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Senator (Kerry) believed allegations could no longer be ignored (((drum roll)))
The Boston Globe ^ | August 20, 2004 | Patrick Healy and Michael Kranish

Posted on 08/20/2004 1:51:34 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

For nearly two weeks, Senator John F. Kerry had refrained from commenting directly on the crescendo of attacks on his Vietnam War record. The work was being left to campaign aides, who were scrambling to control the escalating damage being done by a television ad and a book that alleged that Kerry had lied about his combat service and did not deserve his medals.

Then, Wednesday night, Kerry told his aides that he had to act. As he sat down inside his Louisburg Square home on Beacon Hill, Kerry scrawled two phrases on a yellow legal pad about his antagonists, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group, Kerry wrote, was "a front for the Bush campaign" and "he wants them to do his dirty work."

Overnight, this new strategy by Kerry resulted in a hastily produced ad defending his war record and a speech in which the Massachusetts senator responded in detail to the group's charges. The question, however, is whether Kerry acted too late, letting the attacks grow on the Internet and talk-show circuit to such a degree that some swing voters think one of Kerry's core characteristics has been undermined.

"He had to do it," said former senator Bob Kerrey, who was tapped by the Kerry campaign to write an opinion column in The Washington Post defending the record of the Massachusetts senator.

"It was gathering a life of its own, and he had to respond. He couldn't do it through surrogates. He had to confront it himself with facts and passion."...............

Kerry had made Vietnam a centerpiece of his campaign, surrounding himself with crewmates at the Democratic National Convention and portraying his combat experience as preparation for being commander in chief.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; bobkerrey; kerry; swiftboat; swiftboatveterans; veterans; vietnam
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Wow. And from the AP. Is the devil wearing ice skates?


61 posted on 08/20/2004 4:10:54 AM PDT by Rebelbase (Bush is Hell on liberals and terrorists.)
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To: Rebelbase

Bump!


62 posted on 08/20/2004 4:18:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: LincolnLover

The NY slimes is out now with a chart attacking the messengers, showing the ties to Rove, W. etc.

Typical obfuscation and prevarication.

All too similar to the '92 cover-up for ex42.


63 posted on 08/20/2004 4:27:17 AM PDT by hotshu
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To: Captain Rhino

Semper Fi Buddy!


64 posted on 08/20/2004 4:35:07 AM PDT by USMCVet
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
From the article:

Aides to Kerry said he did not want to respond immediately to the swift boat group's television advertisement because he was in the middle of a cross-country campaign tour that featured a positive, introductory message emphasizing his biography.

That trip ended last Saturday, followed by four days of vacation in Idaho; he returned to the campaign trail Wednesday for a speech to the VFW, where he did not want the controversy over his Vietnam record to detract from his new attack on Bush's plan for redeploying 70,000 troops from Asia and Europe, aides said.


To quote a wise man: "Boy, is this great!"

Read the article. He was scared shi'ite-less by the bad press and had to run to MommaT and hide out. Yeah, THIS is a good indicator of how he'd act as CinC during the next attack.

The electorate is only going to get to know him better in the coming months. *giggle*

65 posted on 08/20/2004 5:02:47 AM PDT by Watery Tart (“I have the memory which is seared – seared – in me."`)
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To: Watery Tart

Isn't it fun to parse this gibberish. Not everyone who reads their pap is a Jerry Springer fan.


66 posted on 08/20/2004 5:05:23 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Parse this gibberish? The (ultimately) sad conclusion is that this sociopath thinks he's imparting words of wisdom to us--and legions drink his KoolAid.

Wasn't it Ayn Rand who said it was worse to have PITY on someone than just to hate him? Well, this is one of those times.


67 posted on 08/20/2004 5:09:38 AM PDT by Watery Tart (“I have the memory which is seared – seared – in me."`)
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To: USMCVet

You got that right. I read on another thread the next Swift Boat ad will cover these topics. I hope so, because what he did when he got back to the States is much more damaging than what's being debated right now.


68 posted on 08/20/2004 5:50:46 AM PDT by Big E
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To: Dahoser

"Lawrence O'Donnell gave out the RAT talking points last night: Kerry was doing rope-a-dope with the Swift Vets so he could get it all to this point where now he can bring W's record into this. All part of the master plan. Right."

LOL. That ain't going to work. W is going to sit back and watch the fun. If people start asking him about being AWOL for the 103rd time, he'll just say, "do we really want to talk about ancient history, or my opponents' record of being AWOL in the Senate for the past 20 years?"



69 posted on 08/20/2004 5:56:42 AM PDT by Big E
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

He must not have remembered the meaning of,"Integrity." Falsifying a military document is a violation of the UCMJ. I presume jfn'K thinks, this is his world and we are all just tripping in it.


70 posted on 08/20/2004 6:05:21 AM PDT by No Surrender No Retreat (These Colors Never Run( 7.62) "See Ya"ll At The VA Clinic")
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To: EQAndyBuzz
"Kerry told his aides that he had to act."

I am sure he contemplated... "Should I do nothing and let people think I am a lying sniveling manipulative coward that used the blood of my brothers for my own personal political gain? Or, should I take action and remove any remaining doubt?"
71 posted on 08/20/2004 6:05:46 AM PDT by IamConservative (A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.)
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To: YaYa123

>>Come on GeronL. You've got to update. "Back in the day" is the cool way to describe times past. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that phrase lately! I don't know where it started or when.<<

See the movie "Things to do in Denver when you're dead."

***

BTW, does anyone find it peculiar that JFK-2 unleashed his fury--his fury, mind you--just hours befote the DemPar House Organ rolled out a bazilion word article detailing--detailing, mind you--the conspiracy behind the Swifties?

Is the New York Times registered as a 527 now?


72 posted on 08/20/2004 6:08:09 AM PDT by RiteWingConspiracy
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To: massatoosits
Speech was written by Adam Walinsky, USMC reserve, former legislative aide to Robert Kennedy.

Yes, I have seen it written that Kerry "recruited" Walinsky to write the speech.

If I had wanted Walinsky to write a speech for me in 1971, I don't imagine that it would have been possible.

It's more likely that Walinsky recruited Kerry.

Interestingly, Walinsky was a principal author of the 1965 Immigration Reform Act, often attributed to Edward Kennedy.

Walinsky's hatred of America and her people must have been established at a very early age.

73 posted on 08/20/2004 6:15:38 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Many will kill for socialism, few will die for it.)
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To: Caipirabob
"RELEASE THE RECORDS, MONSIEUR KERRY"

By now he and Adm. Lehman probably have sanitized his records and he is just waiting to release them.

74 posted on 08/20/2004 6:18:42 AM PDT by OldEagle (Haven't been wrong since 1947, but some are still hoping!)
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To: USMCVet
The Swiftees have just begun. I heard that a 2nd ad is due out today and someone posted that it will feature a POW and what he endured because of Kerry's actions after he came home.

All this is just hearsay...I haven't gone to the Swiftee site yet today.

Kerry will not overcome 61 years of habit. I just started *Unfit* and his commanders say that from the git-go in VN he argued about his assignments, criticized his commanders' mission plans and said that all the missions were calculated to inflate the commanders' records. Kerry's main goal in joining the Swift Boats was to escape combat and when ordered into canals and creeks, he refused and demanded to be assigned to coastal operations because they were safer.

O'Neill recounts Kerry's response in the debate on the Cavett show as *Oh, wow. There are so many things....." after O'Neill took him to task for his anti-war rhetoric. O'Neill was shocked that Kerry wasn't emotionally moved at all, pointing out that this was just a political calculation for F'n.

Letting Kerry be Kerry will sink him even faster, IMO. The media is going to have a rough time spiking or spinning this more than they have. I do not believe the CBS poll that says the race has just tightened nationally. I think W has been ahead up til now and his lead is widening. CBS cites veteran support for W as 58%. I have not met more than one vet who supported F'n prior to the Swift vets' ad/book. Vet friends tell me that Dem vets have changed their support in droves once shown the inconsistencies in Kerry's records and this was 6 weeks ago.

I think vets tended to stick together in support of Kerry the vet just because so much trash has been thrown at VN Vets in the past 30 years. Now, it isn't just that he was a *hero* who turned against the war after coming home, it is that he was a cowardly goldbrick whiner even during his 3 months of actual combat in a relatively safe unit. It is just recently that the fact that 1 month out of his *4* months in combat was spent in training. As a civilian, I was not impressed to learn that Cam Rahn was a former French resort and not the site of heavy fighting when Kerry was there, either.
75 posted on 08/20/2004 6:18:46 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
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To: hotshu
I also saw O'Neill on PBS' show with Jim Lehrer. O'Neill was on with Tom Oliphant from the Boston Globe who came off as a complete pretentious ass.

O'Neill did well.

76 posted on 08/20/2004 6:19:35 AM PDT by Solson ("Ugly knows ugly though." - WorkingClassFilth)
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To: Watery Tart
"...his new attack on Bush's plan for redeploying 70,000 troops from Asia and Europe, aides said."



It has been reported from unattributed Kerry campaign sources
that the reason Kerry was over 30 minutes late for his VFW Convention speech was that his aides showed him the NATO support for W's redeployment plan. Even knowing that, Kerry chose to continue w/his criticisms.

F'n also hasn't a clue that the majority of regular military and their families will now have prolonged basing here in CONUS, which is going to make military family life a lot more stable.

F'n is a moron.
77 posted on 08/20/2004 6:44:17 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Proud Bush-Cheney04 volunteer)
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To: Watery Tart

"Yoo Hoo, I was Vietnam. I served four months there and I got a chestful of medals. I am John Kerry and I approved this message."


78 posted on 08/20/2004 6:45:47 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Oh good! Kranish is here to straighten out the record! We're saved!



[spit]


79 posted on 08/20/2004 6:45:50 AM PDT by Petronski (John Kerry put the 'vet' in 'inadequate vetting.')
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To: Howlin
Remember, Bush never said a word about Michael Moore or Moveon.org, etc.

As we saw in Florida, 2000, GWB is one tough SOB.

80 posted on 08/20/2004 6:46:44 AM PDT by HIDEK6
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