stood out at a time when there were few protests, and most of the public assumed Vietnam would be a winnable war, producing a fresh crop of military heroes. The speech also reflected an evolution in Kerry's own thinking about the war.

Notice Kerry was anti-war even before joining up to go to the Navy. He then as now takes a stand on two sides of an issue and call them both his own.

Notice as well that he dated Jacqueline Kennedy's half-sister and once sailed Narragansett Bay with JFK at the helm.

Maybe JFK gave the boy pointers about how to achieve success in politics. How much easier would it be for a politician to achieve his goal being a veteran vs not. How some medals would allow him to write his own ticket and it didn't matter how he got them. All he had to do was to prove he had them.

To state the obvious and calling that little piece of fact dissing Kerry is major stupid. If the dude was a bum back then as now, why would that little fact bother him?

Remember as an ex Lt. in the Navy he takes it upon his self to hold talks with the Vietcong as a private citizen. I can only wonder what exactly gave him the right to do so and what was it, in his position in life at the time was he hoping to accomplish?

No, if there is heat from his activities in his past, I expect him to have the backbone to accept that heat without reservations.

[taxesareforever]

Kerry never signed the form to release all his military records though, did he?

That's a fact. And he should be nailed on it in every public appearance he makes.

[A CA Guy]

#12 told me it was signed, but only a few people were allowed to see it.

If true, how does someone pull that trick off?

[JennysCool]

From what I understand, his records were released to a couple of Kool Aid drunk Boston reporters -- for the Herald, I believe. My guess is that was done because it would take a mountain of legal action to get the reporters to give up their "privileged information."

That's my understanding, anyway. Someone may offer more insight.

[demlosers]

Kerry never signed the form to release all his military records though, did he?

Last year, I thought Kerry told little Timmy Russert that he would sign a form 180 to release his records. I guess we're still waiting - LoL!

[A CA Guy]

So if he released it to koolaide drinkers alone, then he did NOT sign that form for public consumption.

That won't work.

I would want to know what he felt should remain hidden that he only let two favorable reporters take a peek.