Bush Signed his form 180
The Kerry Grill: Kerry's Hypocrisy over MoveOn Ad, Military Records
John Kerry has condemned a MoveOn ad criticizing Bush's military service. This is apparently intended to embarass Bush into condeming the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad. Neither candidate was involved with creating or funding either ad. MoveOn and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are both 527 organizations.
This is pretty naked politics on Kerry's part, and is hypocritical, to boot. Kerry's own Web site questions Bush's military records. The page that criticizes Bush is dated April 27, 2004. The Swift Boat Vet ads began running in August. It seems disingenuous to criticize MoveOn for something his own organization has been doing for months.
Kerry's condemnation of the MoveOn ads came just a few hours after former Democratic presidential nominee Wesley Clark criticized Bush's military service at a Kerry-organized event. "The other man [Bush] scrambled and used his family's influence to get out of hearing a shot fired in anger."
Earlier this year Kerry helped pressure Bush into signing a Form 180 to release all of his military records. Kerry, however, hasn't signed a Form 180 or released all of his military records. In yesterday's Washington Times, Michael Meehan, Kerry's communications director, said "Senator Kerry's entire military service record is posted on JohnKerry.com. His entire record." However, that isn't true. Many of Kerry's records have never been released, and as Meehan says in the article, Kerry hasn't signed a Form 180.
This isn't the first time Kerry's campaign has had problems with the status of Kerry's military records. An April 20th article in the Boston Globe finds Kerry getting mixed up over what he has and hasn't released.
Kerry, in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," was asked whether he would follow President Bush's example and release all of his military records. "I have," Kerry said. "I've shown them -- they're available for you to come and look at." He added that "people can come and see them at headquarters."
But when a reporter showed up yesterday morning to review the documents, the campaign staff declined, saying all requests must go through the press spokesman, Michael Meehan. Late yesterday, Meehan said the only records available would be those already released to this newspaper.
"He is releasing all military records he has released to The Boston Globe," Meehan said in a telephone interview. In a follow-up e-mail, Meehan said it was those particular records to which Kerry was referring on "Meet the Press."
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