[ReleaseTheHounds]

VDH is very good... I'm surprised he (or his editor) missed his "19th century" mistake (should be "20th century"). Oh, well... It's the weekend.

[STEAMER]

He is speaking of the aftermath of the American civil war.

[nonomous]

'19th century' was no mistake. In 1868, Massachusetts congressman and former Union general Benjamin F. Butler flourished on the floor of Congress the torn and bloodstained shirt of a federal tax collector whipped by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. As long as Union army veterans were an important voting block, 'the bloody shirt' was a rally flag for Republicans.

The real mistake is the statement "the genuinely war-heroic Mr. Kerry". Kerry received 3 purple hearts, but spent zero time in the hospital. His Silver Star was won by jumping off his boat (itself dereliction of duty) and applying a coup-de-grace to a downed Viet Cong soldier just mangled by the boat's 50mm machine gun. With this piece of glory behind him, he uses his family friends in the Navy Admiralty to cut short his tour of duty at 4 months.