The Swift Boat Saga

First, we had the Swift Boat Veterans ad ripping John Kerry. Plenty of people, with John McCain in the forefront, attacked the ad. The RNC and the Bush campaign declared hands off, but as the SF Chronicle explained, there was room for disagreement:

"I deplore this kind of politics," McCain said. "I think the ad is
dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the
boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under
fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served
honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."

Retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, head of the Swift Boat group, said they
respected McCain's "right to express his opinion and we hope he extends to us
the same respect and courtesy, particularly since we served with John Kerry, we
knew him well and Sen. McCain did not."

McCain himself spent more than five years in a Vietnam prisoner of war
camp. A bona fide war hero, McCain, like Kerry, used his war record as the
foundation of his presidential campaign.

The Kerry campaign has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying
none of the men in the ad served on the boat that Kerry commanded. Three
veterans on Kerry's boat that day -- Jim Rassmann, who says Kerry saved his
life, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, the driver on Kerry's boat, said the group
was lying.

They say Kerry was injured, and Rassmann called the group's account "pure
fabrication."

The general counsel for the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National
Committee sent television stations a letter asking them not to run the ad
because it is "an inflammatory, outrageous lie" by people purporting to have
served with Kerry.

Hoffmann said none of the 13 veterans in the commercial served on Kerry's
boat but rather were in other swiftboats within 50 yards of Kerry's. The group
claims that there was no gunfire on the day Kerry pulled Rassmann from a muddy
river in the Mekong Delta and that Kerry's arm was not wounded, as he has
claimed.

Let's start with McCain's complaint, because while it's understandable, it's also off-base. McCain complains that none of these guys served on Kerry's boat... but all served on other boats, served with him and knew him. McCain cites the folks on Kerry's boat as evidence of his honorable service, but others who served with him and possibly knew him just as well are calling his character into question. Is McCain saying they are not entitled to their opinion? Probably not, but what he is saying is that we shouldn't consider their opinion. That seems too dismissive.

Second, allow me to quibble with the Chronicle's claim that McCain made his Vietnam service the foundation of his campaign. Anyone who likes McCain will tell you that the centerpiece of his campaign was his force of personality, and the perception that he offered strong leadership. His war experience was ONE example of that, as was his work in the Senate. In the end, McCain's willingness to stick his neck out on the issues cost him a legitimate shot in the primary -- he stood against key GOP constituencies. Kerry has kissed the butt of every key Democratic constituency and ignored his Senate record to focus exclusively on his Vietnam record.

Third, we have the DNC letter, which can be seen here, telling stations not to run the ad. The letter itself is deceptive -- it claims the ad states that these men served on Kerry's swiftboat, which it did not (it also claims the statements made in the ad are libelous, although I always thought spoken words would qualify as slander). Unlike the statements by people like Rassman contesting the statements in the ad, this goes pretty far. Put it this way -- if the Bush campaign tried similar tactics to respond a questionable ad about the President's Guard service, we'd be reading about right-wing censors and John Ashcroft leading the Gestapo.

To me, the DNC is being hoist on its own petard, having spent much of the year gleefully watching 527 groups bash President Bush. As usual, we have whining about "dirty tricks" instead of legitimate responses. The left always complains about coordinated attacks by the right, but look at the response of David Brock's Media Matters for America, the left's rather pedestrian answer to the more established Media Research Center. MMFA opted to attack Jerome Corsi, the author of Unfit for Command, the Swift Boat vets' new book on Kerry's service in Vietnam, which is currently #2 on Amazon's bestseller list. As Jim Geraghty of the Kerry Spot at National Review pointed out, Corsi's quotes are no more outrageous than Michael Moore's fabrications. Expect plenty of attacks on the people making the allegations, rather than responses to the allegations.

Geraghty, by the way, has this stunning excerpt from Unfit for Command:

Kerry also described, for example, for the Boston Herald his vivid memories
of his Christmas Eve spent in Cambodia:

"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian
border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and
celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in
a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was
very real."

Problem One: Nixon hadn't taken office yet.

Problem Two: "During Christmas 1968, he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia. Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there. During Christmas 1968, Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border...

All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command—Joe Streuhli (Commander of CosDiv 13), George Elliott (Commander of CosDiv 11), Adrian Lonsdale (Captain, USCG and Commander, Coastal Surveillance Center at An Thoi), Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (Commander, Coastal Surveillance Force Vietnam, CTF 115), and Rear Admiral Art Price (Commander of River Patrol Force, CTF 116)—deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia...

At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s PCF 44 boat—Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner—deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be interviewed for this book.

The Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty [the book on Kerry's war years by Douglas Brinkley]. Instead, Kerry replaces the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodia border” in a town called Sa Dec, some fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border.

Somehow, Kerry’s secret illegal mission to Cambodia, which he recounted on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1986, is now a firefight at Sa Dec and a Christmas day spent back at the base writing entries in his journal.

Is any of this relevant to Kerry's potential for serving as President? Once again, it depends on how important his service in Vietnam is to the question.