Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Monday criticized President Bush's record on homeland security, saying his Republican rival is "big on bluster and short on action" in protecting the nation. Speaking to the International Association of Firefighters, a 263,000-member union that has endorsed his candidacy, the four-term Massachusetts senator argued that Bush talks tough on terrorism but has failed to back it up with the financial resources firefighters and other first responders need. "I do not fault George Bush for doing too much in the war on terror, I believe he's done too little," Kerry said. "I think...

WASHINGTON - The White House, seeking to raise credibility questions about Democrat John Kerry, suggested Monday that the presumptive nominee had lied when he said some foreign leaders privately back his candidacy. Kerry should identify the leaders who purportedly hope he beats President Bush in November, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Either he is straightforward and states who they are, or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president," the spokesman said. McClellan put a sharper point on a response offered a day earlier by Secretary of State Colin Powell,...

US SENATOR John Kerry last night fought off accusations he was a coward and had made strategic mistakes in battle during the Vietnam War. The Democratic challenger for the White House was embroiled in fresh controversy after one of his former crew members accused him of being someone "who ran from the enemy". It was reported last night that Steven Gardner, a gunner’s mate on the first patrol boat commanded by Kerry in the Mekong Delta, contradicts accounts of the senator’s military career that depict him as a brave and aggressive lieutenant who won three Purple Hearts, which are a...

Knowing that I served in the U.S. Senate with John Kerry and that, like him, I am a veteran of the Vietnam War, many people have asked me what I think of him, particularly now that he's the apparent presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. When Kerry joined me in the Senate, I already knew about his record of defamatory remarks and behavior criticizing U.S. policy in Vietnam and the conduct of our military personnel there. I had learned in North Vietnamese prisons how much harm such statements caused. To me, his remarks and behavior amounted to giving aid and...