SwiftVets.com

[JK]

Senator Mc Cain hasn't convinced me Kerry is a hero. He gets my credit for serving in the military but I doubt it is considered honorable based on the revelations in Unfit for Command. Kerry was an opportunist using the military and its men for his personal gain and future political career.

JK

Debate on Kerry's Military Record Rages

Thu Aug 26, 4:40 PM ET

By MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press Writer

ANOKA, Minn. - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) on Thursday lashed out at "the lie that's been put out there" about his Vietnam War service as Republicans and Democrats fiercely debated his military record, sensing a political advantage in keeping the issue alive.

The debate started when a group of critics, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, raised questions about the Democratic presidential candidate's command during the Vietnam War. It has escalated into a tit-for-tat advertising war amid accusations from each campaign that the other side is improperly using independent groups to front their attacks.

Responding to a question at a forum, Kerry said, "All the guys who were with me on my boat, all the guys who were with me in the specific action where they could see it and do it, absolutely document what I said. And as you've seen in the last few days, you're now learning about the lie that's been put out there and how it's been put out there.'

Kerry pointed out that the Navy documented his actions 35 years ago, compared to the recollections of veterans decades later. "Those documents stand, and I am absolutely telling you the God's honest truth about what happened and what took place over there. And so are the other people who've laid it out correctly over the last couple days," he said.

In a television ad, Kerry's campaign hit President Bush (news - web sites) for waging a "smear" campaign by failing to denounce the Swift Boat Veterans' accusations that Kerry didn't deserve his five Vietnam medals.

Bush's 2000 primary campaign rival, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., was the star of the Democrats' new ad, which shows the senator telling Bush in 2000 "you should be ashamed" for standing by as a "fringe veterans group" questioned McCain's patriotism.

McCain, who supports Bush's re-election, said Thursday that he didn't want the Democrats using his old statements against the president — and the Kerry campaign pulled the ad. But McCain isn't happy about the swift boat veterans' anti-Kerry ads, either.

McCain had called on Bush to condemn those ads.

Kerry and running mate John Edwards (news - web sites) have accused Bush of being behind "lies and smears" by the group. Bush's campaign has denied being behind the swift boat group, whose major financial backer is a Texas Republican with ties to Bush aides.

As the claims of improper coordination flew, one of Bush's top lawyers resigned from the Bush campaign Wednesday, a day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to the Swift Boat Veterans. At the same time, Republicans raised questions about Democratic lawyers working for other organizations.

The Bush-Cheney campaign hit back at Kerry in a sharply worded letter that criticized Kerry's actions after he returned from war, including his testimony before Congress that U.S. soldiers were committing atrocities in Vietnam.

"You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities and, to this day, you have never apologized," said the letter, drafted by the campaign and signed by several veterans. "Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your postwar condemnation of our actions."

Bush has criticized the Swift Boat Veterans group's first commercial and all other outside group attack ads — many of which have targeted his own re-election. But Democrats want him to explicitly condemn the Swift Boat Veterans ad.

At Bush's ranch Wednesday near Crawford, Texas, former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., who lost three limbs in Vietnam, tried but failed to deliver a letter to the president from nine Senate Democrats that asked Bush to "recognize this blatant attempt at character assassination and publicly condemn it."

The Bush-Cheney campaign Wednesday chastised Kerry for saying all military service should be held above reproach, while he questions Bush's military record.

"You said in 1992, 'We do not need to divide America over who served and how.' Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard," the campaign said.

The current stage of the battle may have negated any advantage accrued by either side, Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said.



Newhouse said Bush had the advantage when the debate centered on Kerry's actions in Vietnam because the questions raised doubts about Kerry's credibility. Now that the debate has shifted to questions about campaign tactics and political insiders, Newhouse said, Bush lost his advantage.

"Bush gained early, now it's a wash," he said.

William Benoit, professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said McCain, who was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, erased any early advantage that Bush might have had.

McCain has called the anti-Kerry advertisement "dishonest" and "dishonorable."

"When Senator McCain comes out and says he's a hero ... how many Republicans are going to reject it?" Benoit said. "I just think Senator McCain has neutralized that issue in large part."