Posted on 08/13/2004 2:56:59 PM PDT by Davis
E-mail to Candidate Kerry #12 From James (Cooter) Thompson re: Christmas in Cambodia, 1968
Dear Senator Kerry:
The regulars down to Daryl's Bait Shop here in Lagniappe, Louisiana, have asked me to write to you so as to alert you to a very serious problem affecting your campaign.
The way we see it, you have pushed all your chips into the pot, betting you can win the election by promoting your four months of service in Vietnam that ended 35 years ago. We cautioned you against that in the very first e-mail we wrote to you back in May when you were simply mentioning it every chance you got, every speech you made. That was bad enough. But when you—or maybe your speech writers and stage directors--decided to focus the Democratic Convention directly on it, you were looking for trouble.
As Aunt Masie says, it ain't wise to go looking for trouble. It ain't necessary. Trouble will find you.
To begin with, as soon as you got home from ‘Nam, you began disparaging. You went around touring the country with Hanoi Jane Fonda. You testified on your oath about atrocities our troops had done which was not true. You were in favor of our losing the war in Vietnam. You threw away your medals and ribbons—or someone else medals, you have been fuzzy on this point—because you were disgusted with the US of A. And you paid no particular mind to the harvest of skulls in Cambodia, two million Cambodians killed by their own commie leaders after we pulled out of Vietnam.
So Jack Boudreau, Armen Yazoo, yours truly, Cooter, and the rest of the guys at Daryl's, we wonder why you chose to stress your Vietnam service when you could have stuck with safe subjects like Benedict Arnold CEO's and raping and pillaging by Wal-Mart, a favorite subject of your Mrs.
Your spies must have known that a goodly number, something like 250 Swift boat veteran were preparing to make an issue of your service record by publishing a book, Unfit for Command. We haven't read the book yet, but from what we have read on the Internet, it's not a nutcase hatchet job, but a serious work with a truckload of footnotes. (I can tell you in confidence, Senator, that there is nothing we like to do more than spend our leisure time weaving our way from footnote to footnote in a good meaty book.)
On several occasions you have publicly placed yourself on your Swift boat in Cambodia on Christmas Day/Eve, 1968. You said in a speech you gave in the Senate that the event is "seared--seared" in your memory.
You have said it and written it for the Boston Herald, too, that you were in Cambodia on special orders being shot at by all sides, Vietnamese, US, and the Cambodians. You even claimed that President Nixon was lying when he declared then that we had no troops in Cambodia. Trouble is, Nixon wasn't President then and would not have been making any presidential statements about where our troops were.
You can't pass this off as a casual error of memory, mistaking Nixon for LBJ. It has all the earmarks of a deliberate lie tacked on to a lie. You weren't in Cambodia on any secret mission, on any mission whatever. How do we know? Well, when you gave your full cooperation for your biography to Professor Douglas Brinkley, a real historian at Columbia University up there in New York, you did not tell him about your "secret" mission to Cambodia, Christmas, 1968. He didn't record it in his bio of you, Tour of Duty. It couldn't have been because you were shy or because the mission was still classified. It must've been because your journals and other people's journals and witnesses and Navy records would've let Brinkley know it was false, a lie.
You got to understand, Senator, we don't expect people to be perfect, never to tell a lie, to always tell the truth like George Washington and the cherry tree. We understand lies, and some of us have told some whoppers no doubt. But there are lies and there are lie.
If some guy—the exact name ain't important, call him Donald—should come home a bit swiggled and tell his wife he's been at Daryl's discussing the news of the day when the truth is he was sharing the company of and a bottle of Herm Harrison's Special Reserve Hooch with Shirlee Chrystal, (not her real name) that's a lie, but it's defendable. Don's wife would have been severely distressed to learn the truth. She would've been likely to make Don's life a living hell for a quantity of time. And Shirlee wouldn't have cared for it, neither. So, under the circumstances, you might say Don used good judgment issuing that lie.
But your Christmas in Cambodia tale is a foolish and unnecessary lie, a lie that shows a serious lack of judgment. It ain't simply a matter of one lie more or less. If you had been in Cambodia with your Swift boat, you would not be a better candidate for President. But your stupid lying about it is crucial. It taints your entire Vietnam service story. You been caught lying in a serious way. We ain't obliged to believe any part of it, to pick out fact from fiction.
Of course we don't know the full extent of the fallout from all this. So far, we ain't encouraged by the response from your people. You can't hide behind their skirts, you know, saying 250 Swift boat veterans have been manipulated by Karl Rove to slander you. And you can't take cover behind a slippery statement from a "spokesperson" that maybe all you meant is you were near Cambodia, maybe 55 miles away in your barracks. That dog won't hunt.
So, you got to be considering that maybe you have to come on stage in front of the curtain yourself and tackle the problem head on, like Presidents got to do if they have any respect for this country.
Alternative is to resign now, let Senator Edwards take your spot on the ticket. He could choose a VP candidate, Howard Dean or Al Gore or Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Mrs. Clinton, whoever. It would take guts to do that for the sake of your party, but you been a good party man all your career, so maybe it's the thing to do.
Sincerely,
Cooter (with the help of j. Boudreau and A. Trentino)
Lagniappe Bump
ping, love that cooter!!!
I don't know a single Nam vet that doesn't remember exactly where he was on the Christmas night he spent in VN. Maybe not your birthday, wedding anniversary, wife's birthday, but you sure remember Christmas night.
Cooter just took ol john to the woodshed didnt he?
Writes good, too.
'Course, that might be Boudreau's doin'...
bump
Wow.
Do you think there's actually a chance Kerry will take Cooter's suggestion and resign? Maybe that's what TeRAYza wants. She doesn't seem to have much patience for us peasants. Come to think of it, neither does lyin' John.
If you had been in Cambodia with your Swift boat, you would not be a better candidate for President. But your stupid lying about it is crucial. It taints your entire Vietnam service story. You been caught lying in a serious way. We ain't obliged to believe any part of it, to pick out fact from fiction.BLAM! Right between the eyes.
You go Cooter!!
This Krewe's fur yew.
Another long neck bump
It's funny you mention this. One of my coworkers is a Viet Nam vet. We were discussing the Kerry lie the other day and he laughed. He said, "You know, I was probably in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968. We were supposed to go in to a base camp for a turkey dinner, but instead, we got lost on patrol and were wandering around in the woods. I don't know for sure if we were in Cambodia, but I've sure as hell got my suspicions."
I thought it was a great story, and it certainly backs up what you say - even 36 years later, my co-worker remembers where he was and what he was doing.
Grand temps, frère.
Yes, it's all a lousy Fairy-tale, Silver Star, Poiple Hearts, and home movies. It's what Kerry's been living on for 35 years.
Take a look here at this Bass cartoon. http://www.atrentino.com/CartoonFairyTale.html
The cartoon is great! Thanks for the link.
Is if Fairy-tale or is it Kerry-tale?
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