Wow! « Bunker Mulligan

August 13, 2004

Wow!

Filed under: Politics — Bunker @ 4:14 pm

This is in the San Francisco Examiner:

These men, who Kerry inferred that we, the American people, could trust to tell us that he would make a great president, are suddenly liars. And why? Because they aren’t saying what Kerry wants them to say. Because they aren’t puppets. Because they’re insisting on speaking the truth, a concept with which Kerry obviously isn’t familiar.

Thanks to Punctilious at Blog O’ Ram for the heads-up.

Comments (7)

7 Comments

Bunker why do you give more weight to what these “gentlemen” have to say than the “after-action reports” of the Navy?? I have a habit of reading medal citations, and I have to say from reading the citations, and the accusations from O’Neil, SOME ONE IS LYING, and I am inclined to believe the citations over an apparently disgruntled vet, who was first called to Washington by Milhous.

Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — August 13, 2004 @ 7:11 pm
I haven’t seen any after-action reports. Are they out there? Who wrote them?

I would lend credence to Kerry’s claims if he weren’t so shifty on other things. If I have to choose between 250 men and one and their memories, I’d go with the 250.

Comment by Bunker — August 13, 2004 @ 7:31 pm
I agree with both of you on some points.

Yes, Bubba, someone is lying. But why do you assume that is is his fellow officers? Further, it is more than one person who is calling Kerry a liar, contrary to what you say. It also makes no difference whether someone served in the Nixon administration (what’s with the “Milhous”?). Guilt by association is illogical. Kerry has a lot of explaining to do.

Bunker, good post.

Comment by Redhunter — August 13, 2004 @ 8:03 pm
Milhous is my sarcasm shining through, and the point is if you were willing to work for a “crooked politician” you might be willing to lie your ass off 30 years later. As to the issue of the medal citations they are posted on Kerry’s web site if any one wants to take a look. I believe the citations more that a bunch of guys that have demonstrably been proven to have NEVER SERVED beside him, they might have been “in country” so to speak but not a one directly served with him (that is crewed a boat with him), and I mention O’Neil because he is the “ring-leader”. His questioning these medals denigrates ALL MEDAL winners in my book, you mean my deceased father should not have received his marksmanship medal?? or his Ardenne Forest campaign ribbon??? To me that is what they are implying, emphasis on the LYING part.

Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — August 13, 2004 @ 10:45 pm
I don’t care what anyone else thinks, but someone who is proud of being awarded three “enemy marksmanship badges” (purple heart) should have there head examined. Hell I have been awarded an “enemy marksmanship badge” and a Bronze Star w/ Valor device, maybe I should run for president under the demoractic ticket, oh wait, I need to become a patholigical liar first. I’ll get right on that.

Comment by Birdie — August 14, 2004 @ 6:14 am
Old news deserves a old story I wrote:

Despite appearing to be a grassroots organization, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is anything but. According to Disinfopdeia the website was registered on April 14, under the name of Lewis Waterman, the information technology manager for Gannon International, a St. Louis company that has diversified interests, including many in Vietnam.

Joe Conason wrote in Salon that “although Waterman wouldn’t discuss why he had set up the Web site, he didn’t deny that his boss, Gannon president and CEO William Franke, had asked him to do so.”

“The information about my client is confidential,” Waterman tols Conason. “He acknowledged knowing, however, that his boss Franke is a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam on swift boats. Gannon vice president Stephen D. Hayes, who oversees the company’s office in Alexandria, Va., is likewise a swift boat veteran who first met Franke when they served together in the Mekong Delta.” […]

SBVT is officially nonpartisan, but has several ties to Republican Party politics. Notably, its media representative, Merrie Spaeth, was a Reagan administration press officer and an advisor to Ken Starr in the Clinton impeachment.

Given all this is it really suprising that they are getting caught flip flopping all over the place. In the Kerry attack ad, one of the vets says:

Adds retired Adm. Roy Hoffman: “John Kerry has not been honest,” before another veteran, Adrian Lonsdale, finishes the thought, saying: “And, he lacks the capacity to lead.”

Looks like he had a different opinion before Kerry decided to run for President:

And who will first get to Lonsdale, who, in 1996, quite easily praised Kerry for the same conduct he is now criticizing him for in an ad?

“As far as I was concerned, the war was won over there in that part for that period. And it was mainly won because of the bravado and the courage of the young officers that ran the boats, the SWIFT boats and the Coast Guard cutters and Senator Kerry was no exception. He was among the finest of those,” he said in 1996.

Guess Kerry must have pissed in his orange juice sometime between ’96 and now.

That was just the beginning. These guys are Flip Flopping like crazy.

Another key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry’s former commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a “terrible mistake” in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star — one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in their ad and book.

In yet another Flip Flop, the Globe story spawned a backlash from Drudge Report and other Conservative sources trying to do damage control by releasing yet another affidavit from Elliott yesterday backing away from his comments this week to the Globe, crying the reporter, Michael Kranish, misquoted him.

But the Boston Globe has rebutted those claims today saying: “the Globe stands by the article. The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate.”

Meanwhile the White House spokesman Scott McClellan said “We have not and we will not question Sen. Kerry’s service in Vietnam.”

But, at least John McCain see this for what it is:

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry’s military service “dishonest and dishonorable” and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

“It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,” McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

“I wish they hadn’t done it,” McCain said of his former advisers. “I don’t know if they knew all the facts.”

Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing for it, McCain said, “I hope not, but I don’t know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad.”

Some may remeber Bush torpedoed McCain back in 2000. Also, despite the claims that SWVT members served with John Kerry on his boat in Vietnam (supported by such shows as Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, which referred to the group as Kerry’s “crewmates.”) not one of those “Veterans for Truth” served on either of Kerry’s boats.

Good to see that ya’ll political beliefs aren’t getting in the way of attacking a fellow Vet.

Comment by rfidtag — August 14, 2004 @ 8:01 am
Attacking a fellow vet. Hmmm, kinda like what your boy did when he failed in his first attempt to get elected?

Having an advisor who is Republican doesn’t make this a Republican effort. People like Dick Morris make their living advising people regardless of political leanings.

Damn, guys, if you want to comment, read the post. Read what I’ve said previously. I come to my conclusion about Kerry from years of dealing with people just like him in my military career. We called them careerists. He fits the mold. Few people liked having them around. They were totally unreliable and unprofessional.

I haven’t read Kerry’s medal citations. I don’t need to. I know he received the medals. But I have to tell you that getting three PHs in four months is unheard of in any war. I was impressed when I saw a citation for a Bronze Star hanging on the wall of the Commandant’s office when I went to NCO Leadership School. Then I read it, and it was for “meritorious service.” What a letdown. But that was not uncommon in Vietnam.

Let’s also look at who “served with Kerry.” If they weren’t one of the six guys on his boat, you don’t believe they can claim to have served with him. I guess none of the guys I flew with (who were in other aircraft) and none of the guys in Birdie’s platoon (who weren’t in his squad) can claim to have served with us.

Look, if you want to vote for Kerry in spite of all this, that is a decision you make. But make it with full understanding of how he views the world. All of this means little except to shed some light on his personal perception and mental processes. He has done nothing while a Senator. I would think he has eaten many fancy meals telling the elite of this world about his clandestine operations and wounds. Hell, he says those things on the Senate floor. Kerry is simply a cardboard man, and his heroism in Vietnam did nothing to change that.

Comment by Bunker — August 14, 2004 @ 3:24 pm