SwiftVets.com

[Jeff Carrington]

I can't believe it. . . .from P1 of WashPost site brand new posting. . .have to see where it lands in tom'ws paper edition.

You might be on P1 of the leading liberal broadsheet (NYT a joke). IE with a really favorable article.

Swiftvets your truth is marching on. Hand salute!

====================


washingtonpost.com
Dole: Kerry Should Apologize
Former Senator Suggests Kerry Should Apologize for Congressional Testimony About Vietnam War Atrocities

By Pete Yost
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 22, 2004; 4:42 PM

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."

Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam.

Separately, President Bush's re-election campaign continued to deny links to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an anti-Kerry group running ads in three states, after the resignation of a campaign volunteer who appeared in the group's new ad.

With Kerry taking a break from campaigning, running mate John Edwards said Bush needs to tell the group to pull its ads, a step the White House and the Bush campaign refuse to take. The White House and Bush's campaign note that Kerry has benefited from more than $62 million worth of similar advertising against the president.

"This is the moment of truth for President Bush," Edwards said in North Carolina. "The American people have to hear directly that these ads need to come off the air." Kerry also fought back in another new ad.

Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for the current situation, in which polls show him losing support among veterans.

"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran. "Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."

Kerry's supporters rose to his defense.

"Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh as distinct from President Bush who carries two fillings in his teeth from his service in the Alabama National Guard, which seems to be his only time that he showed up," John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, said on ABC's "This Week."

Bush served stateside in the Guard during the Vietnam years. Podesta's reference was to the White House's release of documents earlier this year showing Bush's dental visits during his Guard years after questions arose about whether he had always reported for duty.

Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman also blamed Kerry for the ongoing debate, complaining on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "Kerry himself has attacked the president for his service during the Vietnam years," while the Republican's campaign has "so strongly praised" Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam.

The Bush campaign also said the Federal Election Commission should immediately dismiss what it termed a "frivolous" complaint by Kerry's campaign alleging coordination between the re-election effort and the Swift Boat group.

The White House and the Bush campaign for weeks have denied any connection to the Swift Boat organization, whose early financial support came largely from a prominent Texas businessman with longtime ties to the state's top Republicans, including Bush.

The group's latest ad includes a Bush-Cheney volunteer, retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier, condemning Kerry's 1971 congressional testimony that Dole spoke of. Cordier was a prisoner of war during Vietnam.

"Colonel Cordier did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement," a Bush campaign statement said. "Because of his involvement Colonel Cordier will no longer participate as a volunteer for Bush-Cheney '04."

A new Kerry TV ad urged the president to "denounce the smear" and 'get back to the issues" because America deserves better." The 30-second commercial, to air in the same three states as the Swift Boat group ad -- Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin -- compares Kerry's situation to the 2000 primary campaign when "Bush smeared John McCain."

McCain has condemned the ads and called on the president to do so, too.

In response, Bush's campaign released a copy of a letter it was sending to television station managers on Monday defending itself from the claims in the new Kerry ad.

Questions mounted over the motives of Kerry's critics, two of whom had praised his service in 1996, even as Kerry's supporters faced questions about the candidate. Among the allegations is that Kerry lied about being in neutral Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968.

"I don't think anyone knows for sure whether or not they were in Cambodia that night, but they were near Cambodia on Christmas Eve," John Hurley, who heads a pro-Kerry veterans group, said on "Fox News Sunday." "He was five miles into Cambodia on a different occasion."

Another allegation is that Kerry was not under enemy fire as after-action reports say he was, an incident for which he received a Bronze Star, one of five medals earned in Vietnam.

"The after-action reports were written from Kerry's spot reports from that day," said Kerry critic Van Odell, also appearing on the same program. "None of us knew he even got the Bronze Star until more recently."

[Jungle_rat]

[Polaris]

Jungle_rat,

True, but for the first time a MAJOR political figure has come out strongly in favor of the SBVT and it was printed in the Washington Post no less.

This is huge.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[tford60]

[quote="Polaris"]Jungle_rat,

True, but for the first time a MAJOR political figure has come out strongly in favor of the SBVT and it was printed in the Washington Post no less.

This is huge.[/quot

This is wonderfull, thank God for Bob Dole!

Tom
_________________
Tom

[Jungle_rat]

[Mona]

Swiftees, Mr. O'Neill, you are all so fantastic I feel terrible guilt for my initial desire to see you go away. I initially thought this was like that smear campaign directed against McCain and would backfire, but it is not.

You have substance (tons of it) and are able to prove Kerry is unfit. You have forced the hand of The Washington Post. With a lot of help from super Bob Dole -- a true war hero.

If I were military, I would salute you all.

--Mona--
_________________
--Mona--

[larrygj]

Don't worry about Kerry apologizing. He knows if he changes anything in his house of cards, the whole thing will come tumbling down. And he is way too vain and self-absorbed to admit he did anything for which he should apologize. The closest he has come is to say anything about his anti-war excesses is that he was "a little bit over the top" in an interview with Tim Russert. Like calling his fellow veterans a bunch of Genghis Khan rapists, criminals and maimers was just a minor breach of etiquette, a one-time lapse.

It will be interesting to see how long Kerry can dodge the press and avoid giving answers to questions even the Washington Post finds legitimate to ask; the "mainstream" press smells blood here. Or, in the case of Kerry's medals, the lack of it. Notice, too, how the leftie journalists are beginning to fret about Kerry's latest round of flip-flops and "nano-nuancing," as Joe Klein of Time Magazine calls it. They are just discovering what this guy is and has always been: an empty suit.

Bob Dole's remarks are perfectly timed. The Carvilles and Lenny Davises must be sputtering in abject, impotent fury.

Larry

[FreeFall]

Kerry should apologize, but I doubt if most vets would accept it. I don't blame them either.

Here's a story about Hanoi Jane and her apology (at the bottom)

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/story8.htm

[Polaris]

I was very young then (5) but this reminds me very much of the first couple of weeks of Watergate. I know that the comparison has been much ballyhooed over the years, but I am serious. The more Kerry tries to defend himself, the more and more questions get raised. There is a story here under the evasions, and (hopefully) a few journalists are starting to smell it.
_________________
-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[Wing Wiper]

Oh yeah, there's a Pulitzer here if there's any reporters left with enough guts to go after it. I've thought that for the last week. he mainstream media dam is showing some major cracks now. I expect to see a "leak" of Kerry's files anytime now, then it's going to really get interesting.

[Jungle_rat]

[napnip]

[RocketFett]

Big time thank God for Senator Dole. He said it perfecty! That's a great piece of major help for the movement.

I saw the FOX News Sunday interview this morning and anyone who thinks that FOX is slanted to the right should have to watch that. Mr. Odell did an EXCELLENT job and wasn't given a single pass or softball and even so managed to answer every question totally and completely and didn't flinch one time. The opposite of hurley was evident. He seemed aggitated and angry and evasive throughout the interview. It took minutes just to get him to half way answer questions put to him. Typical kerry mouthpiece. I think how both men carried themselves is the most striking detail. Mr. Odell was very calm and manored and direct and not in the least evasive. hurley was totally the opposite and I think it is that kind of striking difference that will be what plays with the American people. Openess and manor and facial expression and tone of voice are very important critical key componants of being believed or not, and when I saw it, and later my wife and family, we all thought the same thing. "Odell, calm and rational and believable. Hurley, not so much, aggitated, evasive, accusive, and desperate to shift his comments to attack the President, than actually answer issues regarding kerry". Which is the kerry campaign in a nutshell. Dodge and weave and shift focus from the truth to things that he thinks he can distract with.