Sen. John Kerry emerged as the likely Democratic candidate for president after racking up primary wins February 3. The next day, in a foreshadowing of campaign controversies to come, New York Times reporters Elisabeth Bumiller and David Halbfinger compared Kerry and Bush on their Vietnam service.

Boston, Mass. — Some of John Kerry's fellow Swift Boat veterans — the ones who were not on stage with him at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night — are questioning the account of Kerry's Vietnam service as presented in a nine-minute biographical video played at the convention.

In particular, the film portrayed an incident in which Kerry, in command of a Swift Boat, rescued Army Green Beret Jim Rassman during a fight on a river in South Vietnam. The film graphically illustrated the incident, in which a group of Swift Boats, including Kerry's, came under attack on March 13, 1969. The film recounted the often-told story of how a wounded Kerry pulled Rassman out of the water while under enemy fire.

Notwithstanding the John Kerry posturing about how his veteran status somehow ingratiates him to the veteran community (he served in Vietnam you know?)…the cold reality is, MOST veterans revile Kerry. There is a deep-seated, unbridled antipathy that veterans (and especially Vietnam veterans) hold for the 'man who would be commander in chief'.

Even though it's unlikely that this nasty, fraught election summer will include a "silly season," I want to play a game. To better expose the increasingly frightening dishonesty of our media, I want to pretend that John Kerry and John Edwards are Republican senators running for the White House against an incumbent Democratic administration.

Let's begin by flipping the candidate biographies from Left to Right:

A four-term senator, GOP hard-liner John Kerry likes to invoke his tour of duty as a naval officer on a patrol boat during the Vietnam War as his core qualification for the presidency. Indeed, this Boston Brahmin who attended Swiss finishing school may be said to wear his four months inside Vietnam, like Teflon armor to deflect all political sallies against his ultra-conservative Senate voting record. But questions about his Vietnam service remain. While this Republican fat cat — Mr. Kerry's wife Teresa Heinz Kerry controls between $900 million and $3.2 billion (millions of which flow to extreme right-wing causes) — surrounds himself with a small cadre of former crew members at campaign appearances, no fewer than 254 of Mr. Kerry's former Vietnam War shipmates, including 17 out of 24 officers in his division, have signed a public letter stating that John Kerry, the Republican nominee for president, is unfit to be commander in chief.

(CNSNews.com) - Some of John Kerry's former swift boat crewmates will have a high-profile role at the Democratic National Convention later this month, as they attempt to portray Kerry as a decorated Vietnam War hero. But an even larger number of veterans say that's not the case.

Tiger Point resident Grant Hibbard is at the center of a national controversy over presidential candidate John Kerry's three Purple Hearts awarded during his four months in Vietnam.

Hibbard was Kerry's commander at Cam Ranh Bay where the Democratic nominee was awarded his first Purple Heart while on a mission to disrupt Viet Cong supply lines. Hibbard said the Purple Heart wasn't deserved.

At around 8:30 p.m. on March 15, retired admiral Roy Hoffmann was sitting at his desk in Richmond, Va., when the phone rang. He picked up the receiver and heard a familiar voice. It was John Kerry. The two men weren't close, but they had served together in Vietnam, when the admiral was a captain and the senator a lieutenant. Kerry wanted to discuss some urgent business: the negative portrayal of Hoffmann in Douglas Brinkley's best-selling new book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War.

"He said I'd been unfairly maligned and that he respected me and thought I was a good leader in Vietnam," recalls Hoffmann. "I told him it sure as hell doesn't look like it."

A letter writer and veteran of the Gulf War recently wrote the following: "It is unbelievable to me that some letter writers are questioning John Kerry's ability to be (sic) commander-in-chief." The writer does not go on to provide any evidence supporting Kerry's abilities other than stating that Kerry has combat experience. That alone is not a qualification. There are a great many veterans, (I for one) who do not believe that Kerry is worthy of the position of president of the United States and Commander-in-Chief (or even senator) for many serious reasons.

My May 9 column on John Kerry in Vietnam was based on what I'd read in the news.

It's too bad I didn't know I could have gotten first-hand accounts from two local men who were on the Bay Hap River when Kerry arrived in December 1968.

The first man is Don Matras, a veteran who lives in Lemont. He's a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of about 220 members who think Kerry is unfit to be commander in chief.

(CNSNews.com) - Stop using our faces in your campaign material, eleven Swift Boat veterans have told Sen. John F. Kerry. The veterans are all from the unit in which Sen. John Kerry served.

In their letter to the Kerry Campaign, the Swift Boat veterans warned of legal action, unless "the blatant abuse of their images by the Kerry Campaign cease immediately."