BoatBanter.com - Views of Kerry

Dave Hall wrote in message
I trust the guys who fought with him under his command.

So you are saying that you believe that over 250 guys who were there
at the same time as Kerry are all lying, but Kerry is the pillar of
truth?

You are on very shakey statistical ground.....

Dave

Maybe this tidbit will help clear things up. Even Republican John
McCain knows it is nothing short of a political ploy, packed with
untruths:

McCain condemns anti-Kerry ads, calls on White House to follow suit

RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer
Thursday, August 5, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(08-05) 10:20 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam,
called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and
dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as
well.

The White House declined.

"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in
an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to
tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic
presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record
and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.

"When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry," one of
the veterans, Larry Thurlow, says in the ad. Thurlow didn't serve on
Kerry's swiftboat, but says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry
winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Kerry's
crewmates support the candidate and call him a hero.

The ad, scheduled to air in a few markets in Ohio, West Virginia and
Wisconsin, was produced by Stevens, Reed, Curcio and Potham, the same
team that produced McCain's ads in 2000.

"I wish they hadn't done it," McCain said of his former advisers. "I
don't know if they knew all the facts."

Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing
for it, McCain said, "I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the
Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."

McCain, chairman of Bush's campaign in Arizona, later said the Bush
campaign has denied any involvement and added, "I can't believe the
president would pull such a cheap stunt."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to condemn the ad. He
did denounce the proliferation of spending by independent groups, such
as the anti-Kerry veterans organization, that are playing on both
sides of the political fence.

"The president thought he got rid of this unregulated soft money when
he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reform into law," McClellan
said. A chief sponsor of that bill, which Bush initially opposed, was
McCain.

In 2000, Bush's supporters sponsored a rumor campaign against McCain
in the South Carolina primary, helping Bush win the primary and the
nomination. McCain's supporters have never forgiven the Bush team.

McCain said that's all in the past to him, but he's speaking out
against the anti-Kerry ad because "it reopens all the old wounds of
the Vietnam War, which I spent the last 35 years trying to heal."

"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."

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.