its amazing how they come to these conclusions and their use of those conclusions in media.
Posted on 09/02/2004 11:16:30 AM PDT by pookie18
A retired rear admiral who claims that Sen. John Kerry didn't deserve the first of three Purple Hearts he received in Vietnam defended himself Wednesday from Democratic suggestions that he's motivated by business ties with top Republican leaders.
"They are looking to do anything to smear my name," said Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr., of Charleston, S.C., who before he retired in 1993 was acting judge advocate general of the Navy.
A Vietnam veteran, he issued a statement last week saying a December 1968 incident in the Mekong Delta in which Kerry was wounded on the arm didn't involve enemy fire and thus didn't warrant a Purple Heart. He suggested that Kerry had injured himself with fragments from a grenade he'd fired from a boat at what he thought were Viet Cong troops moving on shore at night.
Schachte, now a lawyer in private practice, is associated with the Washington office of Blank Rome LLP, a national law firm based in Philadelphia. David A. Norcross, a firm partner, is chairman of the arrangements committee of the Republican National Convention. David Girard-diCarlo, the firm's chairman, is co-chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign in Pennsylvania.
Though he's counsel to the firm, Schachte said he worked from home and had billed no work for Blank Rome in "a couple of years."
"I've never met or spoken to Mr. Norcross or David Girard-diCarlo," Schachte said in a statement issued by Xenaphon Strategies Inc., a Washington public relations firm.
Neither Norcross nor Girard-diCarlo could be reached for comment.
A report given by the firm to Congress lists Schachte as one of six Blank Rome lawyers who lobby for FastShip Inc., a Philadelphia company that received a $40 million federal grant in February to help finance a shipping terminal for carrying U.S. military equipment across the Atlantic Ocean.
A Kerry campaign news release Tuesday suggested that the awarding of the grant had motivated Schachte to remember the 1968 Vietnam incident differently from how he'd talked of it before. Speaking to Boston Globe reporters in April 2003, he'd recalled a "firefight" and had said Kerry "got hit."
The campaign charged that Schachte, a Swift boat veteran like Kerry, was part of a concerted effort to falsely undermine Kerry's war record. The Kerry press item was headlined: "$40 million memory - smear boat veteran's fuzzy memory clears up after receiving federal contract from Bush Administration."
Schachte said in his statement that even though he might have been listed by his firm as a FastShip lobbyist, he had, in fact, done nothing for FastShip.
"I haven't done any work for Blank Rome in a couple of years, and had nothing to do with this contract," the statement said. It didn't address why he'd changed his mind about the incident in 1968.
Kenneth E. Davis, a FastShip lobbyist for another firm, said it was common for lobbying firms, in making disclosure reports to Congress, to list the names of anyone who conceivably might have contact with a client. Often, he said, some don't.
Davis, the Republican chairman of Montgomery County, Pa., said: "To my knowledge, he (Schachte) has never done any work on this case."
Roland K. Bullard II, the president of FastShip, said of Schachte: "I wouldn't know him if he drove his Swift boat into my office. I never heard of him."
John Kerry's personal journal, 11 days after this incident says that he has not yet received any enemy fire.
its amazing how they come to these conclusions and their use of those conclusions in media.
Fire one!
Fire two!
Fire three!
Fire four!
Forward observer: Adjust fire!
BTW, where is this article? (URL, news service)
It's a Knight Ridder story that I picked up from World Net Daily & the link was...http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/special_packages/election2004/9556648.htm
I listened to an interview this admiral did on The Mark Levin show on 77 WABC radio. He sounded very truthful to me. Mark also asked him questions about the recent findings of the multiple citations written for the same medal. The admiral let it be known that this is very odd, and not normal for that to happen. I think that if they find a way into the entire file on Kerry, there will be a lot of trouble coming down. Mark Levin said on Tuesday, that the secretary of the navy (can't remember his name, he was on the 911 commission) whose signature is on the third citation, claims he never signed it. Who did?
I believe that you heard Admiral Roy Hoffman, organizer of Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, on Mark's show. I heard that show.
My bad, I thought it was the other guy. Anyway, who did sign the citation? Maybe John himself, with someone elses ruber stamp!
Where can I get one for my Suburban?
Check your FReep mail!
"Denies" ties...
that's our media -- always put honest folks on the defensive.
Yes .. I see all those REPUBLICAN connections and I say, THANK GOD FOR THESE RIGHT THINKING MEN INVOLVED IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR.
As for the media .. they are so eager to show a repub connection but not a more CONTRIVED, COORDINATED, and CONTROLLED DEMOCRAT CONNECTION - leading all the way to the Heinz Foundation - who has an employee directly involved with the Kerry campaign .. although the Kerry campaign has lied about it.
Have to see the exact words - they may have misquoted him on the first Kerry PH incident.
As stated in the article, it sounds bad for Schachte, without even going into the motivation for his reversal.
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