Where Kerry Slept: Not on the Mall! (Old issue resolved; Agnew was right.)

Slate ^ | April 28, 2004 | Mickey Kaus

[optimistically_conservative]

Where Kerry Slept: John Kerry didn't throw his own medals over the wall in that 1971 antiwar protest and he didn't sleep on the Mall with his Viet Vet buddies either. He snuck off and slept in a Georgetown townhouse. ... You can't accuse Robert Sam Anson of burying the lede! ... Assignment for ABC producer Chris Vlasto: As I recall, whether Kerry actually slept on the Mall has been a controversial issue over the years. Why do I think that if you go through the clips you'll find Kerry denying that he didn't sleep on the Mall? Just a guess. Anson, as an eyewitness sympathetic to Kerry, has now basically resolved the factual issue (for at least one night of the VVAW protest). ... Update: Here's one denial, in Michael Kranish's Boston Globe Kerry profile

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew briefly led the White House charge against Kerry. Appearing in the Bahamas, Agnew said that Kerry, "who drew rave notices in the media for his eloquent testimony before Congress, was later revealed to have been using material ghosted for him by a former Kennedy speechwriter, and to have spent most of his nights in posh surroundings in Georgetown rather than on the Mall with his buddies."

Both of Agnew's charges were false, according to Kerry and Walinsky, the former Kennedy aide to whom Agnew referred. [Emphasis added]

We now know, from Anson, that Agnew was right on at least one charge. ...  Note to Kranish: Do you feel conned? ... P.S.: I don't begrudge Kerry brandy in a walnut-paneled library after a hard day's protesting. It's the dissembling. ...More: Kerry's own Web site dismisses the Kerry-slept-in-Georgetown charge as an attempt to "smear him with the same unsubstantiated charge the Nixon White House used in 1971." Now not so unsubstantiated ... although I suppose Kerry will now claim he secretly snuck back to the Mall to sleep after the brandies in the library.

[optimistically_conservative]

Hope I got the blog vs news right. Kaus is suppose to be big enough to warrant a news topic post.

[don-o]

How deep is this rabbit hole?

Gotta reread Alice in Wonderland

[Smartass]

[VadeRetro]

He snuck off and slept in a Georgetown townhouse.

Dug into the host's fine old brandy there to, says Anson. But he takes credit for roughing it on the Mall in the cold with his fellow vets.

[O Neill]

Do you suppose that Kerry BURGLARIZED that Georgetown condo!!

It would have been too far to go back to his apartment for some sleep...

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA....

[optimistically_conservative]

LOL!!

I can help Kaus out on denials:

Bush Official Uses Nixon Tactics to Smear John Kerry
http://blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/001066.html#more

(and in case it is "airbrushed" from his blog)

Bush Official Uses Nixon Tactics to Smear John Kerry
RNC’s Gillespie Uses Exact Same False Charge As Nixon White House Did in 1971
http://www.politicsus.com/012404jkb.htm

[Mike Bates]

I still have a button that says, "Spiro is my hero." Oh, how he drove the Lefties to distraction.

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp

[what's up]

"I voted to sleep on the Mall before I slept in Georgetown."

[speedy]

Yes, and he always skewered those nattering nabobs of negativism. Not to mention the effete corps of impudent snobs. The enemy was the same then as now. Too bad he self-destructed. I also liked "If you've seen one slum, you've seen them all."

[Mike Bates]

Yes, and he always skewered those nattering nabobs of negativism.

Courtesy of P. Buchanan as I recall.

[Smartass]

Kerry is like a cornered rat. Expect anything.
It's still early. The worst is yet to come from the
Democrats.

[Old Grumpy]

"I still have a button that says, "Spiro is my hero." Oh, how he drove the Lefties to distraction."

I always liked Spiro and you're right - he drove the Lefties crazy.

[speedy]

By gum, I believe you are correct. Nice to have a smile over Spiro after all these years.

[counterpunch]

Here is a new image, hot off the press, from CouNTeRPuNcH.

[kennedy]

Why do I think that if you go through the clips you'll find Kerry denying that he didn't sleep on the Mall?

"I actually did sleep on the Mall before I didn't sleep on the Mall."

[kennedy]

“Ed Gillespie should put down the dirty tricks play book, pick up his pride and apologize to John Kerry for attempting to smear him with the same unsubstantiated charge the Nixon White House used in 1971,” said David DiMartino, Kerry campaign spokesperson.

Whenever Democrats want to contradict a true charge but know they will get caught if they flat out deny it, they call it "unsubstantiated."

[optimistically_conservative]

Whenever Democrats want to contradict a true charge but know they will get caught if they flat out deny it, they call it "unsubstantiated."

Or there's no controlling authority...

[shhrubbery!]

A craven press is badgering him, and so are ideologues still trying to win a justly lost war.

So Vietnam was a "justly lost war," according to Robert Sam Anson.

I guess Anson thinks it was "just" that millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians lost their lives to communist terror, after we cut and ran.

Anson also apparently thinks it was "just" to teach Osama bin Laden that Americans are soft and won't fight back -- encouraging him and his ilk to perpetrate 9/11.

Yes, that was all so very "just."

[knarf]

"Whenever Democrats want to contradict a true charge but know they will get caught if they flat out deny it, they call it "unsubstantiated."

Or an on-going investigation.

[optimistically_conservative]

Or an on-going investigation.

or the product of a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

or an effort from the infamous Bush attack/smear machine (mention patriotism and veterans McCain and Cleland)

or simply proclaim "I won't stand for it" without addressing the accuracy of the charge.