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David Plouffe and a series of big gun endorsers are holding a conference call to stress the scale of last night's victory. "He clearly did more than he had to and she did not achieve what she had to," said Senator John Kerry. Both Plouffe and Kerry stressed the importance of the Limbaugh Effect. "Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary," Kerry said "If it was not for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, he would have won," he said of Obama. (I'm not sure that's true. The margin was about 18,500; Clinton only got 54% of the Republican votes, which made...

When's the last time you heard the MSM talk about a Republican being hit by the "Democrat attack machine"? Scratch that. Have you ever heard the MSM talk about a Republican being hit by the "Democrat attack machine"? Neither have I. But fretting about impending Republican "swiftboating" of the Dem presidential candidate is an MSM staple, and we saw a good example of it on this morning, right down to an image of John Kerry in uniform. Oh, and Hillary Clinton sees herself like a modern-day Ginger Rogers. Ann Curry had a chance to interview both Dem candidates recently, and...

April 20, 2008 Redefining 'Swiftboating' and Rewriting History By Henry P. Wickham, Jr. If the words "swift" and "boat" must be combined and turned into a verb, then let us insist on its proper use. The word as a verb originates from the campaign undertaken in 2004 by the Swift Boat Veterans in response to the John Kerry presidential candidacy. The word means, or should mean, the exposure of a fraudulent autobiography of one seeking political office or public influence. It is the correction of a personal and professional record that has been selectively and dishonestly compiled, as the Swift...

And ad in yesterday's Boston Globe--and on the web, see link--by MA Senate candidate Jim Ogonowski heartily congratulates the man he's trying to unseat, John Kerry, on his ineffectiveness. The print ad asks people to send it to Kerry's HQ! "Congratulations John! It's been 9 years since you passed a bill on your own! Great job on being so ineffective!" The web ad shows a picture of a mansion on Nantucket (one of Kerry's five) along with Kerry windsurfing. A Heinz ketchup bottle marks the passage of time. Ogonowski ran against the widow of Paul Tsongas for Martin Meehan's congressional...

Republican Jeff Beatty spent his Friday night talking politics over cocktails in Fall River. Democrat Ed O'Reilly has been laying the groundwork for his campaign for more than a year. more stories like thisAnd this week, Republican Jim Ogonowski plans to make 36 campaign stops from North Adams to Chatham in an effort to lift his campaign and his adrenaline: 30 of the stops are for coffee. Six months before the primary, the candidates are all hoping to gain momentum for a Herculean task: unseating John F. Kerry from his US Senate seat. "There is an extra challenge to going...

LANSDOWNE, Pa. - Sen. John Kerry reached out to veterans here on Barack Obama's behalf Saturday, saying he believes Obama is more prepared to be commander in chief than Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were when they took office. Kerry told the crowd he did not think Obama would be victimized by GOP attacks the way he was in 2004 by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." Kerry took responsibility for not fighting the Swift Boat assaults more effectively, but he said advisors, including Bill Clinton, suggested he not defend himself aggressively. "We didn't lose to them, I didn't lose...

In an interview with me this morning, senior Hillary adviser Harold Ickes confirmed that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a key topic in discussions with uncommitted super-delegates over whether Obama is electable in a general election. The comments from Ickes, who is Hillary's chief delegate hunter, are to my knowledge the first on-the-record confirmation from a Hillary adviser that the Wright controversy is a subject in conversations between the Hillary campaign and the super-delegates her advisers are trying to win over to Hillary's side. In the wide-ranging interview, Ickes also: * Said that it was possible that Hillary forces on the...

A shadow legal body was set up by the Defense Department to manipulate the prosecutions of U.S. Marines accused of massacring Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. That’s the bombshell disclosure from the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that is representing one of the accused Marines, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. And it could prove to be the most damning piece of evidence showing the political motivations behind the ongoing prosecutions of the Haditha Marines. “The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction...

McCain Almost Left the GOP -- Twice March 24, 2008 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT Senator McCain has not wrapped up the Chuck Hagel endorsement yet, and I wanted to mention this to you. Hagel was on This Week with Stephanopoulos on Sunday, and Stephanopoulos said to him, "Senator McCain is a good friend of yours. Why haven't you endorsed him?" HAGEL: When I work for someone or commit to someone, I want to be behind that person in every way I can. I've obviously got some differences with John on the Iraq war. That's no secret. I want to understand a...

WASHINGTON -It is already easy to imagine the Republican attack ads against Barack Obama. They open with video of his wife, Michelle, saying she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult lifetime" because of her husband's presidential candidacy. Cut to the Illinois Senator explaining that he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it is a "substitute for true patriotism." Then flash a clip of Obama explaining that his Caucasian grandmother was a "typical white person" because she uttered racial epithets and was afraid of black people. Finally, the coup de grace, pictures of Obama's...

Remember John Kerry? He was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, lauded by his supporters for his intellect and his nuance, as compared with the simpleminded George W. Bush. Having lost the election, he decided to sit out the 2008 contest. He recently endorsed Barack Obama, and earlier this week he sat down with the editorial board of the Standard-Times (New Bedford, Mass.) to make the case for his candidate. Kerry said that a President Obama would help the US, in relations with Muslim countries, "in some cases go around their dictator leaders to the people and inspire the people in...

This is the idol that both Barack Obama --and-- Hillary Clinton both look up to! If you want to see the original just type the word "Lucifer" into Amazon's search window--GGG “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer.” --Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 1971

Hot Air TV: Sen. John Kerry confronted about Winter Soldier II By Michelle Malkin • March 12, 2008 11:12 PM Grab the popcorn. We’ve got another joint YAF/Hot Air TV production for you, just in time for the anti-war confab known as “Winter Soldier II” that kicks off in Washington, D.C. tomorrow and runs through Sunday. YAF’s Jason Mattera, our intrepid special correspondent who cornered Jack Murtha in September, is back in the halls of Congress. This week, Jason caught up with the original Winter Soldier, Sen. John Kerry, and confronted him about his unsubstantiated, troop-smearing testimony. Jason also tried...

Embracing Earth Charter key to environmental salvation Author and U of A professor Colin Soskolne says humans need to smarten up. March 7, 2008 - Edmonton -- Human beings, laments Colin Soskolne, are a "seriously dumb species." Just what kind of defect drives us to destroy the very ecosystems that provide us with sustenance? Why do we turn away from mounting, irrefutable evidence that we are sabotaging our very existence?Such questions are asked in a new collection of essays, called Sustaining Life on Earth: Environmental and Human Health through Global Governance, edited by Soskolne, on the environment and human health."Our...

Supporters of Senator Barack Obama have suggested Senator Hillary Clinton bow out of the presidential nominating race if she doesn’t win in two big-state primary contests on Tuesday. Influential Democrats have said they need to put together a unifying campaign for the presidential election in November. Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont hold primary contests on Tuesday, and Clinton, having lost 11 straight contests, needs to win either Texas or Ohio. Clinton, will have to dramatically exceed the results predicted by polls, which now show Texas sentiment as virtually even. Ohio voters tend to narrowly favour Clinton. In the smaller...

One of the core charges that John Kerry’s media-aided campaign made in 2004 and since to delegitimize the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is that its leader John O’Neill, who had opposed Kerry in 1971, was a creation of Richard Nixon’s White House. I was there, and know better. Until now, the central purported prop for the charge went unrebutted. Charles “Chuck” Colson has now spoken up. It’s time for reputable media, and even Kerry’s advocates if they have any integrity, to cease this charge. Like a dime-novel legend, based on little, this charge has been frequently repeated and embellished...

Lessons Learned, Kerry Hits Trail for Obama By Peter Slevin Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, February 25, 2008; A04 DALLAS, Feb. 24 -- Sen. John F. Kerry is attending to some unfinished business. Four years ago, his bid to topple President Bush fell short, damaged by a series of Texas broadsides that became known as the Swift boat attacks. His demise spawned a term that came to signify a political low blow. Now Kerry has returned to the campaign trail, this time as a spirited foot soldier for Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who aims to succeed where Kerry...

Senator Hillary Clinton, among others, has begun using “swiftboating” as a verb. Her use is courtesy of the New York Times. Now, with extreme and unintended irony, the Times has sought to “swiftboat” Senator John McCain, and has been swiftboated in return by its own ombudsman, To sort all that out, we go back to the beginning, so the original swiftboaters don’t get “swiftboated” in the bargain. Does that make sense? I thought not. Hang on and it will all become clear. The original swiftboaters were crews of Swift Boats in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. These were small, fast...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Helicopters carrying three senior U.S. senators made emergency landings Thursday in the mountains of Afghanistan because of a snowstorm. Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the aircraft. No one was injured, according a statement from Kerry's office. The senators and their delegation returned to Bagram Air Base in a motor convoy, and have left for Turkey. "After several hours, the senators were evacuated by American troops and returned overland to Bagram Air Base, and left for their next scheduled stop in Ankara, Turkey," the Kerry statement said. "Sen. Kerry thanks the American troops,...

"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." Who can forget this now-infamous July 29, 2004, Democratic National Convention acceptance speech when the party's nominee publicly set his course for the next few months? "At the heart of the 2004 presidential campaign was a long-deferred national debate over whether American troops had systematically committed war crimes in Vietnam, as John Kerry and other activists had insisted, and as Hollywood, the media and much of the American public had long assumed," begins Chapter One of To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John...

Barack Obama clobbered Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Potomac primaries Tuesday, but her Colorado superdelegates were still hanging tough behind her Wednesday. Certainly they saw the ugly numbers Tuesday night - especially out of Virginia - but the only math that seemed to matter to them at this point was what might happen in Texas and Ohio on March 4. That's the biggest day left on the primary calendar. Between them, Texas and Ohio have 389 delegates up for grabs. "It's too early to jump off any boats," said Maria Handley, a Boulder-based superdelegate...Handley is joined by Ramona Martinez and...

I posted a squib on the National Review Web site about a robo call I received from John McCain. (Virginia's primary is Tuesday.) The call stressed that he would, if elected, be a down-the-line limited government conservative who would never raise taxes, would defend life, would enforce immigration laws and would win the war on terror. The candidate is trying, I said, to meet conservatives "more than halfway." The response of readers was, shall we say, emphatic. One lady wrote that she would never vote for him as "He is the most disloyal, ill-tempered man and he brings out the...

Kerry’s courtship of Senator John McCain to be his running mate was longer-standing and more intense than previously reported. As far back as August 2003, Kerry had taken McCain to breakfast to sound him out to run on a unity ticket. McCain batted away the idea as not serious, but Kerry, after he wrapped up the nomination in March, went back after McCain a half-dozen more times. “To show just how sincere he was, he made an outlandish offer,” Newsweek’s Thomas reports. “If McCain said yes he would expand the role of vice president to include secretary of Defense and...

Former Gov. William F. Weld says fellow Republican Mitt Romney can withstand a hometown snub by Bay State voters in presidential balloting next week by simply dismissing the diss as little more than moonbat mania. “I think people understand when you’re a red governor in a blue state that you have to work with the Democrats, which I think is a good thing,� said Weld, who was governor from 1991 to 1997. Asked whether his State House successor has to win Massachusetts in his bid for the presidency, Weld, a Romney backer, said, “Not in my view.� In fact, the...

FOR A FEW FLEETING moments Monday night--what should have been vivid and affecting moments--television coverage of President Bush's final State of the Union address fastened on the image of a mother and daughter from Moshi, Tanzania. They sat, their faces alive with hope, in the first lady's box seats. Viewers were not told, and no one seemed inclined to tell them, that Tatu Msangi and her daughter Faith quite literally owe their lives to the Bush administration. After Msangi became pregnant, she went to a clinic at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and learned she was HIV-positive. Five years ago...

My favorite professor, philosopher, student of American history, and columnist, is Dr. Thomas Sowell. One or twice a year he writes a column of individual thoughts – that are worth writing but not worth a column. I now borrow that idea for this column. John Kerry and the Swift Boats: John Kerry has just attacked the Clintons for trying to “swiftboat” Barack Obama. His invented verb, “swiftboat” is intended to mean that the charges are false, but potentially dangerous. He’s right about the charges, but wrong about the verb. I knew John Kerry in college. He was a self-important prig...

The recent New York Times blatantly misleading attack on the American military, where with rigged data they attempted to portray Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans as crazed killers, should serve as a reminder that liberal media treachery against our military is very much alive and as viciously dishonest as ever. As many of us know, the animosity of the Left is certainly nothing new. In their recently published book recounting how a grassroots movement of Vietnam veterans successfully torpedoed John Kerry’s presidential aspirations in the 2004 campaign, To Set the Record Straight, authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler describe how...

Redefine “swiftboating” and claim $1 million!Swiftboating: Exposing the lies, deceit and fraud of self-glorifying public officials or candidates for public office who exaggerate their military service by lying about feats of heroism or combat wounds.If, after reading the above word and its definition, you know it’s incorrect - boy, do I have an opportunity for you. Simultaneously, you can re-define this term, vindicate Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry and lay claim to a cool one million bucks. Right away, I’ll push aside criticism over what is, after all, old news. To what purpose does re-hashing the 2004 Presidential election serve?...

Yesterday, the Obama campaign put out an email from John Kerry condemning the "Swiftboating" of Barack. Today it's Michelle Obama's turn, and the candidate's wife has come out swinging. Here's the text of an email just received from the Obama campaign [emphasis added]: Mark -- In the past week or two, another candidate's spouse has been getting an awful lot of attention. We knew getting into this race that Barack would be competing with Senator Clinton and President Clinton at the same time. We expected that Bill Clinton would tout his record from the nineties and talk about Hillary's role...

Swiftboating 2.0 TRIBUNE-REVIEW by Salena Zito January 22, 2008 8 :50 PM An email attributed to Sen. John Kerry, the former 2004 Democratic presidential nominee sent out by the Barack Obama campaign, took on those that would 'swiftboat' Obama. Kerry, saying in the email that "this is personal for me, and for a whole lot of Americans who lived through the 2004 election," tells Obama supporters that "we must stop the swiftboating, stop the push-polling, stop the front groups, and stop the email chain smears. "The truth matters, but how you fight the lies matters even more. We must be...

Swett, Scott and Tim Ziegler, To Set the Record Straight, 2007, New American Media, 389 pp., index, ISBN 978-0-9799841-5-0. $29.95 Full disclosure: The first author's father and I served together at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, 1968 - 1972. I do not recall ever meeting the first author. The thread that runs through this book is how the Swift Boat Veterans attempted to bring out the truth about John Kerry's service in Vietnam and his collaboration with the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese afterwards. However, it covers a great deal more than that. The opening chapters deal with how the...

As soon as I heard earlier today that John Kerry had endorsed Barack Obama, my first thought was the title of this DUmmie THREAD, "Why did Kerry stab Edwards in the back?" Sheesh! Talk about a lack of loyalty! This was probably the biggest act of political betrayal since, well, the Goracle endorsed Howard Dean over his 2000 running mate, Joe Lieberman. Of course, a lot of this endorsement has to do with Kerry's hatred for Hillary since he blames her in large part for his 2004 defeat. So let us now watch the DUmmies observe Kerry stabbing the...

I just had to get that off my chest;)If you are enjoying Free Republic and would like to help us stay on the air, please click here to make your donation today.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, gave Barack Obama a timely endorsement Thursday, snubbing Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as his own vice presidential running mate. Kerry came to South Carolina to embrace Obama, two weeks before the state's primary and with Obama needing a boost after Clinton's emotional victory over him in New Hampshire. Quoting a black American hero in endorsing the man who hopes to be the first black president, Kerry told a cheering crowd, "Martin Luther King said that the time is always right to do what is right." Now is the time,...

Sen. John Kerry’s endorsement of Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination should come as no surprise to readers of Newsmax’s Insider Report, which has disclosed Kerry’s membership in the so-called “Gang of Four” Hillary Clinton haters. The Four — Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, and Al Gore — have pledged to stop Hillary from getting the nomination, and each has his own reason for detesting Clinton.

Does a John Kerry endorsement help or hurt? I'd say the latter, especially given the surprising decision to endorse Barack Obama. The previous Democratic nominee will give Obama his blessing later today at a South Carolina rally: Barack Obama has won the presidential endorsement of Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 nominee who lost to George W. Bush. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, plans to announce his support Thursday at a rally at the College of Charleston, said a Democrat familiar with Kerry's decision. The 2004 nominee will argue that Obama can best unite the country and has the potential...

John Kerry has now decided, retrospectively, that he would not have gone to war to remove Saddam Hussein. But he would have put U.S. troops in harm's way to shield Haitian strongman Jean Bertrand Aristide from a revolt of his own people in February. "I would have been prepared to send troops immediately, period," Mr. Kerry told the New York Times on March 4. This assertion from the would-be commander in chief seems to have had some unfortunate repercussions. Emboldened by a prominent champion in the U.S., the deposed Aristide's Lavalas Party thugs are committing mayhem again.... The opportunistic brutality...

More than three years after John Kerry's bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the party is still haunted by the specter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Once upon a time, "Swift boat" denoted an obscure military vessel, but thanks to the activities of this group it has come to represent movement conservatism's penchant for ruthlessly (and effectively) smearing any and all political opponents, from a sitting senator and war hero to an 11-year-old boy with a cranial fracture. Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission...

12/28/2007 Senator Kerry: Veto of Defense Authorization Bill a "Disgrace" Boston, MA – Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today regarding President Bush's expected veto of H.R. 1585, the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. "Only George Bush could be for supporting the troops before he was against it,” said Kerry. “We fought against this White House to provide our men and women in uniform a decent pay raise and now three days after Christmas George Bush says he'll veto it. What a disgrace. This fight has just begun and it won't end until we do right by...

Nomination papers to run for the U.S. Senate are not available until February, but by then Jeff Beatty will probably have seen more of the state than most of John Kerry's potential challengers. Beatty has already developed a cartographer's knowledge of what roads lead to places like Uxbridge and Winchendon, Longmeadow and Palmer. Although he's not officially a candidate, the fact Beatty is rolling around the state in a van with a larger-than-life portrait of himself airbrushed against a backdrop of stars and stripes is a big clue. So are the endorsements from the Worcester County Republicans Club, the Shirley...

FReeper Scott Swett will join Loud & Clear (Central Jersey 1450 AM WCTC) to discuss his new book, "To Set The Record Straight" today (Saturday, December 15th). Mr. Swett will be the guest of Keith Rasmussen and Maggie Glynn who host Loud & Clear on Central Jersey 1450 - 1 pm to 4 pm Eastern. He will join Loud & Clear at 3:30 pm (Eastern). Scott Swett created and managed the web sites SwiftVets.com and WinterSoldier.com during the 2004 campaign, working closely with Swift boat veterans, former POWs and other Vietnam veterans to help bring their experiences to the public....

How many birthdays until Kerry becomes a man of his word and releases his unedited military Form 180? (background sound: crickets) (cue: Mighty Mouse theme a la Rush)

"Tony McDonald, a member of the University of Texas Young Conservatives, sets up a protest anti- American Civil Liberties Union nativity scene, dubbed a 'solstice barn,' on the university's campus in Austin December 4, 2006. The display features a 'Nancy Pelosi' angel, a 'suicide bomber' shepherd, and Marx, Lenin and Stalin as the Three Wise Men." "Josh Perry, a member of the University of Texas Young Conservatives, spreads hay as he sets up a protest anti-American Civil Liberties Union nativity scene, dubbed a 'solstice barn,' on the university's campus in Austin, Texas December 4, 2006. The display features a...

You know you've got a serious issue on your hands when U.S. Sen. John Kerry writes a strongly worded letter about it. With the real possibility that the New England Patriots (who play in Kerry's state, Massachusetts) could complete the first 16-0 season in NFL history on a channel most people don't get, Kerry sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and National Cable & Telecommunications Association President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow. It read, in part: While the National Football League and a few major cable companies continue to blame each other for the current state of NFL Network...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Last week former President Bill Clinton, John Kerry and various members of the media once again used "Swift boating" as a shorthand reference for misrepresenting a candidate's record. In "To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry," authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler counter that assertion in a heavily researched 400 page work that provides the first historical assessment of the 2004 presidential campaign. "To Set the Record Straight" is the definitive account of the ad hoc political movement that dominated the 2004 presidential campaign. Based on...

This is the most important book you’ll buy this year: To Set The Record Straight, How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry, by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, with Forward by John O'Neill. Not only will you learn the inside details of the only book – Unfit For Command -- that ever decided a presidential election but, especially for those who have any doubts, you will learn about how the peoples' democracy can still work in the United States. For those inclined toward political science, the book is an important contribution to understanding how political...

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have announced they're planning to descend on Washington, DC this March to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like." Iraq Veterans Against the...

Changes on abortion and other issues continue to tag Republican candidate as a flip-flopper Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a growing John Kerry problem, and last night's CNN/YouTube debate underscored a stark reality the former Massachusetts governor faces as he battles for his party's nomination. Rudy Giuliani (R) and Mike Huckabee (L) listen as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney makes a point during the CNN/YouTube debate. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)Related News CNN/YouTube Debate Guide Is YouTube a Better Way? (Jul. 24) A Hair-Raising YouTube Duel (Jul. 29) YouTube Guru Teaches Hopefuls (Jun. 12) Video: Web World Meets Reality Kerry was...

There is quite a lot of interesting, but wild, speculation running around the blog-o-sphere, progressive circles and just plain dinner conversation these days about whether BushCo will allow a peaceful and constitutional transfer of Executive power in the ’08 elections. Unless or until George Bush appears on our TV boxes one night, wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie with his hands sweatily clasped in a desperate death grip on top of his desk in the Oval Office, telling us that some catastrophic event, whether man-made or natural, has just occurred somewhere, and he must, for the...

Senator John F. Kerry already has a Democratic opponent for his U.S. Senate seat. He is not from the party's right since there is barely anyone sitting in those seats in blue Massachusetts. Kerry's antagonist is Ed O'Reilly, a Gloucester lawyer who, according to the Wednesday Boston Globe, is targeting Kerry from the anti-Iraq war left. And, lo and behold, he wants to know the truth about Kerry's military record and has questions himself about the Swift Boat record and the Swift Boat ads. Besides, like a lot of the senator's tormentors, he is suspicious about whether Kerry is really...