Posted on 08/20/2004 10:23:10 AM PDT by GulliverSwift
BOSTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry on Thursday lashed back for the first time against a group of Vietnam veterans critical of his wartime service, accusing them of doing President Bush's "dirty work" and suggesting that he, in turn, will challenge Bush's military record.
Two weeks after the veterans launched a television ad questioning Kerry's actions in Vietnam, the back-and-forth over the former Navy lieutenant's record enveloped the campaign, as new records undercut the credibility of one of his critics.
During a speech to several thousand firefighters, Kerry directly challenged allegations by the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that he concocted his wartime injuries for political gain.
"More than 30 years ago, I learned an important lesson -- when you're under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attacker. That's what I intend to do today ...," he told members of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
"Thirty years ago, official Navy reports and every person there documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam."
Kerry's angry response Thursday marks an abrupt shift in strategy for the candidate, who had let surrogates address the accusations. Not only did the Massachusetts senator strike back personally, his campaign produced a new television ad defending his service, a slew of military records and a clutch of fellow veterans to testify to his actions.
The Swift boat group had run a 30-second television ad in three battleground states challenging the basis of Kerry's war record, saying he lied about his experiences, didn't deserve his medals and betrayed fellow servicemen by protesting the war after returning to the U.S. Though limited in its initial reach, the ad quickly gathered steam as a point of debate on websites, talk shows and cable television.
The campaign's full-front attack Thursday amounted to recognition that the anti-Kerry group's accusations could tarnish one of the candidate's greatest assets -- his decorated military service.
The attacks may have already hurt. According to a new poll by CBS News, Kerry has lost ground among veterans since the Democratic National Convention, when he ran neck-in-neck with Bush among those voters. Now, the president has an 18-point lead in that group, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,009 adults nationwide.
Meanwhile, newly released military records Thursday contradicted an account given by Larry Thurlow, a Swift boat group veteran who disputes that Kerry came under fire during a 1969 mission on the Bay Hap River. The candidate won a Bronze Star for his actions that day, when he fished a Green Beret officer out of the water.
A document recommending Thurlow for a Bronze Star said that his boat, along with Kerry's and three others, fielded constant bullets that day, according to The Washington Post. Thurlow insisted Thursday that the records were based on Kerry's account; he maintained his contention that Kerry lied about enemy fire.
None of the men in the Swift boat group, including Thurlow, actually served in Kerry's patrol boat during the war. A Los Angeles Times review of their accusations found that, in addition to Thurlow, other members also have given contradictory accounts of incidents and offered evidence of Kerry's alleged wrongdoing based on memories of events that they say they witnessed from a boat or two away.
Military documents and accounts of crewmates who actually served with Kerry support the view put forth by the candidate and his campaign -- that he acted courageously and came by his five medals honestly.
McCoy Motors
But the Swift boat group is standing by its account of events. It announced Thursday that it would unveil a new ad Friday. Spokesman Mike Russell declined to describe its content, or say where it will be aired.
Kerry, in his speech to firefighters, noted that Robert J. Perry, a Texas developer and longtime contributor to Bush, has given the group $200,000. Harlan Crow of Dallas, CEO of Crow Holdings and the controlling shareholder of Trammel Crow Company, the nation's largest commercial real estate firm, gave the group $25,000 on May 10.
The anti-Kerry ad aired in Wisconsin, Ohio and West Virginia from Aug. 5-12.
"They're a front for the Bush campaign," Kerry said. "And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything that you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work."
Kerry suggested that he will challenge Bush's own service record in the Texas Air Guard, signaling an intensely personal turn in the debate over the candidates' wartime credentials.
"The president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country," he said. "Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on!'"
Bush's re-election campaign denied the president is backing the Swift boat group, but Bush, the White House and the campaign again declined to denounce the ad.
"Sen. Kerry knows President Bush has called his service in Vietnam noble," said spokesman Steve Schmidt, adding that Bush has also called for an end to campaign advertising by independent groups.
Russell also flatly denied that the organization is supported by the Bush campaign, describing Kerry's comments predictable.
"We know the laws, and we abide by them," said Russell, noting that the group is an independent committee.
Initially, Kerry was inclined to ignore the group and its ad. When the Swift boat group's ad was released, he was in the middle of a post-convention, cross-country campaign swing, and aides said he did not want to give his critics more attention by responding directly.
But the anti-Kerry veterans -- and their challenge of Kerry's credibility -- continued to gain notice. The group has raised $450,000 in donations from more than 10,000 contributors since the ad debuted, largely through the group's Web site.
Meanwhile, some of Kerry's fellow veterans urged David Thorne, one of his closest friends and advisers, to persuade the candidate to respond more forcefully.
"I think every veteran familiar with the situation who heard what was running around was enraged," said Paul Nace, a longtime friend who served with Kerry in the Navy. "And so I think all of us wanted the campaign to get John and everybody else to respond."
Kerry reversed course Wednesday night after arriving in Boston from a campaign trip to Cincinnati. As his motorcade pulled up to his Beacon Hill townhouse, he asked senior adviser David Morehouse, communications direction Stephanie Cutter and press secretary David Wade to come inside.
With campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill on the phone, Kerry told his aides, "I think it's time to go at this."
Aides hired a delivery service to drive through the night from Washington to Boston with thick, bound copies of Kerry's Naval record to distribute to reporters traveling with the candidate.
The campaign cut a new commercial overnight that features former Green Beret Jim Rassmann testifying about how Kerry pulled him from the river in the middle of a firefight.
The ad is set to air Friday in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin -- the same states where the Swift boat group showed its commercial. In airing it, the campaign reversed a decision to hold off on new television commercials until September.
Meanwhile, the campaign has hired Joe Lockhart, a Clinton White House spokesman, and Joel Johnson, a lobbyist who also worked for Clinton, to help field incoming attacks.
Cutter said that if charges about his service continue, Kerry will "talk comparatively" about his military record and that of Bush, who has been shadowed by questions about whether he fulfilled his required service while in the Texas Air Guard.
Kerry has reversed himself several times on whether he feels it's appropriate to go after Bush's military service.
In February, when other Democrats demanded that Bush release his military records, Kerry said he would not pursue such a line of attack. Then in late April, when critics accused Kerry of lying about throwing his war medals away during a war protest, he fired back by charging that Bush could not account for all his time in the National Guard.
But earlier this week, Kerry condemned an ad by one of his allies that accused Bush of using family connections to avoid military service as "inappropriate" -- even as some of his surrogates repeated the ad's charges in a press conference arranged by the campaign.
On Thursday, the candidate took a different tack, saying he learned the lesson to fight back when attacked."I'm not going to let anyone question my commitment to defending America -- then, now, or ever," he said.
Kerry is such a thunderhead. Looks like he wants to stay on the Vietnam issue until Election Day. Bush by 12% if this keeps up.
Yes, it just makes citizens like me more angry. By the way, I had several male relatives serve in the National Guard during the Vietnam War era, and it was considered an honorable form of service. I remember those times well, and I can assure the younger people of today that nobody at the time thought it was dishonorable to get into the National Guard.
But the Democrats started slinging mud in the Gore 2000 campaign against National Guard service, thereby casting aspersions on these people who served their country honorably. The Democrats started the mud campaign, but the Republicans will finish it.
So which is better--an "uneventful" military career that actually happened or a heroic career that was made up?
To be fair, we should give Kerry a swift boat.
Bush has a war record?
Bush will fart in Kerry's general direction. He has filed his SF180.
The truth is that Kerry challenged Bush to discuss their respective services. I remember the look Mr. Bush gave Gore when Gore tried to act the alpha male in the debates. He will figuratively give the same look to Kerry.
Memo to the metrosexual gigolo faux war hero pompous windbag presidential wannabe:
You have been attacking the president on everything including his war record for nearly a year and it hasn't gained you a thing.
When leftists like Kerry don't address the substance of the charge but instead sound like conspiracy theorists by saying that Bush is behind this, we know we need to see your medical records more than ever.
I've moved from wanting to see his military records to feeling it's imperative to seeing his medical records; my guess is he's on an anti-psychotic drug.
LOL
so, the dems aren't going to start attacking the presidents war record, they are going to continue to attack his war record.
slimy lying b*stards.
Kerry shot some teenagers in sampans and pulled a crewmate out of the water after he put him there.
Bush defeated two of the most brutal regimes in the world and liberated 50 million people.
BRING IT ON!
Just when you think that no one is more inept at campaigning than Bush, along comes John Kerry to lower the bar.
How 'bout a swift boot?
Or better yet, the President can fly his F102 and Kerry can pilot his Swift Boat. LOL!
The oooooooooooooooooooooooooooold 'I-know-I-am-but-what-are-you?" defense.
Speaking of Bush's military service, does Commander-in-Chief count? Little higher than Lt. (j.g.).
If Kerry were smart he would stop putting everything into the context of his war actions. To say he would do what he did 30 years ago and turn toward enemy fire just gives the vets another reason to look at his record. Sounds to me he didn't turn toward but away from what he thought was enemy fire.
Anyone notice how Kerry pronounces Ghengis Khan in that sound clip? I think phonetically it's something like: Jengis Shan.
Does anyone remember the character Charles Winchester on the tv show MASH? They chose a guy with that snobbish upper crust Boston accent because they knew that would make him a dislikable character the moment he spoke. Kerry sounds like Charles Winchester!
This is a minor point, but it all adds to one big (w)hole.
He most certainly does. He was Commander in Chief during two major battles in the War on Terror. He has liberated the people of Afghanistan from the Taliban and the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein.
Don't forget the mainline media will protect him no matter what. I'm with the SBVT. Let the chips fall where they fall. These guys have a right to participate.
Passing:
And catching:
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