Everybody Look What’s Goin’ Down

The clash between Vietnam veterans over Sen. John Kerry and critics of his war record heated up several degrees Monday as a group of vets called on a Clackamas County deputy prosecutor to resign.

“He’s hurt a lot, a lot of people,” Don Stewart, one of the organizers of a rally on the Main Street steps of the county courthouse, said of Alfred French. “It opens up a lot of wounds. . . . This is personal.”

Stewart of Oregon City and Don Kirsch of Canby drew about 45 people to a rally to criticize French, a senior deputy district attorney who said in an affidavit that Kerry lied about his service record. French later admitted his sworn statements were based on the accounts of others.

French’s comments have been used in anti-Kerry ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans who have said the Democratic presidential candidate lied about or exaggerated his actions during Swift boat river duty in 1969.

[…]

During the rally, Stewart read a letter he and Kirsch wrote in which they tell French he should resign because he has lost the trust of county residents.

“We question your fitness to serve as an enforcer of the law after swearing to facts in a legal affidavit that you do not know to be true,” they wrote.

[…]

Kirsch said French has a right to criticize Kerry “as a concerned veteran” but should not have signed a sworn statement based on secondhand information. “He’s told lies and hearsay evidence,” Kirsch said.

French did not return a telephone message asking for comment.

Thanks to Hesiod for keeping us informed and enlightened even from self-imposed exile.