Posted
9:40am, Friday, August 6, 2004
If
you haven't already read it, start with my post from last night (below
or link). Here's a swift boat
update:
Looks
like this brotherhood is crumbling. I guess some of veterans finally
figured out they might be "outed" in their flip-flopping because
one of them flip-flopped
again this morning.
Yesterday,
a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry's former commanding
officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander
George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ''terrible
mistake" in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not
deserve the Silver Star -- one of the main allegations in the book.
The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group
to justify assertions in their ad and book.
Elliott
is quoted as saying that Kerry ''lied about what occurred in Vietnam....
for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed
that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back.
The
statement refers to an episode in which Kerry killed a Viet Cong soldier
who had been carrying a rocket launcher, part of a chain of events
that formed the basis of his Silver Star. Over time, some Kerry critics
have questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to Kerry's crew.
Crew members have said Kerry's actions saved their lives.
Yesterday,
reached at his home, Elliott said he regretted signing the affidavit
and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.
ABC
News is also picking up on these flip-flopping
veterans.
And
who will first get to Lonsdale, who, in 1996, quite easily praised
Kerry for the same conduct he is now criticizing him for in an ad?
"As
far as I was concerned, the war was won over there in that part for
that period. And it was mainly won because of the bravado and the
courage of the young officers that ran the boats, the SWIFT boats
and the Coast Guard cutters and Senator Kerry was no exception. He
was among the finest of those," he said in 1996.
CNN
This Morning interviewed another one of the "outraged" swift
boat veterans against Kerry:
Elder
said his gripe with Kerry was not only his betrayal that followed
the Vietnam War, but also the way he "grossly exaggerated and
lied" to get his first Purple Heart — an honor, Elder said,
that did not meet the military's requirements for the award, which
is that it come from hostile fire.
Asked
if he was there that day, Elder said, "No."
First
the Jack Ryan scandal in Illinois, now this embarrassment for the GOP.
And
hey, how about the anemic jobs
report this morning? Only 32,000 new jobs in July. The administration
originally predicted over 230,000.
The
Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised their June numbers downward,
from 112,000 to 78,000.
Let's
see how Bush spins this one. I know Kerry will run with it.
©2004
Ron Lim unless noted |
