SwiftVets.com

[integritycounts]

KERRY'S WAR VS. KERRY

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/27741.htm

August 29, 2004 --
Former Navy Secretary John Leh man denied at week's end having written the Silver Star citation that appears on John Kerry's campaign Web site over Lehman's signature, dealing the Democrat's presidential campaign another stunning blow.

Which makes us wonder: Does Kerry still believe that running on his Vietnam will gain him the White House?

Kerry's Silver Star is the most prestigious of his Vietnam decorations — it's the nation's third-highest for combat valor — but there are at least three official versions of how he earned it.

The most recent — and the one with the most florid rhetoric — allegedly was signed by Lehman. But the former Navy secretary told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday: "I never saw it. I never signed it it. I never approved it."

Nevertheless, there it is on Kerry's Web site, over Lehman's signature.

It's a bewilderment, to put it mildly.

But not quite as mysterious as the Kerry Vietnam strategy itself.

Kerry has been hurt badly by the charges leveled by fellow Swift boat vets, wounds that are entirely self-inflicted.

The vets were galvanized by the book "Tour of Duty," which is based on Kerry's own self-promoting descriptions.

Some 250 or so "Swifties," who have been seething ever since Kerry's 1971 defamation of U.S. troops in Vietnam in the Senate, were moved to respond.

Kerry could have denied their charges and dropped the subject. But he upped the ante at every opportunity.

* Kerry won his primary victory over Howard Dean by pushing his Vietnam War duty. Later he shaped his Democratic National Convention themes around his war "heroism."

He began his convention speech by announcing: "I'm John Kerry — reporting for duty."

In short, Kerry dared voters to judge him by his Vietnam experience.

* When the Swift-boat vets' ads began airing, Kerry escalated further, demanding that they be removed. He challenged President Bush to force the vets to stand down — and accused the vets of doing Bush's "dirty work."

* Kerry also allowed one of his defenders, Washington lawyer Lanny Davis, to go on TV and antagonize the Swifties further still.

But that attack backfired big-time by enraging a retired rear admiral, William L. Schachte Jr. — a lieutenant on Kerry's boat when the candidate allegedly received the wound that led to his first Purple Heart.

Schachte told Post columnist Robert Novak that he had wanted to remain uninvolved, but was moved by Davis to correct the record: Kerry, said Schachte, "nicked himself with a [grenade launcher]" and then "requested a Purple Heart."

Schachte's statements lends credibility to the Swift-boat vets' version and put Kerry on the defensive yet again.

* Kerry's campaign Web site brags that he received a "Silver Star with combat V." Yet Thomas Lipscomb, writing in The Chicago Sun-Times, quotes a Navy spokesman disputing that: "The Navy has never issued a 'combat V' to anyone for a Silver Star."

Adds Lipscomb: "Naval regulations do not allow for the use of a 'combat V' for the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration the Navy awards. None of the other services has ever granted a Silver Star 'combat V,' either."

That was the citation that Lehman disavowed Friday: "The language it contains was not written by me."

Kerry's poll numbers are now falling. For the first time this year, a Los Angeles Times poll, released at week's end, showed Bush leading, 50-47. Another L.A. Times poll showed Bush moving ahead in "battleground" states.

The numbers show serious damage to Kerry, particularly in the area of character. A month ago, Kerry and Bush were tied on honesty and integrity; Bush now leads, 46-39.

The Times poll also showed that the fraction of voters who feel that Kerry's Vietnam experience demonstrates the qualities America needs in a president dropped from 58 percent in June to 48 percent now.

Kerry can rail all he wants about the unfairness of criticism by the Swift boat veterans. But to see who is ultimately responsible for this controversy, Kerry should look in the mirror

[taz]

Kerry's camp responded that Kerry asked for a duplicate copy and the "flowery language" had just been added to it, something about Navy regulations requiring said language.

I believe that, don't you?

Can Kerry really hide from the media until election day? at some point he will have to sit down and answer these questions.

won't he?

[carpro]

[Tom Poole]

Regardless, he's hiding. He's not under his desk because if he was, BOR would have said so. Why doesn't he visit the troops, even if it's ONLY the MANG? Why doesn't he sign form 180? Why doesn't he deny Adm. Schacte's version of the skimmer story? Why doesn't he make Zaldonis and Runyan available for a press conference? Why did he pursue his first Purple Heart after it was initially denied? Why doesn't he explain why he applied for all his medals instead of having them bestowed? Why...
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