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Cynthia Tucker: Slime sticks to those hurling it
Atlanta Journal-Cosntitution ^ | 8.29.04 | Cynthia Tucker

Posted on 08/28/2004 1:22:36 PM PDT by mhking

It is an axiom of normal human behavior that one is embarrassed when caught flat-footed in a lie. That axiom, however, does not apply to the swift-boat critics of John Kerry. When caught cold in one lie, they simply move to the next.

The latest news reports shed light on the prevarications of John O'Neill, who succeeded Kerry as commander of swift boat PCF-94. A ringleader of the swift-boat critics, O'Neill is the author of a book -- "Unfit for Command" -- that tries to discredit Kerry's wartime heroism. Now walking the low road for George W. Bush, O'Neill first got into the dirty tricks business on behalf of Richard Nixon, who used O'Neill to try to undermine Kerry's rising appeal as an anti-war veteran in 1971.

Currently a darling of the right-wing talk show circuit, O'Neill has insisted in repeated interviews that Kerry could not have been in Cambodia during the war, as Kerry has said. In his book, O'Neill wrote: "Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War," adding, he "would have been court-martialed had he gone there."

But days ago, reporters unearthed taped conversations between Nixon and O'Neill, in which O'Neill bragged, "I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water."

Was O'Neill court-martialed? Apparently not. Did he so much as pause after being caught contradicting himself? Not on your life. He just moved from interviews with legitimate news reporters to the friendlier zones of hacks such as Sean Hannity, who would not press him on his mendacity.

Neither O'Neill nor his band of liars is humiliated when one of their accusations blows up in their faces. In a recent attack ad, for example, George Elliott, Kerry's commanding officer in Vietnam, insisted that Kerry "has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam." This is the same Elliott who praised Kerry's courage and leadership profusely during the war, according to military records, and who campaigned for Kerry's re-election to the U.S. Senate.

He and the other veterans against Kerry apparently believe that truth doesn't matter; if they just keep throwing slime at Kerry, sooner or later, some will stick. They don't seem to care that much of the slime clings to them. This group is so obsessed with tearing Kerry down that they not only tell blatant lies, but some of them have also trashed their own records of wartime heroism.

Take Larry Thurlow, who commanded a swift boat alongside Kerry. Thurlow and others have spent weeks trying to undermine one of Kerry's central claims to heroism -- his rescue of Jim Rassman, for which Kerry won a Bronze Star. Thurlow has insisted that none of the swift boats in the Bay Hap River were under enemy fire that day, March 13, 1969.

But contemporaneous military action reports tell another story. Several documents back up Kerry's -- and Rassman's -- account. Indeed, the citation for Thurlow's own Bronze Star, received for his actions that day, notes "enemy small arms," "automatic weapons fire" and "enemy bullets flying about him."

Just last week, Oregon resident Robert Lambert, who was a crew member on Thurlow's boat that day, told his local newspaper: "He [Thurlow] and another officer now say we weren't under fire at that time. Well, I sure was under the impression we were."

Several of the veterans opposed to Kerry trace their animosity back to Kerry's anti-war activities, during which he accused U.S. soldiers of committing atrocities. But they haven't framed their major attacks around that. That's because they know -- or at least Karl Rove knows -- that Kerry's fiery rhetoric from 30 years ago won't sink his campaign.

The Bush campaign must portray Kerry as weak and indecisive -- an unfit commander in chief. That's difficult, since Kerry is a bona fide hero whose wartime exploits seem titanic compared with those of the president. Suffice it to say that Bush and Kerry were not exactly in the same boat in Vietnam. So Bush's surrogates lie to tarnish Kerry's medals.

They may have succeeded in sullying Kerry's military record. But the real truth they've revealed is the corroded core of the Bush campaign, which denies any link with the swift-boat veterans but profits by their poisonous bite.

Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: kerry; stickystickycindy; swiftboat

1 posted on 08/28/2004 1:22:37 PM PDT by mhking
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To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
The ideologically schizophrenic Cynthia Tucker strikes again....

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

2 posted on 08/28/2004 1:23:33 PM PDT by mhking
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To: mhking
Cynthia is not just a Lamestream WaterKerrier, but an honorary 'dumb blonde'.
3 posted on 08/28/2004 1:24:37 PM PDT by dodger
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To: mhking

forget the barf alert did we?


4 posted on 08/28/2004 1:26:28 PM PDT by Awestruck (The artist formerly known as Goodie D)
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To: mhking

I've been away from a 'pooter for a week. What's this about O'Neill bragging to Nixon about being on the Cambodian border?


5 posted on 08/28/2004 1:26:30 PM PDT by sauropod (Hitlary: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: mhking
John Kerry threw the slime 35 years ago, and payback, especially after all that time, is a major b----.
6 posted on 08/28/2004 1:26:49 PM PDT by atomicpossum (If there are two Americas, John Edwards isn't qualified to lead either of them.©)
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To: mhking

only one minor problem- kerry's silence.
The campaign is imploding- lautenberg is warming up in the bullpen and somebody thinks this is going to change anything?


7 posted on 08/28/2004 1:28:11 PM PDT by genghis
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To: mhking
...which denies any link with the swift-boat veterans but profits by their poisonous bite.

Yeah, ain't life grand!

8 posted on 08/28/2004 1:28:30 PM PDT by tsmith130 (Making one's enemies suffer is currently an under-valued activity.)
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To: mhking
Slime sticks to those hurling it
...unless you are a Democrat, apparently-- at least in Cynthia's world.
9 posted on 08/28/2004 1:29:10 PM PDT by Clara Lou (Hillary Clinton: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: mhking
It is an axiom of normal human behavior that one is embarrassed when caught flat-footed in a lie. That axiom, however, does not apply to the swift-boat critics of John Kerry. When caught cold in one lie, they simply move to the next.

 

This is sort of like a BJ isn't sex. She's pitiful, but what's really pathetic is she too stupid to know it.


10 posted on 08/28/2004 1:32:00 PM PDT by Fintan (Who took the cork off my lunch????.)
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To: mhking

It's really fun to see how uncomfotable the Liberal people get when confronted with facts that show how really bad Kerry is.


11 posted on 08/28/2004 1:32:14 PM PDT by Oldsailor
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To: mhking

Didn't she do a "Michael Jackson" to Euopeanize her face a couple of years ago?


12 posted on 08/28/2004 1:32:49 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: sauropod
What's this about O'Neill bragging to Nixon about being on the Cambodian border?

He wasn't bragging about anything. He was stationed on the Cambodian border for about 4 months.

13 posted on 08/28/2004 1:35:20 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (Donate to the Swifties, once again serving the nation selflessly)
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To: mhking
Apparently Mizzzzz Tucker has trouble understanding that 1968 and 1971 (the year of O'Neill's tape, I believe) are different years. We weren't in Cambodia in 1968, we were in 1971. Where's the lie in that? Can she not see that it is perfectly possible that Kerry lied through his teeth about his Cambodia claims (going so far as to even get the current President of the United States incorrect), whereas three years later O'Neill could have been there? Because Kerry never was, it's impossible that O'Neill was too? Typical simplistic leftist thought. Aren't they supposed to be the ones to see the gray areas, and we're the ones who think in only black and white?

For me, it isn't what Kerry did while he was there. It's the lies he's told about his time there, and the lies he told when he came home. It's the ever-changing stories about his exploits, It's the ever-changing "beliefs". He's untrustworthy in ANY way, shape, or form, and the SBVT have pointed that out. Leftists are apoplectic over that.

14 posted on 08/28/2004 1:36:01 PM PDT by Jokelahoma (Animal testing is a bad idea. They get all nervous and give wrong answers.)
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To: mhking
psssst!...Cynthia if you add up all the letters in Swiftboat Veterans For Truth and subtract six, you get......nineteen!

Do you want to call Louis Farrakhan or should I?

15 posted on 08/28/2004 1:41:06 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all)
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To: Jokelahoma

She conveniently ignored that O'Neill commanded the Swift boat after Kerry. Feed the crowd the lies...


16 posted on 08/28/2004 1:50:00 PM PDT by mewper
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To: mhking
"The Bush campaign must portray Kerry as weak and indecisive -- an unfit commander in chief."

Kerry doesn't need Bush's help on this. He's doing a very good job of this all by himself...

17 posted on 08/28/2004 1:51:53 PM PDT by Exeter
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To: All

The DNC lib hacks are all in a big sweat and as time goes on the mud they are throwing explains the panic they feel. I have never seen the demise of anything so completely as" A National Party No More", that Zell Miller wrote.(Zell, Democrat from Georgia, is one of their own who knows what has happened). You can't run on nothing....and since Kerry chose Vietnam and their were two and a half million guys watching, you better be right about your stories. His record in Congress, as Charles Krauthammer says, was so dismal, it tells the story of an anti way, anti military Senator who voted every weapon system down, wants sensitivity in our payback of 9/11, and desires running to the rotton from within U.N. for help.


18 posted on 08/28/2004 1:54:14 PM PDT by cousair
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To: jwalsh07
I wuz wondering what Mizz Tucker's point was. Why is it damning that O'Neill admitted (bragged) this to Nixon?

Or is this so much guilt by association?

19 posted on 08/28/2004 1:56:56 PM PDT by sauropod (Hitlary: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: mewper
She conveniently ignored that O'Neill commanded the Swift boat after Kerry.

Heck, she conveniently ignored the entire 8 years of the Klintoon administration.

Hey Cynthia! Where ya been sleeping?

20 posted on 08/28/2004 1:58:50 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: sauropod
She's trying to conflate Kerrys claims and O'Neills. O'Neill told Nixon he was IN Cambodia, on the border. Of course this was in 71' when we had a hundred thousand guys in Cambodia.

To Ms Tucker, this piece of information gives Kerry a get out of jail free card for claiming all these years that he was in Cambodia in '68 and it was "seared" into his brain.

Its tough understanding left wing lunatics.

21 posted on 08/28/2004 2:00:21 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (Donate to the Swifties, once again serving the nation selflessly)
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To: mhking

Ahh journalism liberal-style:

If the truth doesn't fit your agenda, then spin it and twist it and torture it around until it does.

If that doesn't work, just make it up out of whole cloth - it's OK, because you know in your heart of hearts you're doing it for the good of the people.......

(OK, I know it's a cut~n~paste comment, but cyn doesn't merit more than that ;'}


22 posted on 08/28/2004 2:01:08 PM PDT by rockrr (A day without democrats is like a day without mental disease)
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To: mhking

What's that green stuff all over you, Cynthia?


23 posted on 08/28/2004 2:27:24 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Kerry: the first self-confessed war criminal to be nominated for president. ~Mark Steyn)
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To: Savage Beast

Wait, if Kerry lied about Cambodia, doesn't that count as a falsehood "blowing up in one's face"? Kerry's lies don't matter, apparently.


24 posted on 08/28/2004 3:43:48 PM PDT by boop (Testing the tagline feature!)
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To: mhking

I expect nothing less from the Al-Jazeera Chronicle. Ugh.


25 posted on 08/28/2004 4:03:41 PM PDT by TBarnett34 (All your ZOT are belong to JimRob!)
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To: mhking

I love reading the bile in letters like this, full of lies and distortions. It's gonna be so much fun to see their heads explode when Dubya is re-elected...


26 posted on 08/28/2004 4:37:05 PM PDT by Keith (JOHN KERRY...IN VIOLATION OF ARTICLE III SECTION 3 OF THE US CONSTITUTION)
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To: mhking

Do any of the still alive Cox-Chambers family have any power there or are they sympathetic?


27 posted on 08/28/2004 4:38:20 PM PDT by wardaddy
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To: mhking
Well she sure isn't ugly...just stupid.


28 posted on 08/28/2004 4:41:25 PM PDT by wardaddy
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To: wardaddy

"Do any of the still alive Cox-Chambers family have any power there or are they sympathetic?"

I would say they are sympathetic based on the lower link at opensecrets.org

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?txtName=chambers&NumOfThou=0&txt2004=Y&submit=Go%21



29 posted on 08/28/2004 4:41:38 PM PDT by bilhosty
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To: wardaddy
Do any of the still alive Cox-Chambers family have any power there or are they sympathetic?

No, they're just pathetic.

30 posted on 08/28/2004 4:43:10 PM PDT by mhking
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To: Oldsailor

I thought she was black maybe that's just slime sticking to her!


31 posted on 08/28/2004 4:46:27 PM PDT by bilhosty
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To: mhking

I just read a hair on them. The grand dame is 84 now and her daughters are the big force in that empire.

I would guess like most media magnates, they are libs.


32 posted on 08/28/2004 4:47:42 PM PDT by wardaddy
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To: All
I still hope to live long enough to see the lies and misrepresentations leftists claim are present in the swift boat vets' stuff. I thought Ms Tucker was FINALLY going to cite the transgressions.

Well, there's the claim that O'Neill is heard telling Nixon that he was in Cambodia. There's the claim that George Elliott once said nice things about Kerry.

So far no lies and misrepresentations cited.

Ah yes, the Thurlow Bronze Star hubbub. Pathetic try Ms Tucker but you did try. That would be one, except.. the Human Events article at

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195581/posts

squashes your puny attempt. ("Four Eyewitnesses Dispute Kerry's Account of Bronze Star Incident," Aug 20, 2004, by Joseph A. D'Agostino and David Freddoso) Hint: it has to do with who was writing those after action reports.

I guess I can go on waiting.

33 posted on 08/28/2004 4:52:35 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (Benedict Arnold was a hero for both sides in the same war, too!)
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To: genghis
The campaign is imploding- lautenberg is warming up in the bullpen and somebody thinks this is going to change anything?

That's the genesis of a funny bumper sticker: "Time for Lautenberg?" or "Lautenberg Time!" or something like that.

Of course, democRats are too stupid to get it, but normal people aren't.

34 posted on 08/28/2004 4:54:35 PM PDT by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Jokelahoma
Apparently Mizzzzz Tucker has trouble understanding that 1968 and 1971 (the year of O'Neill's tape, I believe) are different years. We weren't in Cambodia in 1968, we were in 1971. Where's the lie in that?

A classic case of pointing out this kind of faulty reasoning, from the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate:

Lincoln: "In regard to Trumbull's charge that he Douglas] inserted a provision into the bill to prevent the constitution being submitted to the people, what was his answer? He comes here and reads from the Congressional Globe to show that on his motion that provision was struck out of the bill. Why, Trumbull has not said it was not stricken out, but Trumbull says he [Douglas] put it in; and it is no answer to the charge to say he afterwards took it out. Both are perhaps true. It was in regard to that thing precisely that I told him he had dropped the cub. Trumbull shows you that by his introducing the bill it was his cub. It is no answer to that assertion to call Trumbull a liar merely because he did not specially say that Douglas struck it out. Suppose that were the case, does it answer Trumbull? I assert that you [pointing to an individual] are here to-day, and you undertake to prove me a liar by showing that you were in Mattoon yesterday. I say that you took your hat off your head, and you prove me a liar by putting it on your head. That is the whole force of Douglas's argument."

35 posted on 08/28/2004 4:54:56 PM PDT by FairWitness
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To: Jokelahoma
Apparently Mizzzzz Tucker has trouble understanding that 1968 and 1971 (the year of O'Neill's tape, I believe) are different years. We weren't in Cambodia in 1968, we were in 1971. Where's the lie in that?

A classic case of pointing out this kind of faulty reasoning, from the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate:

Lincoln: "In regard to Trumbull's charge that he Douglas] inserted a provision into the bill to prevent the constitution being submitted to the people, what was his answer? He comes here and reads from the Congressional Globe to show that on his motion that provision was struck out of the bill. Why, Trumbull has not said it was not stricken out, but Trumbull says he [Douglas] put it in; and it is no answer to the charge to say he afterwards took it out. Both are perhaps true. It was in regard to that thing precisely that I told him he had dropped the cub. Trumbull shows you that by his introducing the bill it was his cub. It is no answer to that assertion to call Trumbull a liar merely because he did not specially say that Douglas struck it out. Suppose that were the case, does it answer Trumbull? I assert that you [pointing to an individual] are here to-day, and you undertake to prove me a liar by showing that you were in Mattoon yesterday. I say that you took your hat off your head, and you prove me a liar by putting it on your head. That is the whole force of Douglas's argument."

36 posted on 08/28/2004 4:55:34 PM PDT by FairWitness
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To: FairWitness

Sorry for the double post.


37 posted on 08/28/2004 4:56:14 PM PDT by FairWitness
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To: mhking

Re-write the headline. It should read:

Cynthia Tucker: Stupid sticks to those that are....


38 posted on 08/28/2004 4:59:18 PM PDT by Wombat101 (Sanitized for YOUR protection....)
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To: mhking
But days ago, reporters unearthed taped conversations between Nixon and O'Neill, in which O'Neill bragged, "I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water."

I saw last night that the 'Rats are misrepresenting O'Neill's statement. O'Neill says something unintelligible between the two sentences above. According to O'Neill, who says he misspoke a single preposition--using "in" instead of "near"--I must assume that the unintelligible statement was some sort of correction of his conversational misstatement. In addition, O'Neill misspoke once in a single conversation that he didn't know was being taped. Kerry lied innumerable times in public, including on the floor of the Senate, where he had to assume or know that what he was saying was being recorded. Nice try 'Rats.

39 posted on 08/28/2004 5:03:50 PM PDT by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington (Kerry lied while good men died.)
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To: mewper; Willie Green
She conveniently ignored that O'Neill commanded the Swift boat after Kerry.

I'm not trying to come to the authors rescue BUT, this is the first sentence of the second paragraph. "The latest news reports shed light on the prevarications of John O'Neill, who succeeded Kerry as commander of swift boat PCF-94."

40 posted on 08/28/2004 5:28:37 PM PDT by mountn man
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To: mhking

Poor Cindy. She can't tell the truth from lies. Just another Media Whore for John F*ckin.' Its nice to turn tricks by smearing the Vets and avoiding dealing with the substance of the charges. I can understand why she's haughtily offended; it never occurred to her other people might take issue with Kerry's description of his own bio and that his image as a "war hero" left something to be desired.


41 posted on 08/28/2004 5:32:07 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: mhking

<< Cynthia Tucker is [Absolutely] the ... >>

.... ugliest of all among the ludicrous left's legions of lunatic lickspittles.


42 posted on 08/28/2004 8:14:40 PM PDT by Brian Allen (President George W Bush by 10 percentage points and 44 EC States -- the other bozo 6 States and DC)
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To: mhking

<< O'Neill .... just moved from "interviews" with "legitimate 'news' reporters" to .... hacks such as Sean Hannity, who .... >>

Stands infinitely morally and intellectually taller, is a thousand times better known -- and makes around a hundred times more money than the pittance paid Quota-Hiring's Pennant-bearing, Peter-Pricipled, intellectually and morally insolvent, Tucker.

<< Cynthia Tucker is [Absolutely] the ... >>

.... ugliest of all among the ludicrous left's legions of lunatic lickspittles.

And I'll bet if she commanded an audience of more than fifteen and invited Mr O'Neil to an interview, he'd go in a flash!

[Thanks for the ping, mh]

Blessings -- Brian


43 posted on 08/28/2004 8:26:28 PM PDT by Brian Allen (President George W Bush by 10 percentage points and 44 EC States -- the other bozo 6 States and DC)
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To: mhking
anymore i listen pretty much to phil hendry... at least he's supposed to be ridiculous.
44 posted on 08/28/2004 8:30:33 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: mhking
But contemporaneous military action reports tell another story. Several documents back up Kerry's -- and Rassman's -- account. Indeed, the citation for Thurlow's own Bronze Star, received for his actions that day, notes "enemy small arms," "automatic weapons fire" and "enemy bullets flying about him."

Yep, and Kerry has already admitted that he wrote the after action reports himself. No wonder the official record makes him look like a hero!

45 posted on 08/28/2004 8:45:38 PM PDT by SuziQ (Bush in 2004-Because we MUST!!!)
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To: mountn man

Oops.. thanks!


46 posted on 08/28/2004 9:19:00 PM PDT by mewper
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To: Awestruck

With Cynthia Tuckers name on it, it's not required, just a given.


47 posted on 08/28/2004 9:39:17 PM PDT by Springman
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