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How many times, and how many different ways does a pack of lies have to be debunked before the matter is laid to rest? Well when it comes to politics, some stories die a very slow death. Especially in a slow news cycle.
Today William Rood, an editor for the Chicago Tribune came out with a damning indictment of the charges that the Swift Boat Veterans For (Truth?) have leveled against John Kerry. After having been silent on the subject for more than thirty-five years, Rood, who was a swift boat commander in Vietnam, and was intimately involved in the mission that earned Kerry the Silver Star, finally decided it was time to speak out publicly to set the record straight. His version of the events mirrored Kerry's and the Navy's official account of the actions that took place that day in 1968.
It is another piece of evidence that should put the nail in the coffin of this story.It should, but in this political season of relentless personal attacks against Senator Kerry, it won't.
The media gave this story legs to stand on, and even though the story has been cut off at the knees, it is still limping.
But the real story is not what happened more than thirty-five years ago on a river in Vietnam. The real story is that an independent group funded by supporters of George Bush, with proven illegal ties to the Bush campaign have gotten their desired effect with smear tactics. The swift boat group had to know that their accounts of Kerry's actions in Vietnam would be challenged, investigated and most probably have heaps of doubt cast on them. After all, these are the same people who praised the senator publicly and on the record back in 1970 and again in 1996. It is no coincidence that months before the election they have now changed their stories. It is no coincidence that the web of people connected with this group have close ties to George Bush and Karl Rove.
But what this group also knew, and most assuredly had been coached on by people closely associated with the Bush campaign, is that it really didn't matter if their accounts were totally false. Once the scurrilous charges were tossed into the public arena, the damage would already be done. Then Kerry would be drawn into defending his actions and trying to disprove the damaging charges. What else could he do but play right into their hands? If he took the high road (which he did for almost two weeks) and didn't answer the charges, then the story would snowball, which is exactly what it did. We saw Kerry's poll numbers go down correspondingly as a result. When he began to focus on the charges and answer them, well, it took away from his message to the voters, it took valuable time away from the campaign, and it took away valuable resources. Kerry was hoping to glide through the month of August without having to spend a dime of his campaign money for commercial advertising. It didn't exactly work out. He has had to produce a commercial to answer the swift boat people and buy air time in several key battleground states. To this extent the Bush people have had their way.
For Kerry, it has been a lose-lose situation. Having been drawn into the public debate about his record in Vietnam, he is now being skewered by republican goons on television shows and talk radio, who charge that he is spending all of his time talking about the distant past because he has no agenda for the future. It is another well known political tactic - make ridiculous charges about a candidate, get that candidate off-message, make the candidate spend days or weeks answering the charges, and then berate the candidate in high profile public forums for spending their time talking about things other than the issues.
It is only a matter of days, I believe before the Swift Boat Vets For Truth drop the "Kerry didn't come by his medals honorably" strategy and move on to the "Kerry was anti-American because he protested the Vietnam War" strategy. A new commercial touting just that will be out days from now. This too, unfortunately will have it's desired effect, for what they really want is to keep our candidate off-stride and dancing to their tune. It is really the only strategy available to the Bush campaign. It is painfully obvious to the White House that their man has the kind of record to run away from - not run on.
It's really only started. It's going to get a lot nastier.
Joe Fields
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