<font color=blue>"'I'm John Kerry, and I've stepped in doody' "<font color=black>
<font size=4>KERRY'S WAR VS. KERRY
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NY POST EDITORIAL
August 29, 2004 --
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Former Navy Secretary John Leh man denied at week's end having written the Silver Star citation that appears on John Kerry's campaign Web site over Lehman's signature, dealing the Democrat's presidential campaign another stunning blow.
Which makes us wonder: Does Kerry still believe that running on his Vietnam will gain him the White House?
Kerry's Silver Star is the most prestigious of his Vietnam decorations — it's the nation's third-highest for combat valor — but there are at least three official versions of how he earned it.
The most recent — and the one with the most florid rhetoric — allegedly was signed by Lehman. But the former Navy secretary told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday: <font color=purple>"I never saw it. I never signed it it. I never approved it." <font color=black>
Nevertheless, there it is on Kerry's Web site, over Lehman's signature.
It's a bewilderment, to put it mildly.
But not quite as mysterious as the Kerry Vietnam strategy itself.
Kerry has been hurt badly by the charges leveled by fellow Swift boat vets, wounds that are entirely self-inflicted.
The vets were galvanized by the book <font color=blue><font color=blue>"Tour of Duty,"<font color=black> which is based on Kerry's own self-promoting descriptions.
Some 250 or so <font color=purple>"Swifties,"<font color=black> who have been seething ever since Kerry's 1971 defamation of U.S. troops in Vietnam in the Senate, were moved to respond.
Kerry could have denied their charges and dropped the subject. But he upped the ante at every opportunity.
* Kerry won his primary victory over Howard Dean by pushing his Vietnam War duty. Later he shaped his Democratic National Convention themes around his war <font color=blue>"heroism." <font color=black>
He began his convention speech by announcing: <font color=blue>"I'm John Kerry — reporting for duty."<font color=black>
In short, Kerry dared voters to judge him by his Vietnam experience.
* When the Swift-boat vets' ads began airing, Kerry escalated further, demanding that they be removed. He challenged President Bush to force the vets to stand down — and accused the vets of doing Bush's <font color=blue>"dirty work."<font color=black>
* Kerry also allowed one of his defenders, Washington lawyer Lanny Davis, to go on TV and antagonize the Swifties further still.
But that attack backfired big-time by enraging a retired rear admiral, William L. Schachte Jr. — a lieutenant on Kerry's boat when the candidate allegedly received the wound that led to his first Purple Heart.
Schachte told Post columnist Robert Novak that he had wanted to remain uninvolved, but was moved by Davis to correct the record: Kerry, said Schachte, <font color=purple>"nicked himself with a [grenade launcher]" and then "requested a Purple Heart." <font color=black>
Schachte's statements lends credibility to the Swift-boat vets' version and put Kerry on the defensive yet again.
* Kerry's campaign Web site brags that he received a <font color=blue>"Silver Star with combat V."<font color=black> Yet Thomas Lipscomb, writing in The Chicago Sun-Times, quotes a Navy spokesman disputing that:<font color=green> "The Navy has never issued a 'combat V' to anyone for a Silver Star." <font color=black>
Adds Lipscomb: <font color=green>"Naval regulations do not allow for the use of a 'combat V' for the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration the Navy awards. None of the other services has ever granted a Silver Star 'combat V,' either." <font color=black>
That was the citation that Lehman disavowed Friday:<font color=purple> "The language it contains was not written by me." <font color=black>
Kerry's poll numbers are now falling. For the first time this year, a Los Angeles Times poll, released at week's end, showed Bush leading, 50-47. Another L.A. Times poll showed Bush moving ahead in <font color=green>"battleground"<font color=black> states.
The numbers show serious damage to Kerry, particularly in the area of character. A month ago, Kerry and Bush were tied on honesty and integrity; Bush now leads, 46-39.
The Times poll also showed that the fraction of voters who feel that Kerry's Vietnam experience demonstrates the qualities America needs in a president dropped from 58 percent in June to 48 percent now.
Kerry can rail all he wants about the unfairness of criticism by the Swift boat veterans. But to see who is ultimately responsible for this controversy, Kerry should look in the mirror. |
