Continued Unfitness for Command

American Spectator ^ | 7-8-08 | Mark Hyman

[smoothsailing]

Continued Unfitness for Command

By Mark Hyman

Published 7/8/2008 12:08:20 AM

Perhaps John Kerry and the New York Times should have adhered to the old adage to let sleeping dogs lie. It appears the Times' Kate Zernike used Kerry campaign talking points rather than the facts in her breathless account of how the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "smeared" John Kerry over his Vietnam record during the 2004 presidential campaign. In her 1,283-word "Veterans Fight to Reclaim the Name 'Swift Boat,'" Zernike came across as a Kerry campaign spokesman rather than as an independent journalist.

Zernike wrote, "'Swift boat' has become the synonym for the nastiest of campaign smears." She is correct, of course, but Zernike failed to report that it was the political left, led by the New York Times' own reporters and columnists including Frank Rich, Glen Justice, Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman who only a weeks after the 2004 election turned the noun into a verb, and with that, implied that to "swiftboat" someone is to smear them.

In her article Zernike maligned T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who donated funds to the SBVT effort. According to Zernike, Pickens offered he "would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove anything in the group's campaign." However, that was not the offer made by Pickens. I know because I attended the November 2007 dinner at which Pickens made the million dollar offer. Pickens said he would pay someone if they could disprove the accuracy of the claims made in the SBVT television advertisements. That is a far cry from what Zernike claimed. Nonetheless, Zernike wrote that Pickens "refused to pay on his challenge" because a handful of Kerry supporters made unsubstantiated claims purportedly building the case that the Swift Boat veterans lied....

[smoothsailing]

Ping! For a good read!

[zot]

Thanks for posting this article. This lie must not go unchallenged.

[Christian4Bush]

+1

[smoothsailing]

One of these days I'll have to get around to asking you about your rating system! :)

[zot]

Good Swift Boat article ping.

[jazusamo]

Great piece by Hyman. If Kerry was honest and had an ounce of honor left in him he’d turn over all records, him not doing so speaks volumns.

Thanks for the ping, Smooth.

[singfreedom]

What a PERFECT refutation of the idiotic article in the New York Times which claimed Swift Boaters were tired of the term “swiftboating”. I’m sure they are tired of the way dim Dems and the drive-by media have misused and abused the term. I am too-—and this article, if the dummies can read, should put the issue to bed.

[hershey]

Kerry wants to be Obama’s Sec. of State.

[Christian4Bush]

One of these days I'll have to get around to asking you about your rating system! :)

Actually "+1" is my shortcut to typing "bump", "mark", or "bttt" when I want to save a story. Saves me time and keystrokes.

[brityank]

Hi Y'all, found this site is being clobbered by Google:

Went there anyway (I have hip-boots!) but didn't find anything wrong except Google also blocked out the scroll window on the right side partway down. Hopefully AS will get it straightened out.

It just really pisses me off that SOB Kerry is in the Senate instead of Leavenworth; he is a traitor. Good article, thanks.

[Interesting Times]

Thanks. This is excellent work by Mark Hyman, showing clearly how the NYT continues to lie on behalf of Kerry.

[Interesting Times]

Mark Hyman exposes the NY Times’ latest effort to pretend that Kerry had the best of it against the Swift Vets.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[kabar]

Thanks for the ping. For me, Kerry’s biggest Achilles heel, and there are many, has been the circumstances surrounding his first PH. He was able to paper over his other “exploits,” but he has never provided the official documentation of how he got that first PH, which was awarded 3 months after the event and after he transfered to another command. I am glad the author of the article focussed on that event.

[Interesting Times]

I agree that the 1st PH was one of the most effective Swift Vet charges against Kerry. The other two are probably "Christmas in Cambodia," and the No Man Left Behind story. I'd rank the latter at the top, since the Swift Vets were able to debunk the "war hero" tale most prominently featured in Kerry's campaign.

[colorado tanker]

The Slimes is not only covering up Kerry's lie, but there own.

I subscribe to the Slimes (enemy intelligence). I followed the Swiftees efforts closely and read their book, well footnoted. I didn't see a single MSM report that refuted anything in the book, but some that supported the book's accounts, such as an excellent piece about the firefight when Kerry took a powder while other boats slugged it out with the bad guys.

Then one day I picked up the Slimes, amazed to see they simply proclaimed the Swiftees story "discredited." I searched the article in vain for any specific assertion to back the Slimes' claim, but there weren't any. They simply announced it. And from that time on the MSM followed in lockstep. I've never seen any specific fact reported by the Swiftees refuted in the MSM. Pickens' money is safe.

[Cicero]

The question is why the NYTimes and Kerry are reviving these lies. I think the answer is that they want to use the canard about swiftboating whenever anyone says anything critical about Obama.

As for kerry, he has no political future outside of Taxachusetts.

[calcowgirl]

Bump!

[Interesting Times]

Please see the link at post #16.