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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (40348)	4/21/2004 3:55:56 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 794008

Times on the trail - April 20, 2004 POLITICAL POINTS \| 4.20 5:40 PM Record Breaking By CARL HULSE If there was one advantage John Kerry must have figured he had over President Bush, it was his military background: Mr. Kerry had medal-winning service in Vietnam while Mr. Bush was forced to disclose his own military records to quiet a political uproar over whether he fulfilled his National Guard obligations during the Vietnam era. Now Mr. Kerry's military records are drawing attention — but not in a good way. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts was quite clear in his appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday that his military materials were open and fully available for review to those who wanted to take a look. "People can come and see them at headquarters and take a look at them," Mr. Kerry said. "I'm proud of my service. I'm proud of what we did." Well, The Boston Globe, which reported some of the most important articles on Mr. Bush's National Guard history as well as Mr. Kerry's military career, tried to do just that. But the paper was told, according to an article it published today, that it could not see all the records, and that Mr. Kerry was referring only to material that had already been released to The Globe. That turn of events was immediately jumped on by the Bush campaign, which contrasted it with the president's decision to make his file available — albeit under pressure. "John Kerry said all his military records are available, before his campaign said that all his military records are not available," said Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman. "John Kerry should stick to his first position on 'Meet the Press' and release all his records." By this afternoon, Mr. Kerry's campaign was relenting and beginning the release of the material, planning to post much of it on the campaign Web site. "Our intent is to make all of those records available," Jean Shaheen, a top adviser to Mr. Kerry, said on CNN. "Most of them are — they're all available on the Web site that we have today. John Kerry has a military record to be proud of. He was decorated in Vietnam." The Bush campaign expressed satisfaction. "If he's changed again that's appropriate," said Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager, appearing on the same CNN program. "We think it's good. He has always said he believes in public disclosure." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company