Slick Smear

You know, I’ll be interested to read the swiftboat liars book because from what I read here the statements from all these guys don’t say much of anything about Kerry’s war record. When they say he’s “unfit” it’s because they are pissed about his anti-war activities.

This smear is slick. All these right wing vets get filmed saying “he’s unfit to be commander in chief” without providing any details. They don’t say specifically why, but you are left with the clear impression that 200+ Vietnam vets think Kerry’s lying about his record at best and that he’s a coward at worst. In reality, they just hate his politics. But, it won’t make any difference, because you have Rush and Sean and John O’Neill and Ted Sampley all the rest filling in the blanks and none of these guys are rushing to elaborate on what they are really talking about. (Lots of honor and integrity in this crowd.)

I think the way to frame this issue is that these men are smearing the United States Military by saying that all those glowing reports and medal recommendations were lies. Is Kerry the only one about whom they believe all these officers lied or were there others who recieved medals and commendations who didn’t deserve them? Do they think this kind of thing is this still going on today? It may force some of these men to come out and admit what they are really saying.

They obviously hate Kerry’s guts with a passion, and probably hate Democrats with a passion too. But, I’m not sure they’ll hold up if they’re accused of denigrating the military, which is what they actually are doing. I think, if pressed, they may want to explain that when they say he’s “unfit” they are talking about Kerry’s antiwar activity, not his combat experience.

And, that’s a very old argument that means absolutely nothing. Which is why they’ve decided to smear instead of taking Kerry on for what they really hate him for.