Posted on 08/05/2004 9:52:51 AM PDT by Carling
As I read the reports of McCain condemning the free speech rights of his fellow Vietnam veterans because they dare to question John Kerry, one thing popped into my mind. Remove this man from the GOP roster. If he wants to stifle a legitimate debate of the Kerry record by those who knew him best in Vietnam, I do not want McCain to be on the stage at my party's convention next month.
Apparently Sen. McCain believes that only politicians and Kerry supporting vets should be heard w/out any scrutiny. I am LIVID at Sen. McCain, and I hope Ed Gillespie is just as livid.
You and I both know that those 3 people would never vote for George W. Bush. Therefore, what they say regarding McCain or the President is not relevant.
Why do I think this is a good idea? Because it allows the swift boat vets to stand on their own as an independent voice, which they say the want to do. You see, while this ad they put together is extremely powerful, if I was running the Kerry campaign I would immediately put out an ad to rebut this. It would say "George Bush has dispatched his dirty tricks men to question the honorable service of John Kerry in Vietnam while Bush campaigned for a political candidate in Alabama, far from the front." In that one fell swoop, Kerry could totally diffuse this or turn it around back on Bush without really dealing with the issue the swift boat vets raise.
Personally, I wish the ad had not focused on his wounds or anything like that, but merely focused on the fact that Kerry stabbed them in the back when he went home and trashed them in front of Congress. That should be the singular focus of the ad or ads they run. That keeps the argument focused between these vets and Kerry and keeps Bush out of it. And the public would be treated to clips of Kerry tetifying where he says he committed atrocities.
McCain condemns anti-Kerry ads, calls on White House to follow suit
WASHINGTON (AP) Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service ''dishonest and dishonorable'' and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.
''It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,'' McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.
The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.
''When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry,'' one of the veterans, Larry Thurlow, says in the ad. Thurlow didn't serve on Kerry's swiftboat, but says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Kerry's crewmates support the candidate and call him a hero.
The ad, scheduled to air in a few markets in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, was produced by Stevens, Reed, Curcio and Potham, the same team that produced McCain's ads in 2000.
''I wish they hadn't done it,'' McCain said of his former advisers. ''I don't know if they knew all the facts.''
Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing for it, McCain said, ''I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad.''
Later, McCain said the Bush campaign has denied any involvement and added, ''I can't believe the president would pull such a cheap stunt.''
The White House and Bush-Cheney campaign did not address McCain's call that they repudiate the spot, though a Bush spokesman said the campaign does not question Kerry's highly decorated war service. McCain is co-chair of Bush's campaign in Arizona.
In 2000, Bush's supporters sponsored a rumor campaign against McCain in the South Carolina primary, helping Bush win the primary and the nomination. McCain's supporters have never forgiven the Bush team.
McCain said that's all in the past to him, but he's speaking out against the anti-Kerry ad because ''it reopens all the old wounds of the Vietnam War, which I spent the last 35 years trying to heal.''
''I deplore this kind of politics,'' McCain said. ''I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.''
McCain himself spent more than five years in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp. A bona fide war hero, McCain, like Kerry, used his war record as the foundation of his presidential campaign.
The Kerry campaign has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying none of the men in the ad served on the boat that Kerry commanded. Three veterans on Kerry's boat that day Jim Rassmann, who says Kerry saved his life, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, the driver on Kerry's boat, said the group was lying on all fronts.
They say Kerry was injured, and Rassmann called the group's account ''pure fabrication.''
The leader of the group, retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, said none of the 13 veterans in the commercial served on Kerry's boat but rather were in other swiftboats within 50 yards of Kerry's. The group claims that there was no gunfire on the day Kerry pulled Rassmann from a muddy river in the Mekong Delta and that Kerry's arm was not wounded, as he has claimed.
''What we have is a fabrication that led to Kerry getting his Bronze Star and his last Purple Heart,'' said Thurlow, who said he commanded a swiftboat near Kerry's.
Look, we all bitched when the DNC embraced Moore, and Move on etc....
This Ad will do its damage on its own.
Given the media and their leftist bent, it works better for McCain, indeed the whole party including The President himself to keep a wary distance publicly.
But we should all pledge among ourselves to throw an extra buck into the pick-six, on a lark, with the proceeds going to airtime...lol
McCain condemned the ad, but I don't see where he condemed their right to say what they said. By dropping him from the convention you're trying to do the very thing you accused him of.
Thanks for the email address. Here's my message to him:
Dear Senator McCain:
I am a long time admirer of yours. While I never experienced the pain you did
when in the Hanoi Hilton, I was rather poorly treated upon return from Vietnam,
not by the enemy, but by people like John Kerry.
I can understand why you were mistreated, the North Vietnamese hated us. I learned
my lesson at SERE school, where we learned about your experiences in the north. But
what I was unprepared for when I returned in 1971 was the hate from people flying the
VC flag in the Harvard Square. Senator Kerry was in the forefront of that movement.
Perhaps in a way you were lucky, as you came home to bands playing as you got off the
airplane. I came home to being spat upon in my local beer joint by people that had never
left their home state.
Sincerely,
You can spin for McCain all you want, but he is pizzing on these vets for KERRY, not for Bush.
Also, for those believing the McCain interference theory, why then did not one Democrat discredit Michael Moore's movie. Rather, 25 Dem Senators attended a screening of it, and Moore was seated next to Jimmy Carter at the convention.
I say offer O'Neill a seat next to Ford at the the GOP convention. These guys have every right to have their voices heard, and calling them "dishonest and dishonorable" frankly makes more vets angry at McCain and the GOP than it does anything else.
Just wondering...
To the extent McCain doesn't like groups like that run ads of that nature, he has only himself to blame.
ClickThe Kerry campaign has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying none of the men in the ad served on the boat that Kerry commanded. Three veterans on Kerry's boat that day Jim Rassmann, who says Kerry saved his life, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, the driver on Kerry's boat, said the group was lying on all fronts.
They say Kerry was injured, and Rassmann called the group's account ''pure fabrication.''
The leader of the group, retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, said none of the 13 veterans in the commercial served on Kerry's boat but rather were in other swiftboats within 50 yards of Kerry's. The group claims that there was no gunfire on the day Kerry pulled Rassmann from a muddy river in the Mekong Delta and that Kerry's arm was not wounded, as he has claimed.
''What we have is a fabrication that led to Kerry getting his Bronze Star and his last Purple Heart,'' said Thurlow, who said he commanded a swiftboat near Kerry's.
Just what I was thinking too. Remember in the 2000 primaries FReepers were livid at McCain too. But I always thought McCain was helping Bush (albeit in a mysterious way) by forcing him to move to the right and putting him through presidential boot-camp. McCain energized conservatives who put Bush through.
McCain's still a POS, though...
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