Thoughts on the Swift Boat Controversy

The New York Times %3E Opinion %3E Op-Ed Columnist%3A Kerry%3A Slo-Mo on Swifties

This is kind of uncharted territory for me, but I have provided a link to Sunday's op-ed piece in the NYTimes by Maureen Dowd, which I completely agree with.

This has been an interesting week, with the whole Swift-Boat controversy breaking, and becoming increasingly more absurd.

For those who don't know what I speak of, a 527 group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released two ads that accuse Kerry of being a War-Criminal, betraying his fellow veterans, and just plain lying about the honors he recieved. Although there are probably some questions to be asked of Kerry, the claims made by the group are just ludicirs. As recently as 6 months ago, many of these veterans openly praised Kerry for his service. Upon further investigation of the claims made in the ad, one can see that they are extremely misleading.

The oranization has taken several quotes out of context, claiming that Kerry accused Vietnam soldiers of being war-criminals. In fact, the reference they site was part of a speech Kerry gave recounting what other veterans told him. In other words, Kerry never actually accused his fellow vets. At the same time, several of the veterans who claim they served with Kerry, only did so in the sense of being in Vietnam at the same time he was.

Kerry has finally started to respond to this dirty, underhanded attack (better late than never). He recently filed a complaint with the FEC claiming that the charges were false, and that the orgainization is linked to Bush. Although the Bush's people deny any connection, an investigation by the Times has demonstrated that the Ad has been funded by a group of Texas republicans with close ties to the Bush family. Furthermore, a Bush campaign aide resigned late Saturday when it was published that he appeared in the ad.

I wish the public would be smart enough to see through the slander and false accusations made by Bush. As anyone who follows politics can tell you, this current attack is Bush's typical M.O. He did it to McCain (a POW in Vietnam) in the 2000 primary, to Georgia Senator Max Cleland (who lost 3 limbs in the war), and now to McCain (recipient of the Silver star and Purple Heart). All of these men made immense sacrifices for their country, and all had their patriotism called into question by Bush. How a man who spent the war AWOL from a cushy position with the Texas National Guard can call others' service into question is beyond me. What I find even more absurd is that the American public is actually buying this garbage.

I'm not completely sold on Kerry yet. I think his failure to promptly and decisively respond to Bush's attacks are representative of the intrinsic weaknesses in his candidacy. You cannot expect to just sit idly by and hope that this will all blow over. Kerry does have a habit of not taking strong stands on issues out of fear of offending people (although it is not nearly as bad as the Bush administration says it is, and Bush can certainly be accused of the same). If he is going to successfully counter these attacks, he needs to refocus the election on the domestic issues, which he has an edge over Bush, and immediately counter the false attacks made by Bush.

As I just said, I'm not sold on Kerry yet, but when it comes down to it, I would much rather prefer a waffler in the White House than an out and out liar.