Posted on 09/05/2004 10:29:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Sen. John Kerry's campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley said Sunday that if an ongoing Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid.
Praising reporter Thomas Lipscomb, who broke news of the Navy investigation on Friday, Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Journalists are going to have to see whether there's a discrepancy on [the citations posted to Kerry's] web site - whether there's something wrong that's said there or not."
"If so," said the "Tour of Duty" author, "Kerry would have to fix it immediately - and it does raise some questions as to why that would happen."
"Is it sloppiness, is it purposeful intent, is there an easy explanation for it?" Brinkley wondered.
He said that while questions raised by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth about Kerry's war record have been very damaging, "so far they haven't been lethal." But Brinkley predicted that a discrepancy with Kerry's medals could seriously escalate his political problems.
Asked if inconsistencies uncovered by the Navy probe could be the "death knell" for Kerry's campaign, Brinkley told Malzberg, "It could."
In the next breath he hastened to add, however, "Right now it's unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to."
The presidential historian called on Kerry to authorize the release of his full military file, saying, "Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press."
Isn't Brinkley the guy who tailored F'n's biography to whatever F'n told him to put down?
Lets hope there is an ethical reporter in the MSM that will get to the bottom of this story. This could be huge.
Personal list.
Hmmm......little Dougie seems to be distancing himself from Kerry more and more as the weeks go by.
LOL!
Isnt Brinkley the guy who wrote Kerry's biography? If so he knows whats there, or he should know. If he says its career crippling it probably is.
In other words, Brinkley already has a pretty good idea what this probe will uncover.
BTTT!!!!!!
BUMP!
Yeah...
Kerry resigns the nomination
No way Dems are going to let Pretty Boy be the nominee
Hillary comes on her white horse...
Its all in the cards.
"In the next breath he hastened to add, however, "Right now it's unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to."
Translation: kerrys record has been cleaned and Brinkley knows it!
Whew! What was that breeze? Oh yeah, it's Brinkley backpeddling away from Kerry.
Occam's Razor would be useful here, but don't let the Kerry campaign get a hold of it. They may try to slit their wrists.
Too damn late...Kerry's campaign is already doomed.
No, the partisan media won't touch this with a 10 foot pole. AP is still requesting President Bush's full National Guard service records.
Exactly. The question about the combat disinguishing device "V" on the Silver Star in Kerry's DD214 is a non-issue. It would only be redundant and not add any additional luster to the award. It would be a serious matter if the device were added to the Bronze Star or Navy Commendation Medal, if the citation did not specifially authorize it. No harm, no foul as far as the Silver Star is concerned.
What I want the Pentagon to investigate is the first PH, which was issued, to the best of our knowledge, without a casualty report and an after action report. We need to know the chronology of that award and who authorized it.
As far as the Lehman signatures are concerned (autopen), the Kerry camp claims that these were for replacement citations in 1986. Besides checking out why Kerry was just not issued copies of the original citations (Hyland for the Silver and Zumwalt for the Bronze)and why the last sentence of the SS was altered, we need to know if Kerry also received replacement medals. This would be the big story since Kerry claimed that he never threw them away after initially saying he did in 1971. Now we are told that they were someone else's medals and his ribbons. According to Kerry, medals and ribbons are interchangeable.
"Is it sloppiness, is it purposeful intent, is there an easy explanation for it?"
Sloppiness, innocent mistake, oversight, will be the words from Kerry's camp if he get's busted lying!!
I can see it all now...Bush/Rove are behind all this activity. Sure as day follows night. (HRK might be behind it as well...)
hehehe like rats off a sinking ship scurry scurry scurry...
Hillary will need more than a white horse to unseat Bush. But I figure they know that and have some Oct surprise in store for GWB.
Kerry/s record has been scrubbed but they haven't had experience with the swifties and with Freepers who will comb that record like nobody's business. We have people on this site who can find needles in haystacks. And I am sure, in the name of patriotism, they will "report for duty"
He has ALL the documents and letters, etc, did interviews, wrote a glowing book...and he doesn't know if what he wrote was true?
Some historians should switch over to novels and get it over with...not continue to deceive us with their own partisan agenda.
I hope Brinkley goes down with Kerry.
He doesn't want to be at the soup kitchen with Jayson Blair and Michael Besialles.
Strangest thing but I still have this gut feeling that this is what Wesley Clarke was saying was going to ruin Kerry's campaign. He had said this off the record and for some reason I think he knew something about this.
Nice try. But it will be quashed somewhere along the bureacratic line. When the story disappears, we can raise questions, but who will listen? We love to get our hopes up, but, as we learned with Clinton, don't expect the government to be principled or helpful in this sort of thing.
Hillary can't. SKerry has already received the nomination. They would need a miracle....
Why am I fearing that the investigation will find nothing? We all will be wearing egg on our faces. Not to mention, the huge backlash.
The night I posted a thread about how Judicial Watch filed the complaint to get this started, I heard a lot of 'so what' criticism, and the story was pulled from breaking news.
It seems like a pretty damn big story to me.
I'll bet the Navy won't finish their investigation before the election.
Brinkley is in full CYA mode,,he knows or suspects and wants to get on the right side of this.
"Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid"
It COULD spell doom? Like the voters want a liar for president? (Again)
Well, maybe he's right. There's still a possibility even after that, the media could spin things so it's Bush's fault.
I'll put my money on "Bureacratic snafu"
Its not the story that does it, its Judicial Watch that makes people skeptical. Their track record is horrible!
All as she planned.
She will soon whisper that one word in his ear which will inform him that it's time to withdraw.
"Foster"
My take exactly.
It sounds like Brinkley is distancing himself from his own Kerry biography.
"Hey, I only went with the facts as they were presented to me by Kerry and his associates. I accepted documents in good faith from a sitting Senator. I took him at his word. Who would have thought.... I mean, I had no idea that....."
Brinkley must have a good idea what could emerge. He seems uncertain as to which way events will unfold, and he's playing his cards very carefully.
"Hillary comes on her white horse..."
...to win one for the Zipper?
Perhaps Brinkley could tell Kerry to put his silver shoes on, click them together three times and say "I wish I was home in Kansas".
Hillary knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bush would crush her in all 50 states -- what he'd do to her with her coming on the ticket under chaos like that would make Reagan/Mondale look like a nail biter.
And she'd never get a second chance in '08 having been crushed like that. She wants to go in '08 against a relatively unknown and untested opponent. She wants the playing field tipped toward her celebrity -- she doesn't want to walk into a career knock-out blow delivered by a sitting popular President, peaking at just the right moment.
Brinkley's doing a "what did I know and when did I know it?" and effectively exonerating himself.
No way Dems are going to let Pretty Boy be the nominee
Hillary comes on her white horse...
Its all in the cards.
That crud might fly in NJ, but there's no way it would get by the on a national level. It'd just be Bush vs. Nader... and then not even in all states! =)
Isn't it too late for the Democrats to switch horses, or donkeys?
French Toast, anyone?
You'll notice that Newsmax is one of the only places reporting on this, and the AP and others are all covering the "Bush's National Guard File is Missing Records" story.
How typical.
Well it's certainly sloppiness on your part Mr. Brinkley. You didn't bother to require access to all his military records, you took his word for everything,failed to do thorough research for this book, and were as gullible as hell. What a horse's ass. I hope your career as a writer of historical books is over.
LOL
A couple of weeks ago when the Kerry campaign was withholding military records from the press, they blamed it on his author.
Finally the guy says, "These records are not mine. I give permission for Kerry to release them to anybody he chooses to."
White horse and a black hat. Frankly, I think Hillary has had her day.
You think, Douglas?
Sounds like Doug is putting some distance between himself and Kerry...and his own writing.
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