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Posted on 11/18/2004 11:45:50 AM PST by concretebob
Failed presidential candidate John Kerry is considering filing a libel suit against the leader of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John O'Neill, whose book "Unfit for Command" is credited with capsizing Kerry's Vietnam War-based campaign.
"I don't know if they will actually go forward," a member of Kerry's inner circle told New York Post's Page Six column, edited by Richard Johnson. "But consideration is serious. If Kerry plans on running again in 2008 — and I'm hearing he will — it would make sense that he'd file the suit."
Co-written by Jerry Corsi, "Unfit" sold more than 800,000 copies, much to the chagrin of top Democrat strategists, who threatened legal action against bookstores that carried it.
Attempts to suppress the book only backfired, catapulting "Unfit" to the top of the New York Times' best-seller list for five weeks in a row.
Sen. Kerry's poll numbers plummeted in the summer when Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now part of the combined Swiftvets and POWs for Truth) launched TV ads attacking his record in Vietnam and afterward.
One ad detailed Kerry's leadership of the anti-war movement and offered criticisms by former American POWs. The POWs alleged that Kerry had betrayed them and the country by his actions and false claims of war atrocities.
Kerry was particularly fearful of these allegations, and his campaign launched a full counterattack when another group of vets produced a documentary directed by Carlton Sherwood titled "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal."
After Sinclair Broadcast Group announced plans to air the documentary, Kerry's campaign and allies organized boycotts against Sinclair, and even threatened Sinclair with loss of its FCC licenses if Kerry were elected.
Other groups close to Kerry's campaign threatened shareholder lawsuits against Sinclair, and criticism of the TV group caused the company's share value to drop at one point by $140 million.
In the end, Sinclair broadcast only brief clips of "Stolen Honor" as part of a larger documentary it produced.
NewsMax Media Inc. decided "Stolen Honor" was of critical importance and held significant news value, and aired the documentary nationally on the PAX TV network and other stations the weekend before Election Day.
In the end, the criticism of Kerry's activities after he returned from Vietnam may have been crucial in his defeat.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth spent more than $25 million on TV advertising. Leading Democrats, including Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, have credited the controversy for causing Kerry's defeat.
But the New York Post's report suggests the controversy might not die, thanks to Kerry.
Just last Sunday, in comments covered exclusively by NewsMax.com, O'Neill said that if Kerry attempted a comeback in 2008, Swiftvets and POWs for Truth would be there to expose him once again.
"If he comes back and runs for president again, we'll come down out of the mountain - all of us," O'Neill told WABC Radio's Monica Crowley.
'Just Apologize'
Asked about the possibility of a libel suit from Kerry, O'Neill didn't sound fazed.
"It would be a lot smarter of Kerry to just apologize," O'Neill told Page Six. "No lawsuits are going to change the testimony he gave and the impact it had on POWs."
Earlier in the campaign, O'Neill dared Kerry to sue him. "I invite him to sue me for libel," he told Crowley.
"If he was actually in Cambodia on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, he should sue me. If, in fact, those other five boats, on March the 13, [1969], if they all fled like he did, instead of staying like he knows they did, he should sue me."
O'Neill continued, "If he didn't wound himself with a grenade, causing sort of a rice-fanny wound, and then reported it to the Navy as a water mine - if he didn't do that on March 13, he should sue me."
Kerry was reportedly "enraged over 'Unfit'" and furious at campaign aides for not responding right away.
His spokesman David Wade told Page Six that he hadn't heard about any proposed lawsuit, but promised to look into it.
Let him. We can watch discovery on Court TV.
Nothing but fear of having ALL his records made public will make Kerry decide to forego legal action.
Maybe we'll get Form 180 signed? Lawsuits mean digging into HERETOFORE UNDISCLOSED disclosures and all that nasty stuff politicians hope to keep on the QT.
Kerry doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell in 2008. It wont be an ABB candidacy like this time and whoever he runs against in the GOP would likely shred him harder than Bush did.
The dungocraps wont pick him. He can sue all he wants. I think John O'Neill would pay any price and bear any burden to see Kerry sink.
This should be fun.
Lets hope he files. O'neill could then force Kerry to sign the 180.
ONeill should sue Kerry.
I was really getting tired of seeing the anti-Bush books highlighted at the airport bookstores. However, last week as I was getting off a flight in Cincinnati I was met by a wall of Unfit for Command. Couldn't believe it. Of course it was after the election.
Dats right...den ebryting gon come out dontchaknow
Man, you got THAT right!
Filing the lawsuit will only re-inforce the fact that gigilo's a L O S E R!!!
"Sign zee papers, old man!"
Those damn Secret Service guys tripped me. I do not fall down, dammit!
Kerry will never sue. It puts him in the same "frame" as the Swift Boat Vets. He cannot stand the comparison. He is small, petty, vindictive, and hateful. They are heroic, truthful, and patriotic. A suit would lose and he would be exposed. This is smoke.
It really makes no difference that everyone in the world didn't believe every word of the Swiftvets. They slammed the door on Kerry's attempt to portray himself as a war hero, and he never got past it.
Then WE slammed to door on the MSM attempt to portray Bush as AWOL, and they never got past that.
What an idiot! O'Neill has INVITED kerry to sue him. It will cause full disclosure and SBVT know just what will be discovered!
please use search to avoid double posts
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