“Well to be reasonable, I don’t recall that he did any such thing in 2004 and there’s nothing in the article to suggest that he’s doing that now.”
The only problem is, that, in this matter, Kerry and his mentions are not reasonable, and you are wrong.
Why would the article, written to explain away Kerry’s problems with his Vietnam-era record mention any nefarious activities conducted on his behalf.
But in fact, one of the men the article does mention, Mr. French, did in fact have his personal background (not his Swiftvet experience) looked into by Kerry’s investigators. Out of the many different Swiftvets who openly supported the authors of Unfit for Command, why was Mr. French (and so few others, made an example of, in the media and otherwise, by Kerry’s hit teams? Because, long before in his past, Mr. French made an official statement concerning his marriage and that statement was in error. The Democrat operatives who had looked for this “dirt” “exposed” Mr. French for that error, based on that exposure used it to portray that he must otherwise be a liar, on other issues as well, and sought, and succeeded in having the government official French worked under to fire French - for something that had no basis or impact on his job.
Out of the hundreds of Swiftvets who openly and officially and publicly spoke out in support of the authors of Unfit for Command, Mr. French became the Kerry teams poster child for the Swiftvets, because they had dug up some dirt on him.
In addition, when the publisher for Unfit for Command announced the release of the book, lawyers working for Kerry wrote a letter to the publisher threatening them with a lawsuit if they released the book. That threat was ignored. Still, as the release date neared, Kerry’s lawyers contacted Amazon, Borders and Barnes and Noble and warned them they could get tied up in any legal issue Kerry had with the publisher. Fortunately, those threats were ignored as well.
The point? The point is that Kerry is a sleezebag and tried everything he could to intimidate the authors, the publisher, the booksellers and any individual Swiftvets that he could. Those efforts included looking for personal issues that the Swiftvet members could be exposed for. Mr. French was their most successful target in that regard.
Sorry for taking so long to respond, but I just saw your post.
I don’t think that’s accurate about Al French. According to all accounts, it was French’s admission that he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of what he had sworn to in his affidavit that made news.
And it was a professional rival - another Republican - who turned him in to his boss, not for saying something in “error” about his marriage, but for lying about an affair with a coworker in violation of office rules.
http://wweek.com/story.php?story=5471
He wasn’t fired, but suspended during the investigation. Last I heard he still had his job.