Former Presidential Candidate Bob Dole—whose war heroism is bona fide, undisputed, visible to the naked eye, and not sexed-up—has finally had it with John Kerry's brand of "look at me! I was in 'Nam for five minutes and got a hangnail" campaigning:

Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."

Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for polls that show him losing support among veterans.

"One day he's ... throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam."

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds."

Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said: "It's unfortunate that Senator Dole is making statements that official U.S. Navy records prove false. This is partisan politics, not the truth."

Nevermind that those official Navy records are based on Kerry's own accounts of what happened.

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Glenn envisions a world in which John Kerry has vision, and isn't whoring his Vietnam record.

N.Z. Bear responds.

And several commenters point out that the John Kerry Glenn has in mind looks a lot like . . . Joe Lieberman. Wouldn't that be a lovely universe? There would be two viable candidates on the ballot, and I'd have an actual decision to make.

Maybe the Democrats should have put some thought into this, instead of saying, "hey. We like your initials, and that Vietnam stuff makes you sound butch. And—most importantly—you aren't George W. Bush.

This Reynolds guy is pretty smart; too bad he doesn't get a bit more exposure.

Via Dean Esmay.

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Having an airheaded moment, here: when was it that John F. Kerry demanded that MoveOn.org pull its ads that attack George W. Bush?

I just can't remember at all.

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. . . when was it that John F. Kerry condemned Al Gore's speech about how President Bush "played on our fears"? When did he distance himself from Gore's statement that G.W. Bush "has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon"?

I'm just having trouble remembering the date. That's all. I'd appreciate it if you could help me out.

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. . . when it was that John F. Kerry condemned Fahrenheit 911?

Because the exact date and circumstances appear to have slipped my mind.

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All can be told, now that my personal vendetta has been fulfilled. Secretly funded by a Texas cabal, I've been quietly campaigning to have the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth referred to as the "Swifties," rather than the "Swiftees." This effort has taken me days of grueling effort, along with a swift boat load of oil money. Now that the correct term is the dominant one, I feel I can take the next few months off.

Someone wake me up in time for Thanksgiving, okay?

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James Joyner discusses the . . . interesting look of the campaigns right now:

Overall, Electoral Vote.com has it at Kerry 301, Bush 213 at the moment while Scott Elliot at Election Projection has an even more sizeable lead based on his predictive formula: Kerry 327, Bush 211.

Clearly, this is Kerry's race to lose at the moment. That's not overly surprising given the fact that we're in the middle of a controversial war. Plus, of the four biggest states, the Democrats have a virtual lock on two (California and New York), while the Republicans have only one gimme (Texas) with Florida as a perennial swing state (although trending Democrat owing to migration trends).

The Republicans need to have a very good convention.

I'm going to hang tough, and repeat what I've been saying all along: It'll be Bush, and by a comfortable margin.

The GOP convention is coming up, and Bush will get a decent bounce from it. The debates are coming up, and he's going to clean Kerry's clock.

When people wake up on Election Day they'll be thinking about their own safety and security more than "let's get a guy into the White House who's fluent in French." And all those people who hate Bush so much they are going to hold their noses and vote for Kerry are going to sleep late that day, rather than stop by the polls on the way to work.

That's how it goes.

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Tells his side of the story.

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Scott Ott relates a new smear campaign against Kerry; this one is based on his Senate record.

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Patterico's famous comparison of the Bush AWOL story with the Swift Boat Vets story, as handled by the Los Angeles Times. Amazing.

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They've got a bigger problem now.

Even the most passionate Bush-haters are becoming concerned.

(Yeah—I know I said I wouldn't link the Globe any more. But this was compelling, so I made an exception. Too bad, since the Attila Girl boycott had almost brought them to their knees.)

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1 I love it where Joan Vennochi of the Boston Glob is calling on Kerry to answer the questions about his service. Joan, there's a reason that Kerry is ducking those questions. He can't refute the accusations that he was lying, because he was lying. We know for certain he was lying, we just don't know the full extent of the lies. Or of the field of distortions and half-truths surrounding the lies.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 18, 2004 12:36 AM (kOqZ6)

2 Ooooh, thank goodness for Australia. I was wondering who else was up this late I keep wondering what's in those medical records he won't release about the 1st/3rd Purple Hearts. Paper cut? Nicked himself while shaving? Tummy ache?

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 18, 2004 01:40 AM (SuJa4)

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Dean is wondering why the mainstream press is still AWOL on Kerry's Vietnam record in general, and the flagrant lie about Cambodia in particular:

It increasingly appears that one of the few of the fellow vets who have been publicly supporting John Kerry may never have served with him at all.

The media blackout on Kerry's Vietnam record is really quite stunning. I've never seen anything quite like this. We know for a fact that 80-90% of working reporters and editors vote Democratic in every election, but this is simply unreal. As John Rosenberg notes, even so respectably mainstream-left a paper as the Washington Post, on its front page no less, is continuing to gush about Kerry's fantastic Vietnam record and the support of his fellow veterans, while saying not one word about any of the Swifties' allegations or the recently uncovered evidence of Kerry's possibly false claims about Cambodia. Or about a man who served on his boat saying he's a liar and a sleaze.

The Post didn't put the gushy praise-sans-criticism in an editorial either. It was there as front page news.

I would have to ask why a single 20 year old drunk driving charge made screaming national headlines four years ago, but none of this is making it into the mainstream press, except on the editorial pages of a few small newspapers.

I am honestly stunned. This isn't bias. This is... it's... I don't even know the word for it. It's obviously not a conspiracy, and people who think it is one should take off their tinfoil hats. But what do you call it? Groupthink? Mass delusion? Blind spot? You cannot gush praise at a guy's military record and then just ignore the fact that he has heavy duty critics. Even if all of those critics were right-wing Republicans, that doesn't make it less of a story.

At this point it is becoming a bit shocking. But look at the polls: Kerry and Bush appear to be in a dead heat, statistically. No liberal editor wants to run a story that might influence a single swing voter in the "wrong" direction.

What's especially hilarious is that a lot of my liberal-left friends maintain that the media bias is in the other direction. Amazing, that.

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On the issue of Dean's Pledge vs. Ironbear's counter-pledge—how we must conduct ourselves if the unthinkable happens and Kerry wins, so that our feelings about Kerry's decisions do not imperil our troops, or embolden our enemies—it turns out the two approaches aren't mutually exclusive at all. Therefore, although I'm a Dean partisan, Ironbear has granted me permission to use his bitchin' cool graphic for those who will be engaged in the resistance during any possible Kerry ad, Kerry admin, Kerry...as he'd be . . . in the White House. I mean, if a guy like him could, you know. Win.

Sa'ang-Fori.

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1 Not mutually exclusive? Ummm.... I've been busy and haven't been back to the comments there - did I miss a resolution? (00) Or did Dean take my suggestion that we table the brawl over it until we find out wether Kerry wins or not? ;]

Posted by: Ironbear at August 15, 2004 05:26 AM (PG+qd)

2 As I recall, he did. At least, that was the consensus among his commenters--we'll work out the practicalities if worse comes to worst. As for me, I think I can figure out ways to criticize any missteps without giving AQ any aid and comfort. I think, for instance, that if Kerry wins I'll be writing a lot of letters. It's worth remembering that even Rush Limbaugh, right after the OK City bombing, spoke forcefully about supporting the President in that situation (that was before we knew it was a "domestic terrorist," of course). And that, of course, was Clinton. I think there are ways to be the loyal opposition without making the troops feel like they are high and dry--it's just in how you go about it.

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 15, 2004 09:34 AM (SuJa4)

3 Yeah. It's been one of *those* weekends... I'm sure you know the kind I mean. ;] I was only able to keep up with this because of the trackbacks. Makes perfect sense. I don't mind the argument, and either way, I'm going to do as I choose, but a Bush win will make the whole discussion a moot point, IMO. Kerry wins, we can work out how best to deal with him and the gloating moonbats after the 3rd, prefferably in some way that won't wreck both the Union and the blogosphere in the process. Or the union, anyway. Wrecking the blogosphere is always kinda fun.

Posted by: Ironbear at August 15, 2004 07:30 PM (qIC+p)

4 Oh, do let's!

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 16, 2004 02:01 AM (SuJa4)

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In case any of you missed out on the link over at Dean's place, here is the Winter Soldier web site. At the bottom of the home page it tells you how to skim through the material: check out their key points, and take a peek at their reproduction of John Kerry's book The New Soldier, almost in its entirely. The claim is that Democratic operatives have been snapping up so many copies of this book in an attempt to suppress it that a single copy now goes for $500 on eBay.

I wonder what they do with all these copies once they buy 'em. Make a big pile and set it afire?

Please, please. Think carefully before you vote for this guy.

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Dean Esmay has an open letter to Senator Kerry that everyone should read. A few points will do it right now:

1) The Democratic Party is, at this moment, the party of dirty tricks.

2) Any newspaper that takes the bait the Kerry campaign is giving out—the "brown books"—should not be supported, either online or offline. Cancel your subscriptions, and stop linking any news organization that runs negative biographical material about the Swift Boat Vets, rather than investigating and discussing their actual charges. This is beyond the pale. I will no longer link to or read on paper:

The New York Times;
The Boston Globe; or
Media Matters.

3) Any campaign that addresses a book that factually disputes a candidate's war record, on which he rests his claim to the office of President by threatening a lawsuit has lost its right to anyone's vote. John Kerry has said, regarding his record in Vietnam, "bring it on." Now that someone has, he might consider discussing the actual facts, rather then engaging in the politics of personal destruction.

I haven't been this angry in a long time.

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Apparently they are not mutually exclusive, but there is a difference.

Says Burnt Orange:

He's a dirtbag for misappropriating funds and cheating on his wife, but until November 15 America has its first openly gay governor.

But BoiFromTroy points out that his homosexuality is not the reason he's stepping down:

OMG! The Governor of New Jersey just came out on national TV. Jim McGreevy (D) has left the closet and cited his homosexual relations as the reason he is unable to continue as Governor. Bullshit.

The virtue of having a gay governor is far outweighed by the fact that he's dirty. And it's shameful that he's exploiting his minority status to provide cover for his misallocation of funds. Furthermore, as Sean Hannity—and others—have been pointing out, the delay in his resignation is a naked power grab by the national Democratic Party, which clearly doesn't want a Republican on the ballot this November, because it would enhance GOP voter turnout and transform New Jersey into a swing state.

I also think that it's illuminating that Hannity himself—an obnoxious social conservative a lot of the time—dismisses any idea that the voters really care about a public official being gay. "Most of us are libertarian on that kind of thing." Wish he asserted things like that more often.

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1 Corrupt is the answer here. The whole coming out thing is just a cover for the real corruption story.

Posted by: Dave at August 13, 2004 11:15 PM (BQkC1)

2 You got that right.

Posted by: Attila at August 14, 2004 02:09 AM (SuJa4)

3 Hannity actually said that?! I don't believe it! I want a transcript!

Posted by: Patrick at August 14, 2004 09:09 PM (XF9mc)

4 I'm hurt that you don't trust me

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 14, 2004 10:49 PM (SuJa4)

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What fun.

Via Dean Esmay.

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I talked to my husband last night, and got the report from the Midwest. He's been in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Since he's doing interviews about Vietnam, it's almost impossible for the subject of John Kerry not to come up. He keeps talking to lifetime, dyed-in-the-wool Democrats who simply cannot bring themselves to vote for this man.

Could Kerry have been marketable? I kind of think so, had the Democrats used the same strategy with him that they did with Clinton: what's past is past. Vietnam was over 30 years ago.

But by making "Vietnam war hero" his middle name, they have destroyed the possibility of Kerry winning.

NZ Bear maintains that the Swift Boat Vets issue will kill the Kerry campaign:

Up until now, Kerry has gotten a pass on his Vietnam time: the general impression has been "He talks about it too much, but he was some kind of war hero back in Vietnam". Now, there's an alternate perspective: "Not only does he talk about it too much, but he's actually a liar." From the 10,000 foot view of the average voter, the Swifties don't have to prove their case in a court of law for Kerry to take damage: they just have to throw a bit of doubt onto the lily-white image he's portrayed thus far. In that, they've already succeeded.

But it's not that bad: it's actually much worse. The biggest problem for Kerry is that the Swifties' attacks confirm what we really want to believe about him anyway. He's been so damned annoying about his Vietnam record that we secretly want to think the worst of him, and now the Swifties have provided a rational basis for that gut-level irritation that Kerry inspires when he blathers on about his war record. This isn't just bad for Kerry, it's disasterous: the amorphous negative that normal people have when exposed to Kerry's "leadership, courage, and sacrifice" / "three purple hearts" mantra now has a core of fact -- or at least, alleged fact --- around which to crystalize.

And there is the not-uncommon feeling that "real heroes don't blow their own trumpets."

But the Swifties are only part of it. The entire campaign appears to be predicated on the idea that military people are stupid, and you can flip them off, if you do it subtly enough. No Vietnam vet is going to find it easy to support a guy who came back and accused them of war crimes—and the more Kerry brags about his mini-service, the more people are going to be reminded of this.

And then the sloppy salute at the convention. The "reporting for duty" line. Very distasteful to veterans, current members of the armed forces, and their families. (Civilians are not supposed to salute, and even soldiers, sailors and marines don't do this out of uniform.)

Now we have the Swift Vets story, which as NZ points out doesn't have to be proven—their account simply has to be strong enough to create doubt in people's minds. NZ again:

Unless Kerry's campaign manages to completely discredit the Swifties --- which seems increasingly unlikely --- the campaign is over; Kerry is done. And after Election Day has passed, I expect that anyone looking backwards will wonder why in the world the Democrats ever thought making Kerry's Vietnam service a centerpiece was a good idea in the first place.

It wasn't a good idea at all. No matter how weak his Senate record—or his record as Lt. Gov.—marketing him on the basis of four months in Vietnam three decades ago was a terrible strategy.

There are a lot of people out there, many of them working-class and blue-collar folk, who would have loved to vote for practically any sentient being with a "D" after his/her/its name. And they are going to sit this one out.

It's not enough for people to hate Bush; you have to give them a positive reason to pick your guy.

It is over.

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Bill at InDC lays out a spirited defense of Smirky McHalliburton.

(h/t: protein wisdom)

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He gives us another "real-time empirical observation":

As you read this post, the DNC is drawing up the paperwork for a legal challenge to “right turn on red” laws in a number of key swing states.  Lawyers for the DNC will argue that principalities allowing right turns on red “are creating an unfair advantage for the Republican party by rewarding motorists who turn right.” Because the DNC, as everyone knows, has lost its motherfucking mind.

Now go read his entire main page, which is pure gold. (Or pure Goldstein.)

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