Kerry Starts Firing Back at Critics of War Record

[papau]

"Cutter said that if charges about Kerry's service continued, the candidate would 'talk comparatively' about his military record and that of Bush, who has been shadowed by questions about whether he fulfilled his service while in the Texas Air National Guard."

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-swiftboat20aug20,1,6484859.story?coll=la-home-politics

Kerry Starts Firing Back at Critics of War Record
Saying vets' ad is doing Bush's 'dirty work,' he invites comparison with the president's service.
By Matea Gold and Maria L. La Ganga
Times Staff Writers

August 20, 2004

BOSTON — Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry on Thursday lashed back for the first time against a group of Vietnam veterans critical of his wartime service, accusing them of doing President Bush's "dirty work" and suggesting that he, in turn, would challenge Bush's military record.

Two weeks after the veterans launched a television ad questioning Kerry's actions in Vietnam, the back-and-forth over the former Navy lieutenant's record envelops the campaign, as newfound records undercut the credibility of one of his critics.

During a speech to several thousand firefighters, Kerry directly challenged allegations by the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that he concocted his wartime injuries for political gain.

"More than 30 years ago, I learned an important lesson: When you're under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attacker. That's what I intend to do today," he told members of the International Assn. of Fire Fighters.

=======================================================

O'Neill told ABC News that when his group was forming, he sought and received free legal advice from Jan Baran, an expert on election law who … was the former counsel for George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, and for four years counsel to the Republican National Committee."
other links to Kerry fighting back stories:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20kerry.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14889-2004Aug19.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17296-2004Aug19.html

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20040820/1a_offlede20.art.htm

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-thurlow20aug20,1,5811231.story?coll=la-news-a_section

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-19-swiftboat_x.htm

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/223911p-192373c.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug04/252487.asp

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9444995.htm

And From the NYT ARTICLE http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?hp

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.'"

"Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's top political aide, recently said through a spokeswoman that he and Mr. Perry were longtime friends, though he said they had not spoken for at least a year. Mr. Rove and Mr. Perry have been associates since at least 1986, when they both worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bill Clements."

"When asked if she had ever visited the White House during Mr. Bush's tenure, Ms. Spaeth initially said that she had been there only once, in 2002, when Kenneth Starr gave her a personal tour. But this week Ms. Spaeth acknowledged that she had spent an hour in the Old Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex, in the spring of 2003, giving Mr. Bush's chief economic adviser, Stephen Friedman, public speaking advice."

"The group also offers the account of William L. Schachte Jr., a retired rear admiral who says in the book that he had been on the small skimmer on which Mr. Kerry was injured that night in December 1968. He contends that Mr. Kerry wounded himself while firing a grenade."

"But the two other men who acknowledged that they had been with Mr. Kerry, Bill Zaladonis and Mr. Runyon, say they cannot recall a third crew member. "Me and Bill aren't the smartest, but we can count to three," Mr. Runyon said in an interview. And even Dr. Letson said he had not recalled Mr. Schachte until he had a conversation with another veteran earlier this year and received a subsequent phone call from Mr. Schachte himself."

[Ghetto_Boy]

1. Ignoring it and letting MOVEON.org handle it is better.

[wurzel]

3. If "moveon" was doing it Kerry wouldn't have to!

Even their latest ad only says Bush "Went Missing"! If they'd call him a "deserter" or even "AWOL" they might have got some media attention!

[democrat_patriot]

8. I diagree.

Kerry needs to be a fighter! Not an Al Gore.

He asked nicely at the convention for * to take the high road. They refused.

TAKE THE CHENEYING GLOVES OFF!!!

AWOL
Funeralgate
Hand out F/911 at rally's (when it's released)
The 7 (or 40) minutes on 911.
All of his flip flops.
His Osama quotes
Some real statistics from Iraq / Afghanistan.

I mean the list is endless.

All I freaking hear is: The Democrats will create higher paying jobs.

Enough.

Get on the talk shows. Make accusations, let * defend his sorry a$$ for awhile.

[phillybri]

2. Kick

:kick:

[progressivebydesign]

4. I think Kerry is doing this the right way!

We all bitched about how Gore was held back from answering these types of attacks, and it really hurt him. (Yes, I know he won the popular vote). Gore took the high road.. but I think when the battle is on the low road, you have to get down there once in a while to face the attackers. You may win the battle on the high road, but the battle on the low road is the one that gets the media attention. Kerry needs to fight back... and I'm proud of how he is doing that. He, like Gore, KNOWS that he is the better man for our country, and KNOWS that he is one of the most qualified candidates in our history. Kerry is not going to let these hate-mongers and shadowy groups give the country back to Bush. As a patriot, it goes against everything Kerry fought for. Kerry is not afraid of a fight... I'm not sure that man is afraid of anything. That's the kind of President we need, isn't? Go ahead and fight, Kerry, we've got your back!

[Jim__]

5. Even more that firing back on these charges

Kerry should document all the mud that has been slung in Bush's campaigns over the years; and Bush's denial that he is responsible for any of. Showing that every one of Bush's campaigns is accompanied by these tactics and then Bush always denies any complicity shoudl help to expose the fact that bush is nothing but a liar.

[Catfight]

6. Kerry is doing the RIGHT thing, even though Bush continues to miss

the mark and talk about a waste of time issue and point out his own shortcomings and irresponsible past, then Kerry will glady SHOW UP and point those things out! I'm all out for a debate on each persons SERVICE duty! These damn loser vets who keep doing this horrible thing to Kerry are really lower than scum. Most likely a bunch of drunks and drug addicts like OxyRush, with brain damage from having their heads up Roves ass.

[UpInArms]

7. Capitol Hill Blue says that O'Neill was recruited by

Charles Colson (Watergate conviction) under Nixon

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5072.shtml

excerpt:

Yes, the Swift Boats are sinking in their own sea of lies, sunk by a fusillade of reality that exposed the bitter old Vietnam Veterans as just another Republican led and funded shill operation for the Presidential campaign of George W. Bush.

<snip>

SBVT’s public leader is John E. O’Neill, a longtime GOP operative but he’s been in the middle of these things before. Back in 1971, O’Neill claimed to have formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, a bunch of pro-war veterans sent out to counter the antiwar activities of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, led by one John F. Kerry.

But, like SBVT, Vietnam Veterans for Just Peace was a shill, a creation of President Richard M. Nixon’s chief counsel (and hatchet man) Charles Colson.

"We found a vet named John O'Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O'Neill meet the President, and we did everything we could do to boost his group," Colson admitted to reporter Joe Klein in a January 5 interview published in The New Yorker magazine.

...lots more...

here's poop on Colson (now in charge of "faith based prisons in Florida)

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_x.htm

excerpt:

In the past, members of Congress may have been of the view that the experience of the Watergate cases suggests that grants of use immunity do not significantly impede successful prosecution. Even at the time, that would not have been the proper lesson to draw from Watergate. Although two immunized witnesses in the Watergate matter -- John Dean and Charles Colson -- subsequently pleaded guilty, no immunized Watergate witness who refused to plead guilty was successfully tried and convicted. Gordon Strachan, the only immunized witness who was charged in the Watergate cover-up indictment, never went to trial because the Watergate Special Prosecutor concluded that there was a significant possibility that Strachan eventually might prevail on his claim of taint.4 The same thing happened in the case of Felipe De Diego, who was granted immunity by state authorities in connection with the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.5 But in any event, the decisions in North and Poindexter should lay to rest any lingering sense that a congressional grant of use immunity is not a serious bar to future prosecution.

http://www.fact-index.com/c/ch/charles_w__colson.html

Charles W. Colson, better known as Chuck Colson, was the chief counsel for Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973.

He is an alumnus of George Washington University.

In 1976, following his release from prison for his part in the Watergate Scandal, Colson founded Prison Fellowship. Colson is an active Evangelical Christian and author of over twenty books. The royalties from those books are donated to that fellowship.

http://www.eadshome.com/Bushgivesgifts.htm

BreakPoint with Charles Colson

January 6, 2004

excerpt:

Just before the president left, I introduced him to Al Lawrence, a member of our staff. I told the president that I had met Al more than twenty years ago in a prison. Jesus had got hold of Al’s life, and he’s been working for us ever since. Then I told the president that Al’s son was now a freshman at Yale. At that point the president stopped, exclaimed, “We’re both Yale parents,” and threw his arms around Al Lawrence—an African-American ex-offender being embraced by the president of the United States in a church basement. The ground is indeed level at the foot of the cross.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/religion/0406/29/a07-171264.htm

Churches put faith on line at Fla. prison

excerpt:

Four other states — Texas, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota — have tried something a bit different, turning over wings of prisons to Prison Fellowship Ministries, the Reston, Va., evangelical Christian ministry run by convicted Watergate conspirator Charles Colson. Early last year, Americans United filed suit against Iowa’s program in federal district court, charging that it violates the First Amendment by using state money and revenues from inmates’ phone calls for sectarian purposes. The trial, set for October, will be the first test of such programs nationwide.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4534274/

Nixon targeted Kerry for anti-war views
White House tapes reveal then-president’s attempt to discredit Kerry during 1971 war protests, Senate testimony

March 16, 2004

Nixon's counter-attack
Colson was Nixon’s point man against Kerry, and he found a weapon in another veteran: John O’Neill. He was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, which backed Nixon administration policy in Vietnam, and in turn was supported by the White House.


The White House file


John O’Neill, selected to debate John Kerry about the Vietman War, in the Oval Office with President Nixon and White House aide Charles Colson.

Fresh out of the Navy like Kerry, O’Neill was angry at Kerry for saying U.S. servicemen in Vietnam routinely committed war crimes. The weekend before the Washington protests, Kerry made the accusations on NBC’s Meet the Press, saying, “I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed, in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones.” And, Kerry claimed, “I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All this is contrary to the laws of warfare.”

[UpInArms]

9. kicking back to the top

:kick:

[Catfight]

10. Is this the current administration only in Black and White? I can't

tell any difference, all CROOKS look alike I guess.