Getting to the Bottom of the Smear of Kerry's War Record

That certain Republicans running for office will say absolutely ANYTHING to get elected, or in the case of Virginia Foxx, allow their campaign consultants to say absolutely ANYTHING and then dodge behind the old "I didn't proofread it" defense -- that notorious habit of reaching for the slime-bucket approximately eleven minutes after filing for office is on generous display in the current "Swift Boat Veterans Against John Kerry" round of noxious TV commercials and their book, "Unfit for Command."

(The apparent contempt these guys feel for Kerry because he came back from the war, wounded and beribboned with merit, and yet started opposing that war in strong terms, is no excuse for their deciding 30 years later to start rewriting history-as-revenge. No excuse whatsoever.)

The New York Times has a very lengthy investigative report today into these soldiers, their contradictory statements, their outright fabrications, and most interesting to me, the nexus of money and PR operatives (which naturally includes Karl Rove) that brought their resentments against Kerry both into sharp focus and onto our airwaves.

I'll leave the full article to your studied reading but highlight just this:

"Records show that the group [Swift Boat Veterans against Kerry] received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family -- one a longtime political associate of Mr. [Karl] Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice. And the group's television commercial was produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr. Bush's father faced off in the 1988 presidential election."

Given the proclivities of this tribe, John Kerry has GOT to exercise the same bravery under fire now that he did on the banks of the Mekong in 1968, and in fact, he's got to go after these little creeps the same way he went after that Viet Cong soldier with the grenade launcher ... run 'em down in the high weeds and shoot 'em. In the head, preferably. He started doing that -- coming out strong against this crap -- in the last couple of days, but it won't do to stand on the boat deck and proclaim. He's got to get in the weeds. (Same goes for Erskine Bowles and Jim Harrell, and if they don't have the guts to battle this slime, they'll lose, because the voters won't elect a gutless wonder.)

The first mistake Democrats make is assuming that being nice and "positive" will get them elected. It will get them smeared into oblivion by the most vicious machine politics we've ever seen in this country, is what NICE will get 'em.