Wow, didn't take long for the light of day to send the roaches scurrying.
Several of the Swift Boat Vets have long and continuing ties to Bush's campaign -- one was a steering committee member as last as Aug. 19, this Thursday. (http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...teeringCommittee.aspx+Cordier+NAM-POWs.&hl=en)
A Bush campaign worker in Florida was caught handing out promotional materials for the Swift Boat Smearers, even though the campaign continues to say it has nothing to do with the group or its ad. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/20/18115/6359)
And it's taking very little work for journalists to find that many of the Swift Boat Vets have praised Kerry effusively in the past. There's this from Knight Ridder:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9455159.
And this from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/p...&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=all&position=
Again, I ask -- is there any level to which Republicans will not stoop in their drive for power? Have they no sense of shame or decency? Or do they figure the country is just one big open sewer, so what's a little more slime going to hurt? If their ideas are so good, why do they have to smear and lie to get votes?
Several of the Swift Boat Vets have long and continuing ties to Bush's campaign -- one was a steering committee member as last as Aug. 19, this Thursday. (http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...teeringCommittee.aspx+Cordier+NAM-POWs.&hl=en)
A Bush campaign worker in Florida was caught handing out promotional materials for the Swift Boat Smearers, even though the campaign continues to say it has nothing to do with the group or its ad. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/20/18115/6359)
And it's taking very little work for journalists to find that many of the Swift Boat Vets have praised Kerry effusively in the past. There's this from Knight Ridder:
Kerry's commanding officer in Vietnam, George Elliott, said in an attack ad: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."
But during the Vietnam War, Elliott recommended Kerry for the Silver and Bronze Star medals for valor in combat and gave him the highest possible praise in his officer efficiency reports.
"In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTjg Kerry was unsurpassed," Elliott wrote in 1969. He went on to rate Kerry as "calm, professional and highly courageous in the face of enemy fire."
Elliott added: "(Kerry) emerges as the acknowledged leader in his peer group." In 16 categories on Kerry's officer efficiency report, ranging from professional knowledge to moral courage to military bearing to reliability, Elliott gave Kerry the highest possible rating - "is not exceeded" - in 11 categories, and the second highest, "one of the top 10" in five other categories.
Elliott in 1996 supported Kerry in his re-election campaign for the Senate and during an appearance in Boston declared that Kerry had earned the Silver Star "for an act of courage."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9455159.
And this from the New York Times:
Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry "unfit" had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year.
In an unpublished interview in March 2003 with Mr. Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, provided by Mr. Brinkley to The New York Times, Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry's antiwar positions but said, "I am not going to say anything negative about him." He added, "He's a good man."
In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in June 2003, Mr. Hoffmann approvingly recalled the actions that led to Mr. Kerry's Silver Star: "It took guts, and I admire that."
George Elliott, one of the Vietnam veterans in the group, flew from his home in Delaware to Boston in 1996 to stand up for Mr. Kerry during a tough re-election fight, declaring at a news conference that the action that won Mr. Kerry a Silver Star was "an act of courage." At that same event, Adrian L. Lonsdale, another Vietnam veteran now speaking out against Mr. Kerry, supported him with a statement about the "bravado and courage of the young officers that ran the Swift boats."
"Senator Kerry was no exception," Mr. Lonsdale told the reporters and cameras assembled at the Charlestown Navy Yard. "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers."
Those comments echoed the official record. In an evaluation of Mr. Kerry in 1969, Mr. Elliott, who was one of his commanders, ranked him as "not exceeded" in 11 categories, including moral courage, judgment and decisiveness, and "one of the top few" - the second-highest distinction - in the remaining five. In written comments, he called Mr. Kerry "unsurpassed," "beyond reproach" and "the acknowledged leader in his peer group."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/p...&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=all&position=
Again, I ask -- is there any level to which Republicans will not stoop in their drive for power? Have they no sense of shame or decency? Or do they figure the country is just one big open sewer, so what's a little more slime going to hurt? If their ideas are so good, why do they have to smear and lie to get votes?