Sunburned Partisans

A new group called Scumbags for Truth is going to issue a letter at a press conference tomorrow:

Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is “unfit to be commander-in-chief.” They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.

“What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension,” John O’Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com . The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

“We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief,” O’Neill said.

John O’Neill, of course, is the Nixon stooge who’s been paid to come out of character assassination retirement to destroy Kerry’s military record. Here’s a picture of him with his mentor the convicted felon Chuck Colson and his hero the disgraced and pardoned Dick Nixon:

Haldeman: — crew cut, real sharp looking guy who is more articulate than Kerry. He’s not as eloquent; he isn’t the ham that Kerry is. But he’s more believable. [edit]

Haldeman: This guy now, is gonna, he’s gonna move on Kerry.

The White House encouraged O’Neill to challenge Kerry to a debate. Kerry agreed and before the event, President Nixon called O’Neill into the Oval Office for a pep talk. “It’s a great service to the country,?”declared the president.

Nixon: Give it to him, give it to him. And you can do it, because you have a pleasant manner, too, because you’ve got and I think it’s a great service to the country. [edit]

Nixon: You fellows have been out there. You’ve got to know, seeing the barbarians that we’re up against, you’ve got to know what we?re doing in that horrible swamp that North Vietnam is. You’ve got to know from all our faults of what we have in this country that, that what we’re doing is right. You’ve got to know too, people are critics. Critics of the war, critics of [unint], run America down. [edit] You’ve gotta know that you’re on the winning sthat, that you’re on the right side.

Two weeks later, the veterans squared off on the popular Dick Cavett show:

O’Neill: Mr. Kerry is the type of person who lives and survives only on the war weariness and fears of the American people. This is the same little man who on nationwide television in April spoke of, quote, crimes committed on a day to day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

Kerry: We believe as veterans who took part in this war we have nothing to gain by coming back here and talking about those things that have happened except to try and point the way to America, to try and say, here is where we went wrong, and we’ve got to change.

(Amazing isn’t it? Same bullshit, different war. After the events of the last week, it looks as if we have merely refined our methods. The sadistic sexual humiliation techniques are truly a step forward.)

As for the Scumbags For Truth, (aka SoFT) John O’Neill proudly consorted with felons and liars to smear John Kerry then and is doing the bidding of their heirs still today. One would hope that his picture and the Nixon tapes would feature heavily in any rebuttal. They haven’t quite managed to finish the full Uncle Joe Stalin historical airbrush on Tricky Dick just yet. Their hands are full for the moment with keeping Bozo from going off the reservation and turning Dizzy Ron into a saint.

I hear a lot of complaining that Kerry talks too much about Vietnam and that it’s all in the past and we should move on and deal with more pertinent issues. I can understand that sentiment, particularly among those who are too young to have a stake in the argument. (It’s the way I used to feel about “who lost China” arguments.) But, as you can tell from the strangely familiar arguments above, Vietnam is just a proxy for a particular worldview that continues to be debated even 30 years later.

Progress is slow when viewed from the perspective of one life. Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back. A lot of things have changed since O’Neill and Kerry first squared off 33 years ago, but the argument about blind patriotism, government transparency and what constitutes a just and unjust war rages on.

I would suggest, however, that with 20/20 hindsight we know that John Kerry was not the one who was the liar in those conversations recorded so long ago. And we know who ended up as convicted felons and who did not. And we also know that unlike Kerry, in the 33 years since that confrontation on Dick Cavett that Nixon’s house boy John O’Neill has done nothing of note. Indeed, his only claim to fame in his entire life is as a GOP Swift Boat Stooge against Kerry.

It seems pretty obvious who holds the high ground on this one. I am betting this thing is going to backfire.