Kerry (swift boat) critic to appear on national cable talk show

[Nambe]

The Herald, South Carolina

Steve Gardner of Clover served on the same boat in Vietnam as Sen. John Kerry but doesn't like the Democratic presidential candidate one bit. Tonight on national cable television, Gardner will get a chance to say why.

Gardner, a member of the anti-Kerry group "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth," is scheduled to appear on The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News in New York confirmed Sunday. Bill O'Reilly's show, one of cable television's most-watched programs, airs locally at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Comporium Cable Channel 59. ..

.. Gardner said that he served on the same boat with Kerry and knows what he saw first-hand. In one scrap where Gardner was wounded, Gardner says Kerry ran from combat. Other vets from that boat have said Kerry did what he did to get Gardner medical attention. ..

[k in IA]

1. OK, what the hell is the deal with this guy?

[ET Awful]

9. The guy is probably pissed because Kerry put him on KP or something.

He's just harboring a grudge over some bullshit that's over 30 years old. Kerry probably disciplined him for something and it pissed him off.

At least that's my take on it.

[k in IA]

20. Yeah, he is still pissed about something. I goggled him and it appears

he was on one of the boats for two and half months.

Do you think O'Liely will have one of all of the rest of the guys from the boats on to tell the other side?

Haaa Haaa Haaa. Ya right, what was I thinking?

[LittleApple81]

2. I am so fed up with these scum. Of course O'Reilly wants him in

his show. This might be O'Reilly's way to apologize to his base? I did not watch this but on DU people were saying that he spoke AGAINST the swiftboat scum?

[Massacure]

5. I have a feeling O'Reilly will probably drill him.

Especially since both Democrats and Republicans alike say it is a dirty smear.

[trogdor]

25. No way.

He'll get the same fawning kid-gloves treatment Ann Coulter gets when she appears on Fox News Channel.

[janx]

32. You'll be surprised. Even he and some others at FAUX News

are giving this the "thumbs down."

As reckless as the talking heads are these days, very few want to go near this. That's how low-rent this is.

[alarcojon]

33. I'd heard that O'Really doesn't believe these guys

so we'll see

[LizW]

3. Oh good grief

I thought none of the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush served with Kerry. Of course, this article says Gardner served on the same boat. It doesn't say he served with Kerry. Is this article trying to be misleading, or did this guy actually serve with Kerry during the war?

[MaineDem]

8. Excellent distinction

He could have served on the same boat months after or before Kerry was on it.

I'm curious now.

[gttim]

17. He did.

There are 10 guys alive who served on boats with John Kerry. 9 support him. This guy does not. His stories are the only ones that do not match with everybody elses. From interviews he was a loose cannon who "liked killing gooks."

[Cha]

34. I caught that and immediately thought that they were being

Misleading!!

[demnan]

4. How much?

do you think they are paying this guy? This is "The Hunting of the President" all over again.

[0007]

21. The Free Republic Network - Holy Smoke!!

St. Louis businessman William Franke, a Missouri Republican with close ties to Attorney General John Ashcroft, is paying for the group’s web site, according to the IRS filings. Robert A. Hahn, the web site designer is a director for The Free Republic Network, a conservative Republican activist organization, as is webmaster Scott Swett.

[sniffa]

6. served with him on his boat? Lie

he may have served on the same boat before or after john did, but they did not serve together on the boat. fucking Liars. and fuck the fucking media that reports it as such.

[Habibi]

10. According to the article

Gardner "served as a gunner under Kerry."

True or not?

[MaineDem]

12. Thanks

I just saw that.

I guess if it's in print it's true. :)

[sniffa]

13. don't know

it's getting confusing now, but i was under the impression that john served with 7 others on his boat. 1 is dead, and the other 6 (most of whom are registered repubLicans) support his candidacy because he was a great Leader.

edit: now i'm reading the time articLe. he served w/ 10? i agree with the sentiment: "I’ll take nine out of ten testimonies anytime.”

[are_we_united_yet]

7. Hey Steve

A question: Kerry was there right?

[procopia]

11. Douglas Brinkley says it's politics

"After interviewing Gardner for over an hour it essentially boils down to one word: politics. A strong supporter of President George W. Bush, Gardner is sickened by the idea of Kerry as president. “Anybody but Kerry,” he says. “I know what a disaster he’d be.” So what brought Gardner out in the open? The answer turns out to be Rush Limbaugh’s talk show."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,599034,00.html

[k in IA]

22. Thank you. I figured Brinkley would be the one to know what was going

on and to have some perspective since he spoke to everyone and did the research for his book.

[wishlist]

14. He is the only one not supporting Kerry of 10 actually on the boat w/him

From what I have read, this guy was on the same boat w/Kerry. He is very partisan. The other 9 guys who support Kerry and were with Kerry at the Dem Convention dispute this man's account of events.

No surprise that he is being brought to the forefront and given the most attention by RW media since all the other guys on the boat with Kerry support Kerry. Kind of like the way the media concentrates on the tiny minority of anti-Kerry protestors in the midst of 20,000 at the Kerry rallies.

[tishaLA]

15. I'm SO not worried about these crackpots

Every time they open their mouths, it makes them look more stupid and the administration more desperate because most people don't differentiate these dirty tricks from normal administration dirty tricks. If they want to lose the veteran vote and any of McCain's support, they are getting closer by the minute. They are losing more swing votes by the second. Let them continue to bang this drum. It makes Kerry look even more optimistic and statesmanlike.

[Snellius]

16. Good debunking as GOP Dirty Tricks at Capitol Hill Blue

Anti-Kerry Vets Led by Longtime GOP Operative, Bankrolled by Bush Cronies

Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, the so-called “independent” group of Navy Vietnam vets who have launched attacks against Democratic Presidential Contender John F. Kerry, is led by a longtime Republican operatives and financed by GOP contributors with strong tries to President George W. Bush.

The Republican roots of the group stretch back to former Republican President Richard M. Nixon when one of the group’s leaders, former Swift Boat commander John O’Neill, was recruited by White House chief counsel Charles Colson to debate Kerry on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
...
Republicans gleefully claim Unfit for Command, is their Fahrenheit 9/11 in reference to the Michael Moore documentary that has earned more than $100 million and raises questions about Bush’s fitness for office.

It is a dubious comparison at best and ironic since Republicans also claim “Fahrenheit” is a work of fiction and those who have studied Kerry’s record in Vietnam say the same of Unfit for Command.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4998.shtml

[0007]

18. Oh are they gonna look foolish on this -

Of course Gardner will dance to O'Rielly tune. And after that cheeky dance with O'Rielly, Gardner's Requiem will begin.

[JCMach1]

19. Someone needs to check this guy's bank accounts

I bet there's a nice offshore one with a good deal of Scaife money in it...

I really don't think that's tinfoil folks

[janx]

30. Isn't Regnery Publishing "the" Scaife publisher?

If so, it's just the same old "VRWC" all over again...

Really, don't these operatives have any imagination at all? The next thing we'll find out is that Kerry, like John McCain and Bill Clinton, fathered "black babies" !

I'd love to see this thing run its course. It's backfiring already.

[bobbieinok]

23. Lots of info on GARDNER + others in entire DU thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=597641

[underpants]

28. Political? Not these guys!!!!

I smell $$$$$$$$$$$ changing hands here.

Of course it is political.

[janx]

31. Some interesting info. and Steve Gardner quotes from that thread:

Stephen M. Gardner - Served in Vietnam in the Navy on PCF-44 with Senator John Kerry

"Kerry was chickenshiat," he insists. "Whenever a firefight started he always pulled up stakes and got the hell out of Dodge."

"I was driving down the road, and I hit that button and Rush was talking about Kerry and his campaign and how something just didn't feel right to him," Gardner recalled, his voice full of conviction. "Something about what John Kerry did or was doing, just really didn't set right with him. And you know I served with this guy, and the bottom line to it is; harsh as this may sound or as good as it sounds to any Democrat, out there, John Kerry is another `Slick Willy.' He's another Bill Clinton and that's exactly what he is. And I'm telling you right now, that if John Kerry gets to be president of these United States, it'll be a sorry day in this world for us. We can't stand another Democrat like that in there again. We'll get our asses in such a sling this time; we won't be able to get out of it. And the bottom line to it is, I don't care how much John Kerry's changed after he moved off my boat, his initial patterns of behavior when I met him and served under him was somebody who ran from the enemy, rather than engaged it. If I'd had Rush's 800 number, or known how to reach him, I would have called in."

"I've told a few of my friends that he was an asshole," Gardner says. "But I'm not looking to make news."

"Kerry sat some of them down and convinced them to buy into his side of what happened over there,"
_______________________________

Apparently Stephen Gardner served for a time on the first of the two boats that Kerry commanded.

[Bozvotros]

24. Sounds like Paul Lazarro

in Slaughterhouse Five. Anyone remember the psycho squad member who hates Billy Pilgrim his whole life for accidentally stepping on his frost bitten foot, and finally tracks him down and kills him when Billy is famous? Sounds like this chucklehead.

[kentuck]

26. I have a couple of questions for Mr Gardner :

"Are you a supporter of George W Bush ?"

"How do you support someone that used his Daddy to jump in line to get in the National Guard and get out of Viet Nam?"

"Even if Kerry did not deserve his medals, how do you support a silver spoon chickenhawk over a Viet Nam vet?"

You sir, are a traitor.

[Scairp]

27. This guy is full of it

This bit here, I think, explains exactly what is going on with this asshole. From Brinkley:



Which brought the interview to the crux of Gardner’s beef against Kerry. Gardner—who remembers no important dates or times or locales—claims that Kerry once threatened him with a court martial. The incident happened when Gardner, who told me he had “no trouble shooting gooks,” saw a Viet Cong guerilla with an AK-47 in a boat and started firing. “I lay the hammer down on him,” Gardner explains. “I just put a finger on the gun: boom, boom, boom, boom. He’s done. He got flipped out of the boat, he went straight down. That’s when Kerry came running out of the guntub screaming ‘ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire.’ Then he turned to me and said, ‘I ought to have you court-martialed for shooting.’ I said, ‘Hmmph…sorry big boy. When somebody brings a gun up on me I’m gonna shoot and I’ll ask questions later ‘cause I ain’t goin’ back in a body bag.’”

[janx]

29. Yep.

This explains a lot.

[w4rma]

35. That guy is nuts. I wouldn't want him anywhere near my family.

He seems like he could freak out at any moment. In fact that's what I think that guy is doing right now. He's flipping out. :freak:

[louis-t]

36. Anybody who's attitude is

"shoot first and ask questions later" is a chickenshit. Someday this guy will be prez of the NRA.