Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
Tough John Kerry Trivia II

1. Kerry has an aide a part of whose job it is to keep available what food item for Nuancy Boy?

2. What was the name of the pet hamster that the International Man of Science reportedly gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to bring it back after a near-drowning?

3. By what nickname did the New-Wonk of Nuance's first wife refer to him while they were dating?

4. What was the name of the book that the International Man of Apology read to schoolchildren in New York when Hillary chided him that the children couldn't see the pictures, and who was the author?

5. How many times did John Kerry reportedly offer John McCain, a Republican, the vice-presidential spot on his ticket?

Some answers will certainly be in the comments, so don't click on them until you've tried to find all the answers.

 
Is Kerry Ineligible for Public Office?

Reader Karl sent me an email about Kerry's eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment, which reads in part:

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

This point was raised in a Crush Kerry discussion forum awhile ago. Interestingly, the law only requires that one have at any time in the past sworn the oath. Kerry, of course, swore an oath to the Constitution, and he admits at least meeting with the North Vietnamese after swearing that oath. In fact, FBI files show he met with them twice, although he admitted only to the first meeting. So the argument is that by meeting with thim, he violated the 14th Amendment.

This should be broadcast from the rooftops. Not so much because a legal battle in the event of a Kerry election, but to wake people up to this horrific character who's now gotta be figured to have an almost even chance of being elected President. Don't get me wrong, I still think Bush is going to win. But I also figured a couple of months ago that we would be far ahead of where we are now.

Kerry's defense isn't hard to figure out. He'll claim that he met with North Vietnamese only in an effort to win the freedom of the POWs. And besides, he'll argue, the people have been aware of his position on Vietnam for 33+ years (which is true). Nobody brought this up when he was lieutenant governor for 2 years or Senator for the last 20, and anyway, the law is just a Civil War remnant, passed to prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from being elected. John McCain will argue how unfair it is.

So my stance is bring it up by all means, but be ready when the Kerry defense is rolled out and counterpunch with "But don't you think it's significant that Kerry is at least arguably guilty of being in violation of the 14th amendment? Don't you think that he should never have met with the North Vietnamese twice, not once as he claims?"

 
Tour of Doo-Doo

Doug Giles wants to know why the Swiftees are getting such unkind treatment from the left:

What’s funny, [not funny, “ha-ha” … funny “weird”] is as long as the information comes from one uberliberal, overweight, college dropout with a communist bent, who routinely attempts to make “W” look like a greedy gnome who wrongfully plays golf while he unrepentantly sends our kids to the Gulf, well … that’s cool. Spreading such misinformation, created from the ether by one of the left’s darlings should not, according to most liberals, be examined. No! It should be believed and be considered inerrant and infallible, and the purveyor of such rank propaganda lifted high as a prophet.

 
Interesting Contradictions--The Sampan Incident--Updated!

I'm now starting to read the Boston Globe book on Nuancy Boy, John F. Kerry, The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, looking for contradictions between it and Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty.

Here are two interesting ones, from the sampan incident where Kerry's crew killed a young child. According to the Globe (page 90):

"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child."

However, Kerry says something quite different in Brinkley's book (269-270):

"Then somebody said that there was a body up front and we moved in closer to see the limbs of a small child limp on the stacks of rice. She had already covered it, and when one of the men asked me if I wanted it uncovered, I said no, realizing that the face would stay with me for the rest of my life and that it was better not to know whether there was a smile or a grimace or whether it was a girl or a boy."

Okay, that's a pretty minor thing--Kerry could say that what he meant in the quote the Globe used was that it was the sight of the child's body, covered up that he'll never forget.

More important is that the Globe book and Tour of Duty disagree on which boat Kerry was commanding at the time. From the Globe (89):

Gardner said that he and Kerry also clashed over an incident in swift boat No. 44 that left a deep mark on both men, the killing of a boy....

But in Brinkley, the incident happened on the PCF-94 (269):

One of the most horrific moments of Kerry's tenure in Vietnam occurred late one afternoon toward the end of that winter, after PCF-94 had headed out....

Brinkley doesn't provide a more specific time for the incident. "Toward the end of that winter" sounds to me like February or March. But the Globe is a little more specific (92):

Two days after the incident cited in that report, he and other swift boat skippers traveled to Saigon for an extraordinary meeting with Zumwalt and the overall commander of the war, General Abrams.

Brinkley is pretty specific on the date of that extraordinary meeting (254-261):

At 5:30 in the morning of January 22, 1969...

This provides some indication that the incident took place on January 20th, although I'm wary of placing the time by using two books that contradict each other on important points.

Update: The Globe footnotes (399) makes it clear that they are aware of the conflicting account in Tour; they say they checked with members of the 44 who recall the incident and found no members of the 94 with a similar memory.

Incidentally, the naval report on this incident is dated 1/20/69, so it would seem that date is nailed. John O'Neill cited this as the next big story out of the Unfit for Command book. Kerry reportedly did not mention the young boy killed in his report, instead reporting the rescue of two villagers and 5 VC killed or escaped.

 
Steyn Nails It

I wish I had 1/10th his talent.

A handful of Kerry's ''band of brothers'' are traveling around with his campaign. Most of the rest, including a majority of his fellow swift boat commanders and 254 swiftees from Kerry's Coastal Squadron One, are opposed to his candidacy. That is an amazing ratio and, if snot-nosed American media grandees don't think there's a story there, maybe they ought to consider another line of work. To put it in terms they can understand, imagine if Dick Cheney campaigned for the presidency on the basis of his time at Halliburton, and a majority of the Halliburton board and 80 percent of the stockholders declared he was unfit for office. More to the point, on the swift vets' first major allegation -- Christmas in Cambodia -- the Kerry campaign has caved.

 
UNRAVELING KERRY’S FABRICATION


photo montage: Rush Limbaugh

8 Unfit For Command:
O'Neill recalls serving with John Kerry in an interview with Pat Robertson, which begins:
PAT ROBERTSON: John, I want to ask you something about a picture that is hung in a museum in Saigon depicting foreign activists who contributed to the Communist victory over America. Is Kerry's picture in that exhibit?
JOHN O'NEILL: Amazingly, Pat, he was no hero in our unit. But he was a big hero to the North Vietnamese in their war museum in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. They have a hall - it is like a Cooperstown [Cooperstown, New York - site of the National Baseball Hall of Fame] of bad guys. They have el Fatah and Fidel Castro, Mao Tse Tung, and right in the middle of it is a shrine to John Kerry. A guy from our unit discovered that when he was in Saigon on Memorial Day. Copies of those pictures can be obtained right in the book "Unfit for Command."
…
ROBERTSON: So you are saying that Kerry gunned his boat, and in that Rassman fell over the side? Is that what you say happened?
O'NEILL: I am saying exactly that. Rassman fell off of Kerry's boat. Kerry's boat fled the scene. It was the only boat to flee the scene. All of the other guys, as we always did, stood to fight, to save the survivors of the number three boat. There was no fire, as it turned out. They saved the survivors, and after it became evident there was no fire, Kerry returned. His story is the world turned upside down, according to the people involved in that incident.

8 A good summary of Kerry. Too bad her conclusion is weak.
Kerry's quagmire
By Kathleen Parker
What if the single pivotal event of one's life - the moment that altered one's entire course, illuminating the path ahead, providing that critical psychological turning point - turned out to have been an invention of one's very own?
…
The pivotal moment in Kerry's life, according to his many testimonials on the subject, was Christmas of 1968, when, he has said, he was in Cambodia. This experience was central to his later becoming a war protester and to his lighting out on a political path destined to culminate in a rise to the U.S. presidency.
…
He's the sort of man who thinks to take a movie camera to war to document himself for uses now known to be political; who willingly exploits his heroism in ways real heroes never do; who builds a career on disgust toward a war he later characterizes as the crowning achievement in a life that seems more résumé than real.

8 As usual, you can always trust Christopher Hitchens to inject some humor.
Taking the Measure of John Kerry
By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
He has succeeded in getting two very striking and independent women to marry him, the second of whom, though she sometimes resembles a large-print version of Bianca Jagger, is nonetheless living proof that ketchup is not a vegetable.
…
''A Call to Service,'' by Kerry himself, merits Mark Twain's comment on the Book of Mormon -- ''chloroform in print.''
…
If Kerry is dogged and haunted by the accusation of wanting everything twice over, he has come by the charge honestly.
…
The Boston Globe writers capture a moment of sheer, abject incoherence, at a Democratic candidates' debate in Baltimore last September:

''If we hadn't voted the way we voted, we would not have been able to have a chance of going to the United Nations and stopping the president, in effect, who already had the votes and who was obviously asking serious questions about whether or not the Congress was going to be there to enforce the effort to create a threat.''

8 HOWEVER, StrategyPage has posted Proof Kerry Was In Cambodia:
No doubt these were the atrocities about which John Kerry so courageously testified later before the U.S. Senate Investigation Committee. Apparently some details have been confused, for example, Kerry did not travel into Cambodia on this mission in his own Swift boat, but rather a PBR--which for this mission was callsign "Streetgang."

 
Next Time, Pay the Union Members to Stand!

 
Kerry Demonstrates The Underhanded Football Pass



Democratic presidential nominee Senator John Kerry (D-MA) tosses a football on the tarmac at Long Beach Airport, California as the Kerry campaign plane waited to take off for campaign events in Oregon, August 12, 2004.

 
John F. Kerry Fan Fiction

It was a dark and stormy Christmas Eve on the Mekong. We had left Sa Dec a few hours earlier, and were still exhilarated over the adventure of the drawbridge. As we came out of the town we realized that even with the drawbridge up all the way, we'd have very little clearance. But we decided to gun it rather than wait for low tide and made it through with about an inch to spare. The villagers who had come to watch us smash up applauded politely.

We were in that nebulous area between Cambodia and South Vietnam. The CIA spook was applying lampblack to his face. The hat was lying on the table between us. It was big and floppy and camo and I lusted after it.

The CIA man grunted. He was featureless like all spooks; after 4-5 missions they all started to look the same. But his voice was pure Southern farmboy.

"Y'all want the hat?" Before he could withdraw the offer I snatched it up and put it on my head a jaunty angle. He smiled, but it was a cold smile. "Y'all gotta swap one of yours."

I hesitated. The only hat besides my regulation Navy equipment was my old Red Sox cap, autographed by Eddie Yost himself. I liked to think of it as my lucky cap. But it wasn't camo, and it wasn't the hat of a real CIA man. So I handed over the baseball cap.

This was one of those unofficial missions that I chafed at. "Surely Nixon can't be running the government already," I had complained to Elliot when receiving my orders. "He's not the President yet!"

Commander Elliot had winked. "This has been Nixon's war all along, you know that as well as I do."

Gardner poked his head in the door. "Couple PBJs--err, PBRs coming up, Skippy--err, Skipper." I could see him surpressing a grin and wondered why, then cursed and whipped off the camo hat. Later that night I would have to put it in the secret compartment of my attache case. Otherwise Gardner and the other guys would undoubtedly visit indignities on it, which would probably lead to mildew.

I groaned at the news of the PBRs. The f'ing Navy couldn't do anything right. Elliot had assured me this area would be clear. But as the craft approached us, a mortar whistled overhead. "What was that?" I yelled. The second one hit the water only a few yards away.

The PBRs took off and we darted into Cambodia. Again, but not for the last time.

 
Legion Members in Action!

 
Blogger Roundup

Wild Bill has a solid post on Kerry's bizarre and untrue claims about President Bush's tax cuts.

Aaron Matthew Arnwine wonders why Kerry thinks that his Vietnam service alone qualifies him to be President.

Manifest Content has an entry for the John F. Kerry Fan Fiction Contest which we blogged about yesterday.

Allah thinks Kerry's reflection looks a little familiar.

 
Was David Alston Ever on Kerry's Boat?

Captain's Quarters has a phenomenal post on the subject. Read it all!

 
And Now for A Different Cambodia Story

Our buddy Chris at Kerry's Waffles tipped us off to this story. It appears that the International Man of Mystery has been involved in adoptions of Cambodian children by American parents.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said he was pressured by US Senator John Kerry to lift an official suspension on foreign adoptions to allow 16 Cambodian children to be adopted by American families.

But the Post had learned that the adoption of these 16 children was in fact arranged by Lauryn Galindo, an American facilitator who works for a number of American adoption agencies including Seattle International Adoptions (SIA) which is headed by her sister Lynn Devin.

Now, let's follow the story to the next level: Who got the kids? Well, believe it or not, one of them appears to be Hollywood actress, Angelina Jolie.



A Hawaii woman who helped Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie adopt a Cambodian boy pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) to visa fraud and money laundering as part of a ring that paid poor women as little as $100 for their children, her attorney said.

Lauryn Galindo, 53, and her sister in Seattle, Lynn Devin, received fees of $10,000 or more to arrange adoptions by U.S. residents of children described as orphans, even though many still had parents, according to the documents.

 
Our Man in Cambodia

Andrew Antippas has a long article in the Washington Times about Kerry's supposed incursion into Cambodia.

My job in the political section of our embassy in Saigon was to be the "Cambodia Man." My principal tasks were to follow border incidents involving U.S. forces along the Cambodian border.

Finally, concerning the assertion that Mr. Kerry was shot at by the Khmer Rouge during his Christmas 1968 visit to Cambodia, it should be noted that the Khmer Rouge didn't take the field until the Easter Offensive of 1972, when the Vietnamese forces that had attacked the Cambodians initially in March 1970 pulled out of Cambodia to attack the U.S. and Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. Only Vietnamese Communist soldiers were found on the battlefields of Cambodia in 1970-72.

The bottom line of all this is that in the 15 years of active American military involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia, between 1961 and 1975, there was ongoing attention and scrutiny paid to the border because of the political sensitivities over the neutrality of the Cambodians. While things may have happened that no one ever found out about in Saigon, the Cambodians yelled bloody murder to the world press and the ICC whenever they found Americans trespassing.

 
MIDDAY ROUNDUP

8 Hugh Hewitt has An Interview with the Vice President: "Today you brought attention to John Kerry's plan to wage a more 'sensitive' war on terror. What do you think John Kerry meant when he said 'sensitive,' Mr. Vice President?"

8 Lorie Byrd: Media bias is on full display in the Swift Boat Vet story. All one has to do is compare to the Bush AWOL story.

8 And Lorie here, too: For anyone who didn't watch the Chris Matthews "interview" of John O'Neill Thursday, one of the most damning parts of it (damning for Matthews, that is) was when Matthews accused O'Neill of being a Texas Republican. O'Neill said he was not. Matthews asked where he lived. When Matthews nailed him for being from Texas, O'Neill pointed out that he has not voted Republican since 1988. He voted for Perot twice and then for Gore. Yes, O'Neill voted for Al Gore over George Bush. After that little gem came out, Chris Matthews said he didn't really care who anyone voted for. HA! How on earth can what happened on Hardball tonight be described as any form of journalism? I love that MSNBC makes transcripts available free online for a week after the shows run. I will post a link to it tomorrow when it is available.

 
“HYPERATIVE POLITICAL LIBIDO”



Pat Hynes’ (CrushKerry) review of UNFIT FOR COMMAND appears in The American Spectator today.
Book-of-the-Month
By Patrick Hynes
Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry
by John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
(Regnery Publishing, 256 pages, $27.95)
THE SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS contain the meat of the book. The authors present two broad categories of concern. The first are legitimate issues of debate, such as: Did John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities provide aid and comfort to the enemy? Reasonable people can disagree about these. But the second category -- his conduct during the war -- places Kerry on perilous ground. For if the swift boat operators are correct -- and it's vital to note John Kerry has never refuted these charges -- then John Kerry is a liar, an incompetent, a slanderer, and guilty of war crimes.
…

Kerry avoided any problem by filing an after action report in which the dead child simply disappeared from the record and was replaced by a fleeing squad of Viet Cong, some likely killed by Kerry. A terrible human tragedy was converted by another Kerry lie into another sterling triumph by the young war hero.

It's hard to believe this could be the man the Democrats have nominated for as their candidate for President of the United States.

 
Conclusions as I Reach Them

1 The Cambodian incursion cannot happen on PCF-44. This means that Kerry's first vine just got a little slimmer. Why? Because three of Kerry's boatmates on that ship, including two who are supporting Kerry (Zaldonis and Hatch) refuse to back him up. These are the guys that the press needs to interview!

2. That means his Cambodian incursion must have happened on another boat than the one that he claimed it happened on. This is pretty damning in and of itself, because none of the men on PCF-44 were on Kerry's second Swift boat, the PCF-94. The memory that was seared--seared in him, doesn't include who was there with him? That doesn't pass the sniff test.

3. There is almost no chance that Kerry can claim that he was in Cambodia in January of 1969. The book is pretty specific about Kerry spending most of his time in the far southern tip of South Vietnam, aboard the PCF-44, where three members say they've never been to Cambodia. He could not have traveled up the Mekong; that's simply out of the question.

 
Christmas in Cambodia--Dramatis Personae--Welcome Fellow L-Dotters Coming Over from Kitty Litter!--Update IV

(Note: This is the final version for now. Updates on David Alston and Tom Belodeau, and map for An Thoi.)

I thought it might be useful to get some basics down from Brinkley's book; the people, the boats, the timelines. This time I was able to get a non-large print version of Tour of Duty, so I will be able to highlight the pages where the information is located. I'm starting with Chapter 10, since that concerns the events of Christmas Eve, 1968. From there, I will go through January of 1969, since that appears to be Kerry's fallback for Cambodia.

Kerry's boat at Christmas 1968 was the PCF-44 (Page 209). Men on board the PCF-44 are as follows: Drew Whitlow (209), James Wasser, Radarman (213) also second in command (228); Stephen Hatch, Bosun's Mate (214), Stephen Gardner, Gunner's Mate (215) Bill Zaldonis, Engine Man (160). Gardner is the SBVfT member. Zaldonis and Hatch are apparently supporting Kerry, but also refuse to confirm the Cambodia story. These men are the ones to interview! What was the time of their service with John Kerry?

Kerry's second Swift boat is the PCF-94, which he takes over on January 30, 1969, after the prior skipper, Tedd Peck, is seriously wounded and sent home. Prior to Peck, the skipper of PCF-94 had been Tom Heritage. The crew of PCF-94 are as follows: Del Sandusky (262), Gene Thorson, engine man (262), Michael Medeiros, bosun's mate (263), David Alston, gunner's mate (263) Thomas Belodeau, radarman (264). All are current Kerry supporters. Update--Was Alston ever on Kerry's boat? This post certainly raises some interesting questions. Alston was replaced on the PCF-44 by Frederic Short (288). Update II--Belodeau passed away several years ago.

Other Boats:

Skip Barker (233), Skipper of PCF-31. Barker is the ONLY other Swift Boat captain to support Kerry. However, the Brinkley book introduces him as something of a villain: "Skip Barker--whose one-month seniority over Kerry made his PCF-31 the lead boat..." You can almost hear Brinkley grinding his teeth. Of course, at this time, Kerry had about 2 months experience and Barker, by this account, had 50% more experience.

Zeke Zucker (239) Skipper of another boat (no number given) and his Radarman Dorsey E. Lee (239). These men give Kerry descriptions of the Bo De run which Kerry reportedly taped.

Frank Gilbert (247) Skipper of PCF-6. He is wounded during the Bo De run.

Will Imbrie (249) Operations officer on a (unnumbered) LST. Also appears to be Skipper of the PCF-71 (250).

Mike Bernique (250) Appears to be Skipper of PCF-50. Kerry and he have beers on the island of Hon Khoai (250-253).

Wade Sanders (254) Skipper of PCF-98.

Rich McCann (255)

Bill Schmadine (257) Skipper of PCF-5.

Larry Thurlow (258) Skipper of PCF-53. SBVfT member; appears in advertisement against Kerry.

James Galvin (259) Skipper of PCF-22.

Tedd Peck (261) initially Skipper of PCF-57, he becomes the Skipper of PCF-94 prior to Kerry taking over that boat.

Tom Heritage (261) Skipper PCF-94 prior to Tedd Peck and Kerry.

Superior officers:

Commander George Strulie (Cat Lo) (233). Apparently deceased. Forgives Kerry and Barker for turning around during a storm (233).

Commander George Elliot (235), Commander at An Thoi. Elliot is the SBVfT officer who reportedly recanted his negative comments about Kerry to a Boston Globe reporter a few days ago, but since has re-affirmed his criticism. Appears in SBVfT advertisement.

Captain Roy Hoffman (237) (later Rear Admiral, ret.). Major leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Orders Kerry (via a subordinate officer) on Bo De mission (237). Appears in SBVfT advertisement.

Timeline:

December 24, 1968. Purported date of Kerry's Cambodia Adventure. (209-219). Some parts of Kerry's adventure confirmed (three ships fired on by mortars), fired on by South Vietnamese troops, but of course, the actual Cambodian incursion never actually happens. Lots of parts of this chapter attempt to create the impression that Kerry was very close to Cambodia: "...only miles from from the Cambodian border. Because they were only an hour away from that neighboring country..." (209), "...patrolled the watery borderline between Cambodia and Vietnam..." (210), "...patrolling near the Cambodian line..."(210). Looking at the map here, it becomes pretty obvious that Brinkley is trying to keep alive the hope that Kerry was near the border. They go from My Tho, to Long Binh, to Sa Dec. Look at the map of the city of Vinh Long (referred to in the book as Long Binh) and the cities of Sa Dec (destination) and My Tho(starting point) (appears when you expand the map of Vinh Long one time). As you can see the notion that they were patrolling the border between Vietnam and Cambodia is ridiculous. Which absolutely means that David Brinkley knew he was unable to confirm the Cambodia story and is trying as hard as possible to make the "near the border" story as credible as possible. But the map gives him away. What does this mean? That they absolutely knew they were in trouble on this story that Kerry had repeated so many times over the years.

December 29, 1968. (219-226) Kerry Crewman (and current SBVfT) Stephen Gardner wounded in action (bullet in arm). Kerry takes him to a small base at Dong Tam, and Gardner is patched up. Afterwards comes the story of the hunt for the Bob Hope USO show (at My Tho).

Undated Anecdote (226-230) "Not long after Gardner's injury...". Location: Co Chien River. Crew devises game of Swift boat duck hunt (no ducks harmed). Later they buy a duck from a Vietnamese teen, which Gardner kills with his M-16, and the crew has a bland-tasting duck dinner that night. There is a B-52 strike a few miles away, which offers Kerry (and Brinkley) a chance to moan about bombing.

Undated just after New Year's Day, "The new year of 1969 started..." (231-233). Brinkley says they are out of the Mekong Delta, "patrolling the open sea off the coast of Vung Tau." See the map again--Vung Tau is indeed on the coast, quite a long way from Cambodia. However, they were quickly on the move back to their base at Cat Lo (unfortunately not on the map, but apparently in the same bay area as Vung Tau), and they are then ordered to An Thoi (another town that does not appear on the map) Update III--Map of An Thoi shown here. Hat tip to reader Thucydides. As you can see, An Thoi is a fairly large island off the Cambodia coast. Kerry throws something of a hissy fit, but accepts the assignment.

Undated, early in January (233) "...shortly before noon one day early in January 1969..." PCF-44 (Kerry's boat) and PCF-31 (Skip Barker) start for An Thoi, but the water is too rough for the boats and so they turn back to Cat Lo. However, their commander (George Strulie) told them later they had done the right thing. More of Kerry noodling about how ridiculous the war is.

Undated, apparently shortly after the previous day. (234-238) "Before he knew it, Cat Lo and the relative freedoms of...." Kerry and Barker are ordered again to An Thoi. Again the seas are apparently too rough. But they persevere on after receiving a radio message ordering them to continue. Kerry continues to rage and his diary descends into juvenility: "I feel like a small child who hides in attics on rainy days...." Kerry also reportedly begins sleepwalking and having violent nightmares. (236). (Note: Not laughing at this last bit--this was fairly common among Vietnam vets; my cousin Bob had the same problem).

Geography checks: On the way to An Thoi, Brinkley lists some areas: Bo De River, island of Hon Khoai and the Ca Mau Peninsula (235), Vietnam's southern cape. Brinkley says they were well into VC territory. However, very importantly, they are clearly rounding the southern tip of Vietnam, and not heading up the Mekong or its Delta. Look at the map at the city of Ca Mau and you can clearly see the peninsula they are rounding. He encounters Division Commander George Elliot, who apparently consoles Kerry.

Undated, but on the same timeline: Brinkley introduces the menace of the Bo De river. However, it's an obvious strikeout on the Cambodian experience, as it runs from the Gulf of Thailand to the South China Sea, all of which is contained within South Vietnam. Kerry is assigned to a "Sealords" mission, up the Bo De with five other Swifts. There follows the anecdote where Kerry is told of the prior Bo De runs (238-243). Some amusing bits in preparation to the Bo De: Kerry writes in his journal, "I am so conceited that I do not believe the gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending." He also puts on two pairs of flak pants, "to protect the family jewels".

Undated, clearly continuing: the Bo De run (245-248). Boats involved are the PCF-6 (lead boat), PCF-3, PCF-44 (Kerry), PCF-50, PCF-71 (rear). There are several exchanges of gunfire, but the only man wounded is Frank Gilbert, skipper of the lead boat. Afterwards Kerry regrets not having brought his camera with him.

Undated, same day as the Bo De run (249-253). Kerry and his crew head with some other Swift boats for the island of Hon Khoai. Kerry and Mike Bernique relax and have a few beers at a Navy radar site.

Update V--January 20, 1969. The Sampan Incident. Kerry's crew fire on a sampan (native boat) that was out after curfew and may have had VC aboard. They discover no actual dead VC, but it is assumed that one was killed and fell into the water. Kerry's report supposedly mentions 1 definite KIA (killed in action) and four either KIA or escaped. Interestingly, there is no mention of the boy being killed. John O'Neill on Hugh Hewitt's show cited this as the potentially most explosive allegation remaining in Unfit for Command. (Note: Date for this fixed from Boston Globe book (page 89-92, footnote on 399), which notes that Brinkley's (page 269) got this one wrong and offers pretty convincing evidence). O'Neill gave the date of January 21st on the radio show yesterday; the event did happen at night and may overlap dates.

January 22, 1969 (254-261). Kerry and some other Swift boat officers are flown to Saigon for a meeting with the top brass, including Admiral Zumwalt and Army General Creighton Abrams and Captain Hoffman.

January 29, 1969 (261-266) Tedd Peck, Skipper of the PCF-94, is seriously wounded in action and is sent home to the US. Kerry is transferred over to the PCF-94 on January 30.

After that, the chronology is unclear for awhile. Brinkley describes an incident before Kerry's taking over the PCF-94 where Kerry was assigned to another boat (not the PCF-44) and helped out a bunch of villagers, who were starving in VC territory. (272). Story is confirmed by Skip Barker, the only Swift Boat skipper supporting the Kerry campaign.

Conclusion: I don't see how Brinkley's going to shoehorn in a mission to Cambodia in that timeline. Kerry spends almost the entire month of January in the An Thoi area, in the Gulf of Thailand. While Cambodia is not all that far by sea, a river approach from Vietnam seems out of the question.

Completed for now.

 
Identity of the Spook Who Gave Kerry the Magic Hat Revealed!

Reader ter0 points us to the crucial photo evidence.

 
Christmas in Cambodia Heating Up Again

Drudge claims Kerry has turned in desperation to Douglas Brinkley to rescue him from the Christmas in Cambodia story.

TOUR OF DUTY author and John Kerry historian Doug Brinkley is rushing a piece for the NEW YORKER: to set-the-record-straight on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia tale, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Kerry has turned to author Brinkley for a "modification" after it was exposed that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968, as he once claimed from the Senate floor.

The Brinkley piece for the NEW YORKER will now say that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas, but rather in January, publishing sources tell DRUDGE.

This is a little odd, because Brinkley, of course, did not include the Christmas in Cambodia story in Tour of Duty. Indeed, the thing that clued Kerry Haters into the fact that there was something odd going on here was the fact that Brinkley did not mention the Cambodian incursion. It is obvious that Kerry is desperately climbing the ropes toward the cliff above.

Captain Ed is speculating that the January date is being chosen because it's after Steve Gardner left. From Hugh Hewitt's interview with Gardner:

HH: What months did you serve with Senator Kerry?

SG: November through January. Here's what I did. I served two months and two weeks of his four month, 12 day tour.

HH: Alright. Why did you leave off in January? What happened in January?

SG: That was my rotation time.

Tom Maguire states that Kerry might have a case around St. Patrick's Day 1969, when Operation Menu began. So why doesn't he shoot for March?

I keep harping on this, but I don't see anybody getting the real significance of Brinkley's Tour of Duty not including the Christmas in Cambodia tale. It means that some of Kerry's Band of Brothers won't back him up on this tale. It appears that March is out, so the obvious question is who's on his boat in March, who isn't there in January?

Sigh. Back to the book!

 
HMMMM?

A caller to Rush’s show asked a provoking question:
Did Kerry Take Us Out of War Based on a Lie?
CALLER: I just wanted to make the comment that it seems to me, you know, that it seems to me that the liberal position about George W. Bush and taking us to war in Iraq has been that he took us to war in Iraq based on a lie. And the 9/11 Commission was able to prove that that was false. However, it does seem to me that John Kerry took us out of a war based on a lie, and I think we need to start asking more questions about that.

 
Kerry Demonstrates His Throw-It-In-The-Dirt Form

 
ROUNDUP

8 CrushKerry ??? More to the McGreevey Story ???
We have an unconfirmed report from a major media source that NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey has more to worry about than a sexual harassment complaint. Apparently, a story is circulating that McGreevey has had a sexual relationship with a person other than an adult man, which could prove shocking. We have been told that the story is going to break tonight on one of the major cable networks. Can't say more in order to protect the source. We will keep you updated on the story …

8 Roberto, at DynamoBuzz, weighs in on his state’s latest news about Gov. McGreedy.

8 Lori Byrd, at PoliPundit, sat through Crossfire (bless her heart!) and concluded that the Left can’t handle mocking OR the truth (James Carville had a total meltdown). Take a well deserved rest, Lori!

8 Chris, at KerryWaffles, has posted John Kerry: Holiday In Cambodia.

 
Two More Blogs for the Blogroll

In connection with our support for John Thune for U.S. Senate, we welcome Daschle v. Thune. Jon Lauck is doing yeoman's work over there covering the big race.

Hat Tip: Hugh Hewitt

Virginia Patriots is a solid new blog who quite smartly linked to Kerry Haters. His blog is not limited to Virginia issues; he's got a lot of posts on Nuancy Boy. I was especially impressed by this post on a disgusting countdown going on by the jerks at Buzzflash.

 
Miscellaneous Thoughts on Cambodia

How disorganized is Kerry and his campaign? This should NOT have come as a shock to them. Why?

Well for starters, Kerry should have known he had a problem with this story a long time ago. How? Because it doesn't appear in Tour of Duty. Remember, this is a story that Kerry has told as representing a turning point in his life; surely he told it to his biographer. And surely Brinkley intended to put it in his book. But something stopped him; what could it be?

Kerry's crewmates. They must have told Brinkley that Kerry was wrong about this. So faced with a contradiction on a story Kerry has told many times, didn't Brinkley go back to the International Man of Mystery and tell him, hey, we've got a problem here? Of course he did.

And Kerry's staff completely missed our original post on the matter, which should have been a gigantic red flag. This should be obvious, but I hope and pray that the Bush campaign has a volunteer reading Atrios, Kevin Drum, Smirking Chimp, DU, etc. And similarly, the Kerry camp should have folks monitoring Kerry Haters, Crush Kerry, Just One Minute, Captain's Quarters, Instapundit, etc. One things for sure; we know they've got somebody monitoring Kerry Waffles!

 
Some Fun Stuff

The Mudville Gazette is having a John Kerry fan fiction contest. This is going to be quite entertaining, as this snippet should tell you:

The fog was thick as pea soup as we made our way across the border, but it muffled the sounds of the boat as we entered Cambodia. That was good, because our business there was anything but good.

"I wish you'd take that damn blindfold off." I whispered to the skipper.

"I learned to sail this way, hombre." He replied. His parrot sat silently on his shoulder. The bird spoke three languages but was not using any of them now.

"That bird makes me nervous" told him "if he spouts off in any of those three languages I'll..."

"Four languages." He said, still wearing the blindfold, piloting the river on pure instinct, nerves of steel. "English, French, Italian, and 'bird' - you probably forgot bird." He cut the engine, pulled the mask off. "He's disciplined. He wont squawk. And this is as far as we go. I'm not risking my crew. Or my bird."

I'm going to take them up on this one.

Hat Tip: Instapundit

Chicago Ray has a look at Kerry's tangled web.

John Hawkins posts the Iowa Hawkeye's novel explanation for what Kerry was actually doing that Christmas Eve.

Written by a group of veterans who served with Kerry during his 4-month tour, "Misfit For Duty: John F. Kerry's Christmas Turkey" claims that Kerry embellished his war exploits, including a clandestine mission to the Arctic ocean on Christmas Eve 1968 to assassinate a rogue island of misfit toys.

Democratic spokesman Lanny Davis ripped the book as "unvarnished lies straight from Santa's North Pole sleaze workshop, dictated to a cabal of unhinged losers who represent a only a tiny majority of John Kerry's beloved Band of Brothers."

 
McGreedy to Step Down?

Kerry Haters reader Phillies Fan sent me this blockbuster news from the Garden State.

According to sources, former McGreevey adviser Golan Cipel is accusing McGreevey of sexual harassment.

Cipel resigned from the McGreevey administration under fire two years ago.

McGreevey's statehouse office was the scene of turmoil all day Thursday. Some staff members who appeared to be crying were seen leaving the office. McGreevey's parents were escorted inside.

A McGreevey spokesman says the governor will appear at a previously scheduled 4pm news conference in Trenton. KYW Newsradio 1060 will carry the news conference live.

 
The Night Before Christmas

I found this over at Esoteric Diatribe and there was a note that the soldier who did it had emailed to to a couple other sites, so I didn't think Ken would mind if we cut and pasted it here.

The Night Before Christmas
(Cambodian Version)

Twas the night before Christmas and we were afloat
Somewhere in Cambodia in our little boat.
While the river was lightened by rockets red glare
No one but the President knew we were there.

The crew was all nestled deep down in their bunks,
While the Spook and I watched the sampans and junks.
Our mission was secret, so secret in fact,
No one else would remember it when we got back.

When out on the water there arose such a clatter
I leaped down from the bridge to see what was the matter.
The incoming friendly was starting to flash
And I knew that the ARVN's were having a bash.

The snap of friendly fire on the warm tropic air
Convinced me for sure no one knew we were there,
On a clandestine mission so secret it's true
That I'm still convinced only Tricky Dick knew.

While I huddled for safety in the tub on the bow,
I thought of a title, "Apocalypse Now."
To give to the films I was I making each day
To show all the voters when I made my big play.

As I sat there sweating in my lucky flight jacket,
Spook said, "Merry Christmas!" and tossed me a packet.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a new lucky cap, which I still have right here.

I keep it tucked here, in this leather brief case,
Just sharing with the press its secretive place
As I regale them again with my senate refrain,
That Christmas in Cambodia is seared into my brain.

Don't bother to quibble with history my friend,
By pointing out Johnson was President then.
Don't listen to Swiftees who try to explain,
For I tell you that night is seared into my brain.

Down Hibbard, down Lonsdale, and you too O'Neill,
So you don't remember? Well it's something I feel.
I don't need all you Swiftvets to support my campaign,
Cause Christmas in Cambodia is seared into my brain,

Into my brain, into my brain, into my brain...

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Oh, man, that is just plain brilliant! Great job, Russ!

 
KERRY LEFT FLOUNDERING



Kerry 'invented Christmas in Cambodia claim'
For the first time, Sen John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, has been left floundering by allegations that he invented a key episode of his decorated wartime service in Vietnam - a central plank of his election platform.
Mr Kerry has fought off charges for several years that he did not deserve all the medals he won in Vietnam, which included a Bronze Star and Silver Star for gallantry, and three Purple Hearts for combat wounds.
…
Yesterday, however, the Kerry campaign was left in verbal knots after a new book accused the senator of inventing stories about being sent, illegally, over the border into neutral Cambodia.

 
Could Kerry Have Been In Cambodia?--Updated!

Jim Geraghty over at the Kerry Spot has a long post based on information a Kerry supporter dug up on whether Kerry could have been in Cambodia. But the bottom line is this:

But there’s also the issue of having everyone in Kerry’s chain of command saying he wasn’t assigned to go into Cambodia and wasn’t anywhere near it... and three of Kerry's boatmates saying they were never in Cambodia. His story still seems sketchy, unless the Democratic candidate can point to some better supporting evidence.

Update: Instapundit has a great post on this here. One of the goofier things that Kerry's team is trying to claim now is that he was somewhere in between Cambodia and Vietnam. As Dorothy Parker (correction--Gertrude Stein) once said, there's no there, there.

 
Christmas in Cambodia--Where Do We Go From Here?

My initial reaction was, aw, shoot, they're admitting that he lied, errrr, forgot incidents that were seared--seared--into his brain. Like I said, lied.

But as Hugh played the Fox News clip several times during the show something began to click. Think about it this way. Kerry's Indiana Jones, no, make that Massachusetts Kerry, the intrepid adventurer. He's come to one of those embarrassing gaps in his narrative, and there's a rope bridge to the other side. Kerry begins to cross over, but as he gets out to the middle he sees angry natives swarming at him ahead. When Massachusetts turns around, he sees more trouble behind him. So what does he do?

Obviously, he cuts the rope bridge in half. The pursuers behind him fall into the ravine as do most of the ones ahead.

Kerry's story is the ravine. The old story--that he crossed into Cambodia on that Christmas Eve is behind him. He's cut that rope (see below). He was hoping to make it across to the other side without anyone noticing him, but that hope is gone. Now Massachusetts is dangling from two last strands of the rope bridge, trying to pull himself up.

And we're above him with swords. What do we do?

Well, it's pretty obvious, right? So now, what are the ropes with which Kerry desperately hopes to hoist himself up to the other side?

Rope 1: That Kerry was close enough to Cambodia on Christmas Eve to somehow be confused and think he was over the line. This one's a stupid, self-inflicted wound (some things never change with Kerry). They should have bought the bullet completely on Christmas Eve/Day. Hugh caught this immediately, but it should be hammered home--they're still dangling on this, perhaps because they sense that Kerry's weak on the latter point:

Rope 2: That Kerry did actually have an experience five miles inside the Cambodian border. The Swiftees have been tough on the notion that nobody would ever use a Swift Boat to cross the Cambodian border, that there were smaller craft called Riverine craft that operated in those areas, and apparently private craft were used to smuggle special ops forces. Kerry's dropped the Christmas Eve/Day aspect and now specifies no day. Obvious question--was it on X boat or Y boat, with this crew or that, and then you follow up with each of the crewmembers. Kerry commanded two different Swift Boats IIRC.

Kerry cut the rope behind him when he allowed Douglas Brinkley to write his biography. Brinkley went way overboard in praising Kerry in the book. Those who've been around since May (which is about 25 people I guess) may remember my comical adventures attempting to finish the book without falling asleep as I read page after page of praise for the Lord God Kerry. But, and I think this is important, Brinkley refused to sanction Kerry's lie in the book. We've talked about the fact that this implies that more than one of Kerry's boatmates who appeared for him on stage at the DNC were unwilling to lie for him on that issue. Obvious followup question: How many of his boatmates (not the Swiftees, but the guys who support Kerry), now want to say that they were really close to Cambodia. Gardner insists they didn't get much north of Sa Dec, which is 55-60 miles from the border.

Kerry also left himself hanging on one slender thread when his assistants said he corrected the (Senate) record. Possibly true, but how do you follow this up? Somebody out there knows.

I still agree with Tom on the Lucky Hat Story. Let it go for now. The issue is not the Lucky Hat, it's Cambodia. Kerry's slow-motion response team did themselves no favors; they should have just said that having checked with his crew, he's come to the conclusion that they never were quite in Cambodia, but they were close. By doing this limited hangout, they have left Le Fraude dangling and potentially given us swords.

 
THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE



John Kerry’s Bodyguard of Lies
By Thomas Lipscomb
If the incidents it details are true, Kerry was a coward who fled in battle having unintentionally thrown his current supporter, Jim Rassmann, overboard in his panic. Kerry tried to get his first Purple Heart on the basis of a tiny self-inflicted wound from his own grenade. His supporter, Max Cleland, accidentally blew both his legs off and one hand off with one of his own grenades, but never asked for a Purple Heart because, just as in John Kerry's case, there was no enemy action at the time. Kerry went behind the back of the commander who refused his medal request and the doctor who had treated him, and got one anyway.
Swiftvet officers watched this kind of behavior for four months into Kerry's 12 month "tour of duty." Then three of them told him pointedly that he'd better use the three Purple Heart escape clause and return to the States fast. Kerry left the next morning.
…
Dick Morris, John McCain, Bill O'Reilly and others should stop twittering about how rude and crass and dishonorable and counterproductive it is to even explore such nasty possibilities in public and take a look at the charges and supporting documentation brought forth by the Swiftvets. Does it matter whether they are funded by Richard Mellon Scaife, George Soros, or The Tooth Fairy? What does matter in a close presidential election is if there is significant evidence that some or all of the Vietnam service Kerry has elected to make the center of his campaign to move from "war hero" to "war president" is a tissue of lies.

 
ROPE-A-DOPE


t-shirt

I’ve always maintained that Dubya is a master campaigner, which shouldn’t be surprising as he was a master poker player, as well. It’s called rope-a-dope, and Dubya is ratcheting up the game.
Our Advice to President Bush: How To Hoist Kerry on His Own Petard
For a supposedly "dumb" guy, and one who's not a lawyer (thank God), President Bush sure does know how to set a trap. And if the mainstream press were doing their job, the trap would not have been necessary.
What's the trap you say? It was using a cross examination technique used by good lawyers to dismantle witnesses. He made John Kerry to respond to a specific question, knowing what Kerry's answer would be (thus boxing him in), then laying the smackdown on him with his prior inconsistent statements.
As we here at crushkerry.com have been pointing out, John Kerry has never told the American people what specifically he would DO, other than not be George W. Bush. That is, until earlier this week.

Some dope! Bush earned his Bachelor’s degree from Yale in ’68 and his Harvard MBA in ’75.

 
With Great Power... Part II--Updated

(Note--This Post Will Be Promoted Throughout Thursday--Scroll Down for New Content)



When I thought about whom we could help here at Kerry Haters, it was pretty obvious. John Thune could easily win election this November. His election would mean a turnover of a seat in the US Senate. We'd have a chance of making a modest difference in a race because he comes from a small state.

And, we'd all have the joy of hearing Tom Daschle say, "I'm very disappointed," for the last time!

Why could John Thune easily win election this November? First of all, because John Thune has been a three-term congressman in South Dakota, and one of those rare state-wide congressmen, so that everybody in the state is accustomed to voting for him. In his second election, he won by the largest margin in state history. In 2002 he came within a fraction of taking a Senate seat away from Tim Johnson, a Democrat. There were widespread allegations, but you know how that goes: If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat.

His election would mean the turnover of a seat in the Senate that absolutely belongs to Republicans. Both Johnson and Daschle were lucky; neither of them were up for re-election in 2000, when George Bush won South Dakota by 23 percentage points.

But Tom Daschle is not going to go down easy. He still wields an enormous amount of power, and the lobbyists and Moo-On crowd will no doubt be sliming John Thune.

Here's the pitch:

Kitty and I do this for free. We're not paid Republican operatives, we're just concerned private citizens who want the best for this country. We think that is seldom served by Democrats, and certainly not Democrats like John Fraude Kerry and Tom "Disappointed" Daschle.

Somehow we've tapped a nerve. There are more Kerry Haters out there every day.

Anyway, if you want to show appreciation for the 1850 posts that Kitty and I have put up here, this is your chance. I personally donated $50 to Thune's campaign, and we are not taking any money for promoting him. If you can afford more, give more, if you can afford less give less, if you can't afford it continue to enjoy our blog and tell your rich friends about John Thune. And if you donated to the Swiftees last week, I apologize for hitting you up again so quickly--take a pass on this if it's not in the budget.

Remember, money contributed to Thune will give you the best bang for your buck--he has an excellent chance of winning and he'd get Tom Daschle off your television screen for good.

Click Here to Donate to John Thune!

We're going to do this once a week--Thursdays 'R' for Thune, and we are still taking nominations for one or two other candidates that we can help. We don't want to overdo this, but we also really want to smash the Democrats, because...

If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat!

Update: For those wishing to contribute by check, there is a pdf form here with all the information, or you can make a check out to John Thune for U.S. Senate and mail it to:

John Thune for U.S. Senate
P.O. Box 3308
Sioux Falls, SD 57104

Please include your employer and occupation; this is required under Federal law.

 
Bush to Win & Win Big Says Yale Economist

Let's hope that he's right:

In an interview to be published in next Sunday's "New York Times Magazine," Fair told Deborah Solomon, "My latest prediction shows that Bush will receive 57.5% of the two-party votes ... the chances that Bush loses are very small."

Fair, who claims to be a Kerry supporter, is described by the Times in the Aug. 15 issue as being known for creating an econometric equation that "has predicted presidential elections with relative accuracy." His most recent book, in fact, is titled, "Predicting Presidential Elections and Other Things."

Hat Tip: Ral, from The Second to Last Resort.

 
Kerry Finally Draws a Crowd!



But what's this? They're all waving Bush/Cheney signs!

 
Israeli Jews Prefer Bush Over Kerry

Longtime KH reader Gayle alerted us to this story.

Israeli Jews overwhelmingly want President George W. Bush (news - web sites) to beat his Democrat challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) in the US presidential election on November 2, according to an opinion poll.

A total of 49 percent of people questioned said they preferred Bush, with just 18 percent wanting Kerry to win.

Unfortunately, you can virtually turn those percentages around for US Jews. Pollster Frank Luntz was on Dennis Prager's show this morning and he indicated that Bush will probably get the votes about 33% of American Jews. The good news is that's a lot more than Bush got in 2000, and the swing in the Jewish vote could be crucial in states like New Jersey and Florida.

 
Worried About Christian Wackos? So Are We!

One of the constant things I hear from my leftist friends are questions about how I can possibly be a Republican with all the Christian Conservatives. I ask them if there are no religious Democrats. And why would being associated with him, her, and these people bother me?

But today I discoved some religious wackos who do make me uncomfortable: Catholics for Kerry 04. Get this article, a link to which is prominently featured on their homepage:

Antichrist?

New Catholic Times, May 18, 2003

WASHINGTON DC -- According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, "George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ."

Madsen, a Washington-based writer and columnist, who often writes for Counterpunch, says that people close to the pope claim that amid these concerns, the pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament.

The C4K04 website has disclaimer above this article saying that they don't agree with it, but they are posting it as a matter of interest. Thou shalt not lie, guys!

And what kind of Catholics would list this as a reason for voting against President Bush?

Bush tried to eliminate contraceptive coverage from federal employees’ health plans. Democrats fought back and won.

Hat Tip: Kerry Spot. Jim Geraghty is doing a great job over there; if only their webmasters would give his posts permalinks!

 
About This Big, Says Nevada When She Means Arizona?

 
Peggy Kerry's Acting Coach, and Andre Heinz's Buddy

Kerry's Waffles continues to impress us. Today Chris has a couple internal emails; one about Kerry's sister's need for an acting coach (we guess she needs to learn how to act as though she liked her brother), and the other (which we commented on awhile ago) on Andre Heinz's (Kerry's stepson) attempt to use charitable foundation funds to bring a friend to the US from France. The key is that both these emails reveal that the Heinz Family Philanthropies, a charitable organization, is intimately involved in helping out the Kerry campaign.

 
Christmas in Cambodia--Kerry Admits He Lied!

Hugh Hewitt is broadcasting right now that Fox News reports Kerry has caved on the Christmas in Cambodia story. That memory that was seared--seared--in him, that he mentioned in an article in 1979, that he mentioned in a speech on the floor of the Senate, that he mentioned in another article in 1992, turns out to have been false. A Kerry spokesman tried to claim that he had conflated two separate memories. They now claim that he was in Cambodia once, but that he got confused about whether it was Christmas or not.

We've talked about Kerry's convenient memory before. Another memory that was seared--seared--in him was that he had resigned from the VVAW prior to the infamous meeting in Kansas City where the leadership (including Kerry) debated a policy of assassinating US Senators. Kerry must be getting to hate historians, even those on his side. It was very sympathetic VVAW historian Gerald Nicosia who forced him to admit that he "might" have been at the assassination plot meeting, and it was synchophantic Douglas Brinkley who's effectively forced him to admit that he lied for many years about his Christmas in Cambodia.

 
My Guess Is About 100 IQ Points, Combined



Can you say, bussed-in union members? And we love the yellow tee-shirts; considering the Swiftees' allegations, yellow is a particularly suitable color for Kerry's campaign.

 
Kerry Haters Readers Get Results

I put up a post before about how some of the smaller blogs could get some of our traffic. One of the suggestions was that they could find the original letter to the editor of the Boston Herald where Kerry mentioned his trips to Cambodia. Well, one of those teeny, tiny blogs took us up: Instapundit. Unfortunately the image is hard to read, but the crucial passage is highlighted here.

Hat Tip: KH reader Marc, whose blog USS Neverdock is worth a look. Good job, Marc! We've added you to our blogroll.

 
With Great Power....

Comes great responsibility. Back when this blog had 50-100 visits a day we could just look at it as a way to have fun. But now we've been bitten by the radioactive spider, and suddenly, like Peter Parker, we have to be a little more serious. We have a rare opportunity to help improve things in this country, thanks to you, our readers.

Here's your chance to influence the agenda. Kitty and I have talked about adopting a few Republican candidates and trying to help them along. We agreed on one (to be announced tomorrow). Some things to think about:

1. The candidate must be capable of winning. However much we'd like to keep Cynthia McKinney out of the House of Representatives, her Republican opponent is not going to win in that district. But we don't want anybody who's guaranteed to win.

2. We'd prefer to back candidates where it would result in an increase in Republican seats, although current office-holders facing a tough reelection will also be considered.

3. Preference will also given for candidates in small states.

Note: We are going to ask readers to open up their wallets for the candidates chosen. I hate doing that; in the last three months I've only done it once, for the Swiftees. But money is the mother's milk of politics. This blog is regularly over 1000 readers a day. If everybody contributed $25 to one of our candidates, that would be $25,000, which goes a long way in a small state.

Suggestions? I predict the candidate we've already chosen will be mentioned in the comments.

 
October at the UN?

Okay, we're having a lot of fun with the Christmas in Cambodia story, what about October at the UN?

I put up a post about this yesterday, but in the fuss over Cambodia it appears to have slipped through the cracks.

Kerry claimed in a speech to the Unity Conference that he had met with the Security Council the week before the vote in the Senate:

I believe in my heart of hearts and in my gut that this president fails that test in Iraq. And I know this because I, personally, and others were deeply involved in the effort with other countries to bring them to the table. I met with the Security Council of the United Nations in the week preceding the vote in the Senate.

Okay, week preceding the vote in the Senate. The Senate vote took place on October 11, 2002, which is a Friday. Kerry could have meant in the last few days before the vote, or in the workweek that actually preceded the vote. This means that the possible dates that he could be talking about run from September 30-October 10.

Our reader Phillies Fan sent us a link to the UN Security Council minutes for 2002. Among the dates in question, the Security Council held meetings on October 2, October 4, October 8th, and October 10. Unfortunately there is no verbatim transcript for October 2 & October 10; just brief communiques that don't say much. The word "Kerry" never appears in the transcripts for October 4th & October 8th. It doesn't appear to be the 10th, because the communique issued for that date says that the SC "held its 4620th meeting in private with troop-contributing countries to the United Nations Misson of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP)."

That narrows it down to October 2, when the SC reports (PDF warning) that it held a "Meeting with countries contributing troops to the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission." A further note is that the meeting was held pursuant to resolution 1353 (2001) annex II, sections A and B. As best as I can work out, resolution 1353 appears that this was solely about troops in Kuwait.

A poster at the Free Republic linked this speech Kerry gave to the Council on Foreign Relations.

AUDIENCE: Andy Nagorski, Newsweek. Senator, it's one thing to say that diplomacy on Iraq was bad. It's another to suggest that good diplomacy could have brought everybody along, as you seem to do. Do you think you really could have brought the Germans, the French along in a commitment to use force, if necessary, if you had been president?

KERRY: Yes. (Laughter, applause.)

NAGORSKI: Would you care to explain how, especially given --

KERRY: Absolutely. Absolutely and unequivocably.

NAGORSKI: If --

KERRY: I will explain. Let me explain to you very specifically.

Thanks to some friends in New York, I was invited to come up and meet with the Security Council in the week prior to the vote, and I wanted to do that, because I valued my vote. And I wanted to know what the real readiness and willingness of our partners was to take this seriously.

Now having read all this, if Kerry really did not meet with the Security Council (and it certainly does not appear that he did, at least not with the SC as a whole, although he obviously could have met with individual members), then he's just plain crackers.

 
New to the Legion

Check out Don Kerry, which is devoted to exposing Kerry's ties to organized crime. We have blogged about this in the past.

 
KERRY OFFENSIVE

Just how did they get all that personal info? This smacks of Clinton & Her Royal C going after the Travel Office people.
Dems Plan Assault on Vets
The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.

“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you
name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."

 
Want a Piece of Our Traffic? Move the Story!

We're getting nutty traffic the last week or so from the Christmas in Cambodia story. If some of you smaller bloggers would like to get some run-off from us (and some of the other bloggers covering the story), I'd be happy to boost you. What's needed is somebody to do some legwork.

Anybody out there in Boston or the nearby environs? Kerry's claim to have been in Cambodia apparently first surfaced in an October 14, 1979 Letter to the Editor in the Boston Herald about the movie "Apocalypse Now". I've heard the crucial excerpts from it, but the whole letter would be interesting.

There are other things folks could be doing. Want some suggestions? How about doing a comparison of the Brinkley book with the Boston Globe book? If somebody else had done that, they would surely have noticed the different stories about Christmas Eve/Day, 1968. Look for contradictions and blog about them.

 
MUDDY MEMORIES



Unfit for command?
By Tony Blankley
I stayed up late last night and read from cover to cover the book "Unfit for Command — Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." An impartial reader (if there is still such a beast in this election season) would have to conclude that either the book is a pack of lies or John Kerry is in fact a reckless, lying man who misrepresented the facts in order to receive medals he didn't deserve, and is indeed unfit to command even a tug boat, let alone the United States military as president.

How Kamp Kerry responds to the book.
Legal Terrorism
To their credit, TV stations in some marketplaces have refused to surrender to the bullying tactics of Kerry’s lawyers. This presents the democrat party and the Kerry campaign with two choices: put up or shut up.
They can slink off the field for having threatened TV stations with a baseless libel lawsuit, or, despite how they eventually hedge their threat, they can actually sue those TV stations that aren’t intimidated.
The latter course would be utter disaster—and Kerry’s lawyers have to know this. Kerry would no longer be able to hide behind spin masters. He would have to file a written complaint. Sworn depositions (including Kerry’s) would have to be taken. He would have to respond to requests for factual admissions. He would have to answer written interrogatories. He would have to produce documents.
There would have to be a trial. That means sworn testimony, cross examination, documentary evidence—all in front of a jury, reporters, perhaps even TV cameras.
Once all that happened, America would know who told the truth—and who lied.

 
Blogs on Christmas in Cambodia

Tom Maguire just keeps a rockin'.

Captain Ed continues to cover the story like a blanket.

Michele Catalano remembers an old punk rock song.

Whizbang comes up with a great potential response from the Kerry campaign:

I'd tell you about it- but then I'd have to kill you.

Lots and lots of inbound links to our original post.

 
The Trickle Continues; Big Media Starting to Sniff a Story

Hugh Hewitt has a World Net Daily article on the controversy.

It is impossible to stonewall a story that broke out of the blogosphere and into the major media on Monday night and Tuesday morning, so eventually John Kerry is going to have to stand by his wildly implausible tales of cross-border excellent adventures, or he's going to have to apologize for inventing personal history.

Hugh's been actively pushing the story to a reluctant news media. Yesterday he mentioned that he had talked to the editor of the Boston Globe, asking if he were aware of it, and he also brought it up on the air with a writer for an Iowa paper.

Zev Chafets at the NY Daily News is on the trail.

Sorry, but that's not going to wash. The issue is not whether the charges against Kerry are politically motivated (they obviously are) or who is paying for them. There's just one relevant question: Are the allegations true? Specifically, is it true he lied about being in Cambodia.

Unlike the debate over Kerry's medals, this is a matter that can be checked and verified. If it turns out Kerry was there, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth are liars and their charges are, in the words of Kerry's friend John McCain, "dishonest and dishonorable." But if he wasn't there, the Kerry campaign is saddled with a problem it can't solve by calling Republicans names, threatening TV stations or even bringing up President Bush's less than stellar war record.

Now two of New York's dailies have written on this story; can the Grey Lady avoid it much longer? Byron York nailed that on Hugh's program yesterday; the Times will bury an offhand mention of the story in the 27th paragraph of a 39-paragraph story on Kerry's medals so that they can say they covered it. If you remember, this is how they handled Kerry's attendance at a VVAW meeting where the assassination of US Senators was discussed.

 
ROUNDUP

The Prowler
8 Karen Hughes is back: "We needed her six weeks ago," says a campaign staffer. "But we're still confident that this campaign is doing what needs to be done on every level to ensure re-election. The media can spin whatever it wants, but we're going to win this thing. We have to."

8 Political indigestion: As has been the case with both Kerry and Edwards in a number of dining establishments across the country, the Carolinian did not receive a universal warm welcome during the lunch hour appearance. Some diners grumbled about being interrupted, while others just glared at Edwards.
Kerry-Edwards advance staffers made a point of scurrying about the room, steering the candidates away from potential "trouble tables," as they are now termed. "After some of the problems in Pennsylvania and Ohio" -- where Kerry has been confronted with unfriendly receptions by individuals, a campaign source said -- "we're much more attuned to the settings we are putting them in and the potential coverage they might receive."

Rush Limbaugh
Kerry Makes Mistake of Answering Questions: John Kerry, ladies and gentlemen, has begun making what I think are huge mistakes. And the most recent huge mistake, he's starting to answer questions. And after he answers questions, then he's starting to issue questions or ask them. (story) "Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said Monday that he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then that no weapons of mass destruction would be found." My friends, would somebody on the left, one of you Kerry supporters, perhaps a 9/11-Fahrenheit, whatever it is, aficionado, call and explain to me how this news affects you? This is the centerpiece of your campaign, that Iraq was unnecessary, that Iraq was a boondoggle, that Bush lied to get us into Iraq -- and now your candidate has just said that it doesn't matter whether there was weapons of mass destruction or not, he would have given the president authority to go into Iraq and would have supported it anyway!

 
I'm With Tom--Beware the Hat Story

Memo to self--it pays to write everything down and update as required. Tom Maguire put up a post today warning everybody to be wary of the hat story, but he also warned me in a comment. I noted it but didn't amend my story; I'm fixing that mistake now. It would be all too easy for Kerry to conflate the hat story with the Christmas story and thereby wiggle out of the trap he's in.

Consider what we know about the hat story. Here's the important part from the original article:

A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case.

"Who told you?" he demanded as he reached inside. "My friends don't know about this."

Does that sound like a setup to you? It sure does to me. A lot of people may be misinterpreting my original post to mean that I ruled out any possibility that Kerry was ever in Cambodia. That is not the case. From what I read, I was able to eliminate the possibility that Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve/Day. Tom points out that Brinkley's book indicates Kerry's last mission or so was a mission that did involve ferrying SEALs to (not into) Cambodia. It's important that we not get off on side issues. Keep the focus on Christmas; that's the story Kerry has embellished over the years.

 
DECONSTRUCTING JOHN “RAMBO” KERRY



Hugh Hewitt has posted his interview with Steve Gardner, who served with John “Rambo” Kerry on the same swift boat. Read the whole interview; here are some highlights.

Hugh Hewitt: I interviewed Steve Gardner today. He served two tours in Vietnam, including two months and two weeks of John Kerry's swift boat service--on John Kerry's swift boat-- from November 1968 through January 1969:

HH: What months did you serve with Senator Kerry?
SG: November through January. Here's what I did. I served two months and two weeks of his four month, 12 day tour.
…
SG: [Kerry] is an opportunist, number one. But he is a self-seeking opportunist who used the laws that were designed to help the honest men who were over there in Vietnam who had gotten wounded three times to get them back out of it. He knew the rules well, and he used that to get out of there early.
…
HH: Will any of the guys who have endorsed John Kerry, who served on the boat with you, will they back him up on the CIA agent story, or the Christmas Eve story?
SG: Well they can't now.
HH: Why?
SG: Well they all know that that didn't transpire. John Kerry has already said that from what I understand.

Hat tip to Lucianne! Thank you Lady G; your listing this interview in your Must Reads will bring mega attention to this story.

 
Powerline Nails It

Great map of South Vietnam here. Sa Dec can be a little hard to spot, but it's outlined in red in the top left part of the map, where the red dot is. Note that it is quite a long way to Cambodia from Sa Dec; my best estimate was 60 miles, I have heard 55-58 miles elsewhere, so I feel pretty comfortable that it's a long way. Not even Kerrygan the Skipper (volume check) could get that far off course.

Note especially that this is not some jerkwater canal where Kerry can claim he got turned around it. It's the Mekong, and Kerry would have had to follow it 55 miles against the current to reach Cambodia.

 
Three Times the Horror!

American Liberty Journal has a frightening post.

 
And Now for Something Completely Different

Our buddy Roberto over at Dynamo Buzz (my favorite New Jersey blog) linked to an article in the NY Press by an outraged leftist named Matt Taibbi about Kerry's speech. The piece is quite funny because many of his criticisms are similar to ours--that Kerry used martial and religious themes as a prop, etc., and he even recognizes that Kerry's just saying these things; that he doesn't really mean them.

I edited out phony religiosity (pious BS) and pointless political platitudes of the sort that could be used by any politician in any situation, including Hitler (i.e., "We're the optimists": meaningless BS). I also chopped out all gratuitous flag-waving (patriotic BS), all forced and hollow tough-talking (saber-rattling BS), and all draping of the clearly unworthy self in the ill-fitting cloak of the great figures of history (name-dropping BS).

Note: BS is spelled out in the text of the article but we try to maintain a little higher tone here at Kerry Haters. Anyway, Matt's point is not just that Kerry's BSing, but that any expression of these types of feelings (piety, patriotism, etc.) is BS.

By comparison, I believe that George Bush sincerely believes he believes in God. When Bush talks about Jesus, even die-hard Jesus people buy it. I know I buy it, because it scares the S out of me.

This is a pretty eerie article, because for the most part you'll be nodding your head in agreement with this guy for spotting John Kerry for the phony that he is, and then he'll zap you with something out of left (yes) field.

 
Where Was Rassmann?

Just curious about this one. Every story I've read has said that Rassman was on another boat and was blown into the water by a mine.

Rassman was described as having been on another boat here

On March 13, 1969, Rassman was a 21-year-old lieutenant in Army Special Forces when he was blown overboard from a boat next to Kerry’s on the Bay Hap River.

and here.

Another charge blew Army Lt. James Rassman into the river from another boat.

Yet today, the way Rassman tells the story is different:

The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river.

This is pretty odd. Not saying there's anything to it, just curious.

 
More on Cambodia--Updated!

Update: Be wary of this story. Tom Maguire points out that we don't want to get onto a side issue that Kerry may be able to finesse and then wiggle off the hook on the unanswerable Christmas in Cambodia issue. Rereading the first paragraph of the WaPo article, I can't help smelling a setup.

Big Trunk over at Powerline contributes a 2003 reference to Kerry's Cambodian adventures that contains a detail that will make it very hard for Kerry to deny his claims: The Lucky Hat!

A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case.

"Who told you?" he demanded as he reached inside. "My friends don't know about this."

The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying.

"My good luck hat," Kerry said, happy to see it. "Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia."

Hat Tip: Hugh Hewitt

Byron York (man, is that guy good or what) runs with the hat story.

 
Christmas in Cambodia Part XXVII

Tom Maguire mentioned that the three of Kerry's crewmates who deny the Cambodia story were noted in the SBVfT chapter that has been released. Sure enough, he was right.

At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s PCF 44 boat—Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner—deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be interviewed for this book.

Interesting, because Zaldonis and Hatch are backing Kerry. And the other two crewmen refused to be interviewed, which means that as far as we know, NONE of Kerry's boatmates back him up on the Christmas in Cambodia story.

A commenter named Ripper on Tom's site pointed us to these two pages.

Kerry submitted a report to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the first paragraph of which reads:

I arrived in Thailand on May 2, 1991. It was my first return visit to Southeast Asia since departing South Vietnam, where I had commanded a swift boat in the Delta region as a US Navy lieutenant. During the war, military operations had carried me throughout many of the waterways and coast lines of southern Vietnam and even occasionally, into Cambodia.

So Kerry even lied when submitting official reports to the US Senate.

 
Baby Killer Kerry?

I've heard this story a couple of times before, but don't recall posting on it. While looking for something else, I found this reference in an article posted on Kerry's own website:

Still, innocents were sometimes killed. One pitch-black night, Kerry's PCF-94 stopped a Vietnamese sampan boat after curfew in a free-fire zone. Kerry told his gunner to fire a warning round, but in the ensuing confusion the entire crew began shooting. Moments later, they learned to their horror that they had killed a small child, the limp body already covered by the child's mother. Although they had done nothing technically wrong, Kerry refused to uncover the body for fear, he later wrote, that the face would haunt him forever.

I'm not going to criticize their decision; as I've said many times, they were there and had to make split-second decisions that might be life and death. But isn't it ironic that the person who probably did the most to cement the image of Vietnam veterans as baby killers was at least officially responsible for actually killing a baby?

 
What's Worse than Sandy Burglar?

Crush Kerry has the answer.

If Ms. [Susan, not Condi] Rice is in line for such a promotion, be very afraid. Why? Because according to multiple sources, including former Clinton official Mansoor Ijaz and Richard Miniter, author of the bestseller Losing Bin Laden, it was she who was a major opponent of accepting Sudan's offer to turn over the world's most wanted mass murderer. At the time, Rice was the Clinton Administration's Secretary of State for African Affairs and a former assistant National Security Advisor under Sandy Berger.

Unbelievable!

 
RAMBO FANTASIES



BUTT-BLASTED JOHN LIED FOR MEDAL AFTER HE WOUNDED HIMSELF: VETS
By VINCENT MORRIS and IAN BISHOP
Based on the accounts of numerous vets, the explosive book claims Kerry's rescue under fire of Jim Rassman — an action that earned Kerry his third Purple Heart and a Bronze Star — didn't happen the way the Democratic nominee claims.
Larry Thurlow, the skipper of a boat trailing Kerry's, says in the book that he saw Kerry suffer a buttocks wound earlier that day in 1969 when he was hit by fragments from his own grenade while trying to destroy a Viet Cong rice cache.
"He dishonestly transferred the time and cause of the injury to coincide with the [boat rescue] action later in the day and claimed that the cause of the injury was the mine exploding during the action," the book claims.
…
"Unless one believes in the amazing coincidence that Kerry got two wounds in the same place on the same day, he lied to get the Purple Heart," the authors say.

 
Kerry Does the Balancing Act



What is it with this guy?

 
Bloggers on Christmas in Cambodia

Tom Maguire at Just One Minute finds a 2000 mention in US News & World Report with more details.

Sen. John Kerry made his first forays into Cambodia during the Vietnam War as a Navy lieutenant on clandestine missions to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces. When he returned last week, the mission was official, but dicey nonetheless.

LOL! There's a man who leads a life of danger, to everyone he meets he stays a stranger....

No Oil For Pacifists does a good job of rounding up the story. And gets an Instalanche and a Lucianne-lanche in return!

Captain Ed points us to Mark Steyn, who comments:

Just one problem. It never happened. Every living officer up his chain of command says Kerry was never ordered to Cambodia. At least three of his five crewmen say their boat was never in Cambodia. And if you don't believe any of his fellow veterans, read the excerpt from Kerry's own journal published in Tour Of Duty, the recent hagiography by Douglas Brinkley.

But do you think he links to the guys who broke the story? Jeez, we're regularly on his top referrers list, I comment over there virtually every day, I even judged one of his Caption Contests. Where's the love, man? (Just kidding, mostly, Ed--keep moving the story forward!)

 
PEACENIKS, PIECENIKS



Remember Mel Brooks in “To Be Or Not To Be”? His Jewish character impersonated Hitler and professed, “All I want is peace.” Then he broke into song: “A little piece of Poland/A little piece of France/A little piece of Hungary/And Austria, perchance?” There are peaceniks and then there are pieceniks.

In the Cold War, Kerry Froze
By Joshua Muravchik
The Cold War also provides our best measuring stick for estimating how Kerry might perform as commander in chief, and in that conflict Kerry's instincts were always awry. Had the country heeded his counsel, we might not yet have won it.
Many leaders had a hand in Washington's Cold War triumph, but Ronald Reagan's contributions were pivotal, and Kerry opposed every one of them. Reagan's defense buildup disabused Soviet leaders of any hope that they could ultimately come out ahead of the United States. Kerry derided these military expenditures as "bloated" and "without any relevancy to the threat." In particular, Reagan's plan to seek a missile defense system against Soviet ICBMs and NATO's decision to station new missiles in Europe to counteract the new Soviet deployment there rendered futile the Kremlin's vast investment in nuclear supremacy. Instead of these measures, Kerry advocated that we adopt a one-sided "nuclear freeze."
…
[W]hen Saddam Hussein swallowed Kuwait in 1990, Kerry opposed using force to drive him out, calling instead for reliance on economic sanctions.

 
Media Start Biting on the Christmas in Cambodia Story

Fox News' Carl Cameron led with it last night.

The NY Post covers it this morning.

John O'Sullivan makes sure the Windy City hears of the story.

Hat Tip to Instapundit for both.

The Washington Times puts up an editorial on the subject.

Hat Tip to Hugh Hewitt.

 
HIS MOMENT OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY


Careful, Johnny, don’t go near the edge.

The Prowler, as always, has several juicy tidbits today.
1) Kerry bought StepMoney some turquoise jewelry in New Mexico but she had to pay for it since she was the one with the money. Natch.
2) Kerry wanted to prove he was regular western-kinda guy by wearing cowboy boots. Trouble is they were NEW boots and hurt his feet.
But the best bit of inside info, for which Prowler is noted, concerns The Book. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph.

COMMAND CONFIDENCE
According to a Kerry campaign source, senior campaign advisers tasked two Washington-based campaign staffers to vet the recently published Unfit for Command.
"The purpose was to compare what that book had with what we had on file from Senator Kerry," says the campaign source, who said that the research project developed more than 75 instances where Kerry's recollections, previous remarks, or writings conflicted with the book's reporting.
"We took some of the most glaring examples, like the Christmas in Cambodia story, and presented them to senior staff, and we assume that those things were put in front of Senator Kerry," says the source. "We haven't heard a word about it. All we were told is that it was being taken care of."
8 The campaign source said that the book was not considered a "serious" problem for the campaign, because, "the media wouldn't have the nerve to come at us with this kind of stuff," says the source. "The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing, and that the convention inoculated us from these kinds of stories. The senior guys really think we don't have a problem here."

 
Living the Dream

It's every blogger's fantasy--that you put together two stories that others have not noticed and suddenly out of that you create a third story which becomes hot news.

I don't know that the Swiftees got the story from KH, but as Hugh points out it doesn't really matter. We released it first, back on May 21st. And in typical blogger fashion, it was a team effort--Kitty notices the story, I smell a rat, and one of our commenters (where have you gone, L. Larsen?) chips in an observation that at least one detail is obviously wrong.

Okay, no more patting ourselves on the back for this story. What have we done for you lately, right?

 
More on the Foreign Leaders

Hugh Hewitt suggested that we check out this thread at Free Republic. Initially the thread was on Christmas in Cambodia, but then it swerves into a new and surprising area:

Kerry Claims He Met with Security Council of United Nations over Iraq



It linked to Kerry's recent speech to the Unity Conference.

I believe in my heart of hearts and in my gut that this president fails that test in Iraq. And I know this because I, personally, and others were deeply involved in the effort with other countries to bring them to the table. I met with the Security Council of the United Nations in the week preceding the vote in the Senate.

Huh? Anybody else lifting their feet from the floor for that one? Kerry met with the Security Council?

 
Nightline on the Swiftees

What a complete crock. They spent so much time in the first 15 minutes giving Kerry's talking points that they sorta completely forgot to discuss what the charges were. We see the Swiftees only in the ad, while they go out of their way to show two Kerry buds and McVain (twice). Anti-Kerry Republicans are only allowed to talk about how they really hate Kerry for his anti-war activities.

Nothing on Christmas in Cambodia. Plenty of Pete McCloskey talking about how Kerry's service doesn't matter.

Absolutely a miserable program. I haven't watched it in years, and this did nothing to convince me I've missed out.

 
So That's Not Cambodia Over There? Sure Looks Like It!



Kerry starts to lay the groundwork for his excuse.

 
Our Comment Policy

We enjoy commenters. We absolutely encourage people to tell us about their latest post regarding Kerry (obvious preference given to anti-Kerry posts). We're pretty good about putting up links to folks who mention they have a new post.

Here's the basic policy.

1. Don't hijack the threads. Only posts on Kerry-related topics covered on your blog may be off the topic of the post. This means no talking about Bush's National Guard service. We don't care.

2. Don't post more than two comments in a row on a thread so that you can post the unabridged Moby Dick. Anybody can run longer than one comment, but that's it. Your post will be deleted for the first offense and you will be banned for the next. Ghost Dansing, this is your warning.

3. No abuse of the bloggers. Immediate ban for violation. Moderate abuse of political figures allowed, even Republican, provide it's on-topic.

4. Do not link to any posts that advocate violence or criminal activity or other actions we may deem undesirable. A poster today advocated heavy spamming of the Atrios blog. We do not approve of such actions and will delete any suggestions of same as we find them, but assume no liability for failure to do so.

5. Any contining harassment of other commenters or bloggers will result in immediate ban. Limit yourself to the thread you're discussing.

6. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time without notice.

 
IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM


Proudly protesting the war (l.) and decades later with his Vietnam buddies (r.).
Nuanced? Kerry's story just doesn't add up
By Mark Steyn
[W]ith Kerry, even before any gaffes or scandals, the official narrative makes no sense. He's publicly opposed to the Vietnam War. But he volunteers for it. Then he comes back disgusted with his experience in war, publicly hurls his medals away (or someone else's: that story keeps changing), denounces his fellow veterans as war criminals, torturers and rapists, and claims that he personally committed atrocities.
But then he decides to run for president and suddenly Jane Fonda morphs into John Wayne and all those war criminals are war heroes he wants at every rally and he's got his medals back and his disgust at his wartime experience has mysteriously turned into pride in his wartime experience to the exclusion of all else.
…
That's what people mean when they talk about how "complex" and "nuanced" Kerry is. They don't mean his positions on the great questions of the day are complex and nuanced.
…
If Kerry had exhibited the slightest trace of any interestingly complex view of any policy matter, you can be sure we'd have heard about it. But he hasn't.

 
HACKERS HIGHLIGHT BOOK



Seriously, this should really help sales of this book.

Kerry Supporters Hack Barnes & Noble Website
Will Kerry's supporters stop at nothing?
The cover of the new anti-Kerry book, Unfit for Command, set to hit shelves soon, has been given an alternative, pro-Kerry cover at the Barnes & Noble online store. The title of the book has been changed to Fit for Command, and the cover image has been changed from a close-up of a finger-pointing Kerry to a picture of Kerry in uniform with other Vietnam veterans. (The book currently sits at #7 on the Barnes & Noble Top 100 and at #2 on Amazon.)

 
Christmas in Cambodia Continues--Updated

Hugh Hewitt gave us credit over the air for breaking the story this afternoon! I couldn't resist hopping on the phone and calling him. My being from Kerry Haters must have gotten me past the screener because I'll admit, I was babbling when the intern asked what I wanted to say. Fortunately the show was on a break at the time, so I got a chance to scribble down my thoughts before I got on the air, and I thought I handled myself well (I'll probably wince when I hear the rebroadcast though). Here's the point I made:

Kerry's biographer, Douglas Brinkley, did not include the Christmas in Cambodia story in Tour of Duty. Now the interesting part about that is that Brinkley famously did not have access to Stephen Gardner when he wrote his book.

This becomes important, because Brinkley's too good a historian not to have heard this anecdote that Kerry tells about having been in Cambodia. So he looked into it, and for some reason, thought it was not believable. Why?

To me it seems obvious that some of Kerry's men told Brinkley that they were never in Cambodia. Gardner is the only one of the men under Kerry's command who is not a Kerry supporter, and anyway, Brinkley claims not to have been able to find him when he was writing the book. And that means... dun dun dun duh!... that one or more of the men who stood onstage with Kerry at the DNC last week must have told Brinkley that the Christmas in Cambodia story was a bunch of hooey.

I felt I got that message across, but you can judge for yourself. The show will be rebroadcast here continually until 6:00 PM Eastern Time tomorrow evening. My appearance comes in at about 11:45 PM ET tonight, and every three hours thereafter. Hugh gives us credit for breaking the story both then, and around halfway into the program--10:25 PM ET or a little later. Updated-- having listened to myself, I used the "uh" too often obviously, but other than that and being a little quick I thought I did okay.

 
THE RAW DEAL


Wave to the little people, Lovey.

Kerry Blows Off Lawrence, Kansas
Having the Kerry-Edwards’ campaign train stop in Lawrence, Kansas, was huge, the “Real Deal” for this town. Instead, the train was late and it didn’t even stop; it whizzed right on by. They were not happy. Read Rush’s conversation (you can listen to it, too) with a young college student who was royally pissed about this. And check out the great 3-frame picture of the train, taken from CNN video footage, Rush posted on his site.

 
Did Kerry Haters Break the Christmas in Cambodia Story?

I can't help wondering about this. Hugh Hewitt, whose website was shut down by its host provider today for "spamming" (as he reported on the radio) notes that Carl Cameron led off Fox News with the Christmas in Cambodia story. Hewitt has spent about 60 of his 75 minutes so far this afternoon with the story.

We know that the reason the story is hot is that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have included it in their forthcoming book Unfit for Command. But where did the Swiftees get it?

I don't know the answer to that, but I would hardly be shocked if it was from Kerry Haters. Here's how it happened:

On May 21, Kitty put up a post entitled Those Carefree Days of Protest. Kitty posted links to three articles in that post, including this one by J. Michael Waller, which is brief enough to include verbatim:

Did decorated Vietnam War veteran John F. Kerry see military action in Cambodia? He says nothing about it on the campaign trail, but he stated it as fact on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986. In that speech, Kerry accused President Ronald Reagan of leading the United States into another Vietnam in Central America, accusing the administration of Nixon-like duplicity and saying that he should recognize it because of his Vietnam experience.

Kerry told his colleagues he was on Navy duty in Cambodia at a time when President Richard M. Nixon lied to the public and said that there were no U.S. forces in that country. He even took enemy fire. In his words, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared - seared - in me."

I commented from the office:

Very interesting! I had not posted those articles before. The one about Kerry being in Cambodia sounds like a convenient memory; it might be revealing to check that story in Brinkley's book.

It quickly became obvious that at least one detail was wrong. Our reader L. Larson posted the following comment:

A problem with his statement--Nixon had been elected President in Nov 68---but did not take office until Jan 69----another faux pas in his war stories.

That night, after reading the relevant passages in Tour of Duty, I posted an update to Kitty's post.

And it is not a mere typo--Kerry was well out of Vietnam by Christmas of 1969. It's definitely Christmas of 1968, when Nixon was not in office. I checked Tour of Duty, historian David Brinkley's hagiography of the International Man of Apology. The book is pretty clear on that incident that was seared - seared - in Kerry.

(snip)

The next story is about South Vietnamese troops shooting off their guns to celebrate Christmas. Kerry's boat returns to Sa Dec. To highlight the geography for us, Brinkley cites Kerry's war diary, which talks about a (probably imaginary) message to the Admiral, "Merry Christmas from the most inland time unit." He supposedly meant to point out the incongruity of his "crew spending their holiday on a river canal not far from the Cambodian border." A paragraph or two later, Wasser mentions, "We were coming closer to Cambodia..."

But, much like Wagon Train and California, they never quite got there. The book jumps ahead to another incident on December 29, 1968.

So, to recap, Kerry was not in Cambodia when he says he was, and Nixon was not in office at that time even if he had been. Unbelievable. In every way.

Obviously the one missing link in the chain is how the story got from KH to the Swiftees. We have certainly been supportive of their effort, but I checked out their discussion boards for "Christmas + Cambodia" and didn't find anything until recently. It's possible that somebody over there read it here, it's possible a third party alerted them, and it's possible that they smelled the rat independently.

Note: I'm not trying to be petty here, or demand a credit. I'd just really like to think we were the ones who pushed the news cycle for a couple days. I've been walking around with my head in the clouds since Friday over this story. And it was definitely a group effort to break the story. Kitty posted the article; I would never have found it on my own. And our reader, L. Larson caught the Nixon boner. The third part was finding out that Tour of Duty walked away from the Cambodia incursion.

 
A Trip Through the Legion Part Trois

Kerry's Waffles. Exposes Kerry's waffling positions on a number of issues. Not updated in a long time.

Bassfire Cartoons is usually good for a quick laugh, but the site was down this afternoon.

John Kerry: Liberal Asshat looked like it was off to a good start, but it hasn't been updated since February.

John F'n Kerry is part of the Kerry Core empire. Also not updated much; their latest stuff is on the way Nuancy Boy and the Breck Girl pawed at each other after Edwards' nomination.

John F. Kerry Sucks has lots of links to articles. Memo to self: great site to pick up a quick post.

 
Kaus Hmmmm Update

We commented awhile ago that Mickey Kaus' $300 donation to John Fraude Kerry still had not hit Open Secrets. Well, it's there now.

 
The Christmas in Cambodia Story Explodes

Lots and lots of people getting interested in this story now.

The Truth Laid Bear says that the Swift Boat Veterans could torpedo Kerry's whole campaign.

Captain Ed has three or four posts (without mentioning Kerry Haters).

Charlotte Allen has some thoughts here.

Roger L. Simon thinks Kerry's lying on the floor of the Senate could be an impeachable offense. Well, not impeachable technically, but the kind of offense that should result in the guy never holding office.

Crush Kerry reports that the Swiftees will appear on Nightline tonight. Prediction: Kerry's supporters (whoever they are), do not address the substance of the charges but harp on the funding for the Swiftees and their supposed partisan motives.

 
Demonstrating the Revolutionary Drug Brother's Handshake

 
You Can't Keep a Good Website Down

The former Waffle House, rechristened Kerry Waffles is back up. It's safe to say that no website has come under more unrelenting attacks from the Kerry camp than Chris'. This is now his third site. Welcome back, Chris!

 
Another Point About Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia Story

The whole focus has been on whether Kerry was actually in Cambodia or Vietnam. That reveals a lot about him because it appears to be a lie he's told much of his life.

One of the things that is interesting is comparing the Kerry story in the Boston Globe article (later expanded into a book) to the Kerry story in Tour of Duty. You know how it is when you are given two different accounts of an incident, that the overlapping parts of the account are more likely to be correct, whereas the parts that appear in only one story must be considered dubious.

Now, consider this juxtaposition:

The Christmas Eve truce of 1968 was three minutes old when mortar fire exploded around John Forbes Kerry and his five-man crew on a 50-foot aluminum boat near Cambodia. ''Where is the enemy?'' a crewmate shouted.

In the distance, an elderly man was tending his water buffalo -- and serving as human cover for a dozen Viet Cong manning a machine-gun nest.

"Open fire; let's take 'em," Kerry ordered, according to his second-in-command, James Wasser of Illinois. Wasser blasted away with his M-60, hitting the old man, who slumped into the water, presumably dead. With a clear path to the enemy, the fusillade from Kerry's Navy boat, backed by a pair of other small vessels, silenced the machine-gun nest.

When it was over, the Viet Cong were dead, wounded, or on the run. A civilian apparently was killed, and two South Vietnamese allies who had alerted Kerry's crew to the enemy were either wounded or killed.

With this one:

After leaving Sa Dec, Kerry and his crew met up with two other US boats. The Christmas truce was supposed to begin in only a few minutes and all three boats were surprised when a mortar round suddenly exploded nearby. Another mortar round flies overhead and the boats scramble, but nothing really comes of the incident, except that Kerry's gunner, presumably operating under instructions, shot an innocent Vietnamese civilian. Here's how Brinkley describes it:

The same [exhilaration] did not apply for the best of those who did the shooting with result. Still giddy, one of the Swift's enlisted men asked "Hey, Skipper--did you see that one guy flip over when the .50 caliber hit him? I think he was one of those farmers, or something."

"I didn't see him," Kerry answered. "Where was he?"

What are the only things true in both stories? A mortar round nearly hit the boat and an innocent old man died. Brinkley's hagiography makes no claims as to VC killed in this incident.

 
NO GUTS, NO GLORY



Deconstructing Kerry's war record
By Robert Novak
I have read [Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry] and found it is neither the political propaganda nor the urban legend that its detractors claim. It is a passionate but meticulously researched account of how Kerry went to war, what he did in the war and how he conducted himself after the war.
…
Why should details of what Kerry did more than 30 years ago be part of this election campaign? Only because the senator has made them integral to his strategy. Kerry as war hero received more attention at the Democratic National Convention than plans for the future. Thus, what he did in his shortened four months of combat becomes a valid campaign issue.
John E. O'Neill, co-author of Unfit for Command, replaced Kerry as commander of swift boat PCF 94 in 1969 and has been confronting him since 1971. O'Neill told me he is no George W. Bush partisan and probably would have supported John Edwards had he been nominated for president but is committed to keeping Kerry out of the Oval Office. Thus, reversing the usual formulation, the assault on Kerry is personal but not political.
…
''I would never want Kerry behind me. I wouldn't want him in front of me either. And I sure wouldn't want him commanding our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.'' Some 200 ''Swiftees'' on May 4 signed a letter to Kerry demanding full release of his service records.
…
His commander, Grant Hibbard, is quoted as saying: ''I didn't recommend him for a Purple Heart. Kerry probably wrote up the paperwork and recommended himself.'' Full release of documents demanded by his critics could settle this claim quickly if it is unwarranted.

 
BROKEN RECORD



Viet record ripples
By Mark Steyn
Look, I would rather talk about the war. The current one, I mean — not the one that ended three decades ago. But, insofar as I understand the rules of Campaign 2004, every time any member of the administration says anything about the present conflict, he is accused by Democrats of shamelessly "politicizing" it. Whereas every time John Kerry waxes nostalgic about those fragrant memories of the Mekong Delta, he should be allowed to take his unending stroll down memory lane unmolested. After all, as everyone from John Edwards to Max Cleland to Bill Clinton has assured us, being a Swift boat commander for four months is the indispensable qualification for being president.
…
Had enough of Vietnam yet?
Most Americans had enough of it at the time. The clever clogs at the Democratic Party should have figured that out before they decided to relaunch John Kerry and John Edwards as Bob Hope and Jill St. John on their USO tour for the presidency. They should never have signed on to this vanity candidacy, even before the multiplying barnacles began encrusting the hull of the campaign boat.
…
If you wanted to pick a candidate on the wrong side of every major defense and foreign policy question of the last two decades, you would be hard put to find anyone with judgment as comprehensively poor as Mr. Kerry: total up his votes and statements on everything from Grenada to the Gulf war, Saddam to the Sandinistas, the Cold War to missile defense to every major weapons system of the 1980s and '90s. He called them all wrong.
…
The Bush-haters outsmarted themselves: Nobody wants to hear about Vietnam. And Mr. Kerry hasn't anything else to run on.
Or as Country Joe and the Fish would put it: And it's one, two, three, what is he fighting for?

 
Still More On Christmas in Cambodia

Instapundit (jeez, is that guy overrated, or what) scoops us all by going down to his law library. It was closed but he has a key, and sagely (since the copiers were off) a digital camera. He's #1 for a reason.

However, we do have one correction for him.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Several readers wonder why, if Kerry is really lying about having been in Cambodia on Christmas Day, 1968, somebody hasn't made something of it before? Beats me.

Oh, Mr Reynolds! We made something of the story back in May. That post was inspired by this one (look in the comments as well).

 
More on the Cambodia Story

A reader of Just One Minute found this story on the Christmas in Cambodia (scroll down to second story).

Kerry-MIA

Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By JOHN DIAMOND
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Navy Lt. John Kerry knew he had no business steering his Mekong River patrol boat across the border into Cambodia, but orders were orders.
A quarter-century later, Sen. John Kerry says newly declassified documents have convinced him fellow servicemen captured on such trips were left behind at war's end.

(snip)

But for Kerry, who spent six violent months commanding a patrol boat on the Mekong River, there's always been a ring of truth to allegations of abandoned Americans. By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia.

"We were told, `Just go up there and do your patrol. Everybody was over there (in Cambodia). Nobody thought twice about it," Kerry said. One of the missions, which Kerry, at the time, was ordered not to discuss, involved taking CIA operatives into Cambodia to search for enemy enclaves.

Kerry could try to play on one aspect of this story; that it's all very hush-hush, don'cha know. Except of course that he disclosed it to an AP reporter in 1992, 12 years before Brinkley's book came out, which makes no mention of Kerry crossing over into Cambodia.

BTW, there might be an MIA angle to this story. Kerry makes a big deal about the possibility that there were POWs/MIAs still in Southeast Asia in the story.

 
His Salutes Are Getting Worse



I was never in the service, but even I know that's a pretty poor excuse for a salute.

For the record, a proper salute is given with the upper arm horizontal to the ground, the forearm on a 45-degree angle, the hand perfectly straight (no cupped hand, please), and the fingers touching the edge of the right eyebrow.

 
New Resource--Dale's Electoral College Breakdown

I'm putting up a link to this great site. Actually the link will take you to Gerry's blog, but you can click on the link there to go to the ECB.

Right now the tea leaves over there look pretty good for Kerry; of course they will get quite a bit better for Bush after his convention.

 
Uh, Thanks, Senator, We'll Take a Rain Check

 
APOCALYPSE WHEN?



XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX
SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
**Exclusive**
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:

I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.

DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors charge that Kerry made it all up.
“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies,” according to John O’Neil, co-author and the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.”
Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia.
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm’s way.”
Developing...

 
Kerry Paralyzed for 40 Minutes on 9-11, Criticized Bush for 7 Minutes

While God does not always seem to punish people for their sins, the sin of hubris he often punishes quickly and unmercifully. Indeed, it almost seems as if this is the one sin that he delights in exacting retribution for.

Kerry earlier this week descended into the fever swamps of Michael Moore, when he criticized the President for continuing to read to the children at that elementary school on 9-11 after being advised that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center.

So what did John Kerry, Vietnam war hero and man of action do himself on 9-11?

"I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting - we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation."

Of course, you know the punchline. There was a 40-minute delay between the time the second plane hit the WTC and the time the plane hit the Pentagon. Kerry sat there with the other children of the Senate, Tom Daschle and Barbara Boxer, and did nothing for 40 minutes!

I owe somebody a Hat Tip link on this one but I forgot who.

 
Kerry Draws a Crowd in Albuquerque

 
INCOMING!



Kerry uses his band of brothers to insulate himself from any criticism and scrutiny of his military service, especially his anti-war protesting when he returned from Vietnam. They’re his band of bodyguards. In essence, criticizing Kerry about his military record means you’ll be criticizing those vets as well, and don’t even think about doing that. They’re Vietnam vets! Yet Kerry has no problem smearing the other group of Vietnam vets, the group which finds him unfit to command. He should have taken the high road on this issue. I don’t say that as a conservative who’s voting for Bush; I say it because frankly it’s better politics. He could be magnanimous and give the Swift Boat vets their due. After all, they served and earned medals, too. Instead, Kerry is going to ratchet up the bile … considerably. These tactics say far more about Kerry than the Swift Boat vets. If he truly appreciates his fellow vets, he'll stop the ugliness, but he won't.

Dems Plan Assault on Vets
The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Vietnam Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.
“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."
…
The New York Times is already on the hook to run a negative series on the Vets, as is the Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times.

 
QUELLE SURPRISE!


Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam, July 15-18, 1993. Photo taken in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon in May 2004.
"This photograph's unquestionable significance lies in its placement in the American protestors' section of the War Crimes Museum in Saigon. The Vietnamese communists clearly recognize John Kerry's contributions to their victory. This find can be compared to the discovery of a painting of Neville Chamberlain hanging in a place of honor in Hitler's Eagle's Nest in 1945."

I think I posted this before, but it’s worth posting again.

Communist Party USA supports John Kerry
By D.P. HEIMBOLD
The southern Democrats must be thrilled by the news that the Communist Party of The United States of America, CPUSA, is publicly supporting the election of John Kerry.
…
Remarkably, the "Top Ten Reasons" of the Communist party are identical to those of the Democratic party; out-sourcing, homosexual rights, abortion and the like.
At first, I thought "this is only a coincidence." The Democratic party of the United States couldn't be in lock step with the Marxists! So, I wrote to a spokesman of the CPUSA in Georgia and here is part of his letter:
" The CPUSA supports the John Kerry campaign with donations and volunteer effort. We believe that defeating George Bush is the single most important issue this November ..."
Next, I discovered that one of Kerry's campaign themes is " Let America be America Again." This slogan was borrowed from a Communist poet, Langston Hughes.
…
[T]here is a museum in Hanoi with a section dedicated to foreign activists who help defeat the United States Military in Vietnam. Of course, you would expect Jane Fonda's picture to be there. But, alas, there is John Kerry's picture shaking the hand of a communist official.

 
Are Senators Unelectable?

Jodi Wilgoren has a solid article in the Times about the historically long odds facing Senator Botox.

In a paper published two years ago in Political Science Quarterly, Barry C. Burden, a professor at Harvard University, laid out the long odds: Of the 54 presidential elections since 1789, 15 saw current or former senators win; from 1868 to 1972, 16 percent of senators who sought their party's nomination got it, compared with 48 percent of governors; and from 1960 to 1996, while sitting senators made up more than a third of those running for president, just 11 percent won party nods and 2 percent the general election.

Of course, Kerry's already surmounted the first hurdle in getting the nomination, which means that history suggests the odds against him now are about 5.5-1 (11%/2%).

 
REASON WITH THIS?

Only a fool would believe these terrorists are raging this war simply because they hate Bush. And to think that these terrorists are held in higher regard by the Left in this country than the president. If the Left had their way we’d all be learning Arabic by now.


A masked Iraqi Sh'ite militiaman dashes across a street, carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher, near a graffiti reading in Arabic 'No Bush' in the east Baghdad suburb of al Sadr city August 7, 2004. REUTERS/Ali Jasim

 
DESPERATELY SEEKING COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF



When the Swift Boat Veterans decided to end their silence with their devastating ad, they had to know that the wrath of the Left, specifically Kerry, would try to not only bury their claims but to completely grind their honor into the dirt in the process.

According to retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, who ran the swift-boat campaign in Vietnam and now leads the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,:

"I do not believe that John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States. This is not a political issue. It is a matter of judgment, truthfulness, reliability, loyalty and trust -- all absolute tenets of command.
"Only one of his 23 fellow officers in charge from Coastal Division 11 supports John Kerry," he added. "Overall, more than 250 swift-boat veterans are on the record questioning Kerry's fitness to serve as commander in chief. That list includes his entire chain of command -- every single officer Kerry served under in Vietnam. The Kerry game plan is to ignore all this and pretend that the 13 veterans his campaign jets around the country and puts up in five-star hotels really represent the truth about his short, controversial combat tour."

Hat tip Captain Ed.

The first real shocker was when the Boston Globe reported that Lieutenant Commander Elliott, from the group, had recanted his claims he had voiced in the ad. That, in turn, elicited a swift rebuttal from the Swift Boat Veterans group.

"Captain George Elliott describes an article appearing in today's edition of the Boston Globe by Mike Kranish as extremely inaccurate and highly misstating his actual views," said a statement released yesterday by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group opposed to Mr. Kerry's election.
"He reaffirms his statement in the current advertisement paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Captain Elliott reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement and he reaffirms his request that the ad be played."

The Boston Globe followed with their own rebuttal to the vets’ rebuttal:
Veteran claims misquote on Kerry; Globe stands by its story.

In the meantime, Kerry’s men jumped into action by threatening any station which airs the ad with lawsuits. How very brave of the man who desperately seeks the position of Commander-In-Chief; hide behind lawyers.

So, the Swift Boat Vets have hired their own band of lawyers and are fighting back.

Letter to TV Station Managers Regarding Captain Elliott
August 6, 2004
Re: Swift Boat Veterans For Truth
Dear Station Manager:
The Kerry Campaign has continued its effort to prevent our voice from being heard. You were presented with an article from Kerry's hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe, written by Michael Kranish, Kerry's biographer, claiming that Captain Elliott had withdrawn his affidavit and disavowed the ad. This is totally false.
Enclosed is Captain Elliott's affidavit executed this morning after the false Globe story.
Captain Elliott affirms his original affidavit; affirms his ad statement; and adds additional detail. In the ad, Captain Elliott says that Kerry was not honest about his service in Vietnam. This is indisputably true.
The use of a surprise false article to strike pending ads represents a new low in ambush journalism.
Very truly yours,
John E. O'Neill
JEO/cas
Enclosure

Hat tip to Captain Ed via Lucianne.

I suppose this all boils down to whom you believe: Kerry, whose candor is Clinton-esque, or a large group of Vietnam veterans, with medals of their own. For me it’s a no-brainer.

 
Kerry's Flip-Flop on Gay Marriage Amendments

Hugh Hewitt, doing weekend blogging, points out (no permalink) that Kerry's now been on both sides of Gay Marriage amendments. Obviously he opposes an amendment to the US Constitution. But, as we pointed out Friday, John Edwards has announced that the ticket had "no objection" to the amendment banning gay marriage which passed overwhelmingly in Missouri, believing it to be a "states' rights" issue.

However, Kerry did not feel that way in 2002, when Massachusetts was considering a similar ban.

U.S. Congressmen Edward Markey and Barney Frank, on behalf of themselves, Senators Kennedy and Kerry, and Reps. Neal, McGovern, Olver, Meehan, Tierney, Delahunt, Capuano and Lynch, released a letter to every member of the Massachusetts State Legislature expressing opposition to the proposed State Constitutional amendment restricting legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Kerry doesn't flip-flop because he lacks positions. He flip-flops because he knows those positions will not get him elected.

 
Kerry's Stories

I've commented on this a couple times in the past. Kerry's anecdotes all have that level of polish that says they've been honed and embellished over many a dinner table. We've talked about the Christmas in Cambodia story. It's not hard to see that the story started out probably much as detailed in Tour of Duty, with Kerry and his crew near Cambodia, but over time the story got better, as Kerry managed to weave in an indictment of President Nixon by recalibrating his location. It's the same thing with some other anecdotes we've covered in the past. Consider Kerry's first meeting with John F. Kennedy:

It is well established that Kerry did meet JFK; there are a few photos of them together on a yacht. But the way Kerry tells their first meeting (in Tour of Duty) is just a little unbelievable.

Kerry was scheduled to spend the weekend at his girlfriend's house. He telephones her from work to tell her that he's running a little late. "Well, hurry up, because the President's here and he wants to go off sailing." So Kerry hurries up indeed, arriving in what Brinkley calls "Barney Oldfield" time.

"...I walk up, open the door, and there's nobody inside. I can't see anybody. But there's this guy standing there peering out a window at the bay. He turns around and it's the President of the United States."

Kerry goes on to recount a brief private conversation with Kennedy.

Now, does that sound awfully suspicious? Okay, I can buy that security was lax in those days. But does anybody believe that Kennedy would be standing there alone? What, was everybody else changing into their topsiders? The story is convenient, because Kerry is the only living participant.

Then there's the story Kerry told black students at Howard University about his travel to the South in 1964 to register voters.

I also think it is important for us to remember that in the relationship of race in America, we've actually made an extraordinary amount of progress. In my lifetime, when I was a kid at college, I remember going through the South, and for the first time in my life I was a white kid from the North, first time in my life I saw a sign that said, “No Coloreds, Whites Only,” and it shocked me. And we were part of that effort, with the Mississippi voter registration drive and the civil rights movement, to break the back of Jim Crow and to change this country.

However, oddly, Kerry's travels with the Mississippi voter registration drive are nowhere mentioned in Tour of Duty, although Brinkley devotes several pages to Kerry's intense concern about racial issues as a young man. Is Nuancy Boy using some sort of universal "we"? To my knowledge, no reporter has asked Kerry to provide details of this experience.

 
Kerry Drinks the Kool-Aid

This is disgusting:

Whatever his change of tone, Kerry's campaign remains deeply critical of the president's war on terror. His aides say the president has failed to secure the homeland by spending too little on firefighters, port security, or protecting nuclear and chemical plants. Kerry's advisers blame the shortfall in part on the fact that the areas facing the biggest threat—the corridors connecting Boston to Washington, Chicago to Detroit, and Seattle to San Diego—vote Democratic.

If that's really what Kerry's advisers believe, somebody should slap some sense into them.

 
PROPHETIC OR FANTASY?



Overall this a good read with a double-punch lede. Sparks walks you through Kerry’s stands on the issues and includes this pithy Bushism: ‘Bush once characterized Kerry's popularity by saying, in effect, of course he's popular, adding, "He's been on every side of every issue." Kerry has no cohesive message.’ Sparks begins to wind up his column by saying that history is on Bush’s side. “No war president has ever lost an election in the United States, and it's unlikely this will be the case now.” This is a weak argument, popular but weak. After all, if you’re the least bit superstitious, and most Republicans are, you’ll read that and wonder if the law of averages in your favor have finally run their course. Will this year’s election be the exception? In the last four paragraphs, Sparks talks about how the Left have propagated the notion that Bush lied about everything. Although Sparks writes that the 9/11 Commission’s Report plainly states there were no lies, he then concedes with this devastating admission: “Unfortunately, much of the damage has been done, as Bush's "lies" have now become an urban legend, ingrained in the minds of many.” Then, in an acrobatic feat of journalism, he ends with, “Now that Kerry can't rely on Bush as liar, he will need to come up with a novel new game plan.” Huh? If the lies are "ingrained," why would Kerry need a new game plan? The article is good up until its weak conclusion.

Why Kerry Will Lose The Election
By Adam Sparks, Special to SF Gate
John Kerry will lose this election, and he will do so decisively. The defeat will go down as perhaps the only thing this candidate has ever done decisively.
We've just seen a four-day infomercial called the Democratic National Convention, where everyone put on his or her smiley face
…
It was the most dreadful showing of any postconvention bounce in the decades since the newsmagazine began measuring such shifts.
…
Liberal New York Times syndicated columnist Maureen Dowd said it best: Kerry's nautical theme made the convention look like a goofy scene from "Gilligan's Island." You know you've got problems when you can't shore up the Left.
…
The fact that both of the "me-too"s, Edwards and Kerry, voted for military intervention in Iraq was a minor detail to be papered over: They were misled. But do we really want folks in the White House who are so easily duped?
Kerry has clearly indicated he was always against the war, but that was after his vote in favor of the war, but not for war funding, which should not be understood as support, and in any case he would have done it much differently. His concern is now a lack of any real coalition and U.N. support, but when the United States had the backing of the United Nations and a real international presence in Desert Storm after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Kerry voted against that intervention. That information should clear it up for all those undecided voters who really wanted to know.
…
Now that Kerry can't rely on Bush as liar, he will need to come up with a novel new game plan. It'll be hard, but maybe he could have Edwards channel the baby Jesus telling people whom to vote for. Short of that, nothing will work.