What a buncha bunny-suit wearin' maroons. The Kerry campaign is making scary legal noises about the Swift Boat Vets for Truth ad.
By hopping up and down and yelling "Not a single one of these men served on either of Senator Kerry's two SWIFT boats," they're exposing their soft underbellies to the accounts of men who did, like Steve Gardner:
"The John Kerry that I know is not the John Kerry that everybody else is portraying. I served alongside him and behind him, five feet away from him in a gun tub, and watched as he made indecisive moves with our boat, put our boats in jeopardy, put our crews in jeopardy... if a man like that can't handle that 6-man crew boat, how can you expect him to be our Commander-in-Chief?"
They also might prompt the US military personnel who can't stand Kerry to make themselves more publicly known. Which, it seems, could turn out to be most of them [via Stephan].
And, as Glenn notes:
Well, if Bush had threatened legal action to block Michael Moore's film from showing, I know what people would say.
Let's see...Bush has been called evil, stupid, traitorous, a drunkard, a fascist, a criminal, and a terrorist. He's been accused of knowing about the 9/11 attacks in advance and doing nothing to prevent the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans, making him an accessory to mass murder. He's been accused of collaboration with the house of Saud. The Democratic leadership has never distanced itself from the partisan outfits that support such claims, such as MoveOn.org. It has tacitly embraced Michael Moore's privately funded pro-Kerry campaign ad.
Has BushCo sued? No.
Have they threatened anyone into silence? No, despite what Tim "I'm So Oppressed I Get To Speak At The National Press Club" Robbins thinks with his tiny Stalinist dried-raisin brain.
So now, with the publication of a single book and the production of one 30-second ad, we see what the Kerry campaign thinks of free speech.
What a shrill, wretched effort. We hates them, we do...the public scrutiny, it buuurns!!!
[And, I am strangely compelled to note the possibility that these Swift vets are all androids programmed by Karl Rove who were never actually in Vietnam, but instead spent several months on a junglefied soundstage being injected with hallucinogens by CIA operatives who were under orders from a very far-sighted GOP leadership.
I am eagerly awaiting the onslaught of Media Inc. investigatory reporting that will uncover that fact.
Hey, it could happen.]
[I am also compelled to cut n' paste this, so that your head can explode from political fooshness:
Although the men quoted above are often identified as "John Kerry's shipmates," only one of them, Steven Gardner, actually served under Lt. Kerry's command on a Swift boat. The other men who served under Kerry's command continue to speak positively of him:"In 1969, I was Sen. Kerry's gun mate atop of the Swift boat in Vietnam. And I just wanted to let everyone know that, contrary to all the rumors that you might hear from the other side, Sen. Kerry's blood is red, not blue. I know, I've seen it.
"If it weren't for Sen. John Kerry, on the 28th of February 1969, the day he won the Silver Star . . . you and I would not be having this conversation. My name would be on a long, black wall in Washington, D.C. I saw this man save my life."3
— Fred Short
"I can still see him now, standing in the doorway of the pilothouse, firing his M-16, shouting orders through the smoke and chaos . . . Even wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never lost his cool.
I had to sit on my hands [after a firefight], I was shaking so hard . . . He went to every man on that boat and put his arm around them and asked them how they're doing. I've never had an officer do that before or since. That's the mettle of the man, John Kerry."3
— David Alston
"What I saw back then [in Vietnam] was a guy with genuine caring and leadership ability who was aggressive when he had to be. What I see now is a guy who's not afraid to tackle tough issues. And he knows what the consequences are of putting people's kids in harm's way."2
— James Wasser
Go here for the footnote references.]
[Still more compulsion...to my ear, the Alston and Wasser quotes read like talking points for a DNC convention speech. I mean, really: "caring," "leadership ability," "aggressive when he had to be," "tough issues," "people's kids in harm's way," "mettle of the man, John Kerry."
Either the GOP is much better at coaching natural-sounding quotes out of their drones, or the Swift vets are telling the truth.]
