Kerry takes new fire over Vietnam - CNN

[question everything]

(snip)

The photograph, taken on Labor Day 1970, shows Fonda at an antiwar rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Kerry, who at the time led a group called Vietnam Veterans Against The War, can be seen in background behind her.

(snip)

But aides stressed that Kerry and Fonda were only acquaintances, and the meeting took place two years before Fonda took a controversial trip behind enemy lines and posed for pictures on a North Vietnam army anti-aircraft gun which prompted her angry detractors to dub her "Hanoi Jane."

(snip)

Fonda also dismissed attempts to link Kerry to her controversial antiwar past with the photograph as "a dirty black propaganda tactic."

"My reaction is that the American people have had it with the big lie," she told CNN Wednesday. "Any attempts to link Kerry to me and make him look bad with that connection is completely false. We were at a rally for veterans at the same time. I spoke, Donald Sutherland spoke, John Kerry spoke at the end. I don't even think we shook hands.

(snip)

"It bothered us, anyone who associated themselves with Jane Fonda, with (her husband)Tom Hayden, with the antiwar movement," said Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-California, a former Navy pilot shot down in 1972.

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/11/elec04.prez.kerry.fonda

[minkyboodle]

1. hannity must be happy

that CNN picked up on his bullshit scoop.. This seems like such a no go story I can't believe CNN picked it up.
Scott

[frogbison]

14. NICE!

picture of Kucinich!

[einniv]

2. My oh my what pases for "news" now-a-days

Smear campaign anyone. Sheesh how low can you go. Is this maybe too transparent and might backfire?

[pinniped]

5. I have a feeling it will backfire too.

Hopefully the people are waking up and seeing the chimpy WH for what it is.

[Fight_n_back]

3. Kerry should take that photo

and offer to put it side by side with the little one on a National Guard base at the same time. Such a phot, of course, does not exist.

Kerry has nothing to apologize about. He took a stand on the war. The little one was obviuosly against since he pleaded with his daddy to let him stay home but he didn't have the guts to say anything publicly.

Bush should come clean with why he couldn't do his service...his vagina hurt. Which is worse, being associated with an activist actress or being a lieing coward?

[SilasSoule]

13. Hi Yang!!!

:hi:
I'm glad you still check in from time to time. You always seem to hit the mark -- straight up.

[2004Donkeys]

That comment is very offensive to women

I ask that you retract it.

[Fight_n_back]

34. You are correct

Any average woman with full blown Pre Menstrual Syndrome, cramps, headaches, heavy spotting and nausea would be more trustworthy in a fox hole than the pretender in chief.

George W. Bush should have to donate three limbs to Max Cleland.

[agingdem]

38. I think...

Kerry should take that picture and put it side by side with Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam after Bush I had made a deal to give him chemical weapons, or a picture of Dick "Mr. Halliburton" making deals with Iraq, Iran, and Syria...better yet, how about Powell at the UN lying his head off. Now that's treason. Kerry served in Vietnam heroically and Georgie and his chickenhawks did what exactly?

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. I had wrongly assumed that Vietnam was generally considered

to be an utterly regrettable failure that no one in their right mind would defend. Why anyone would bother to use an association with the VVAW against Kerry is kind of astounding. Kerry is more of a hero for speaking out at the time than he was being in the military.

[not systems]

8. I thought the same thing.

I guess it is just my filters meeting up with the harsh facts of our society.

I have always thought Kerry and Jane hero's for speaking out against madness.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

27. Even former DefSec McNamara, 87 yrs old, agrees it was a tragedy! n/t

[dw]

6. "It bothered us."

So, if someone serves his time honorably, he must forever give up his right to free speech?

What does he do once he's met the dogs of war in all their bloody horror? Does he then stay silent because of what he's come to know? Does he wrap himself in the flag and never again think an original thought?

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-California, has a lot of work to do if he's ever going to come to an honest assessment of his enthusiastic involvement in the Iraq War of his time.

[question everything]

15. Cunningham is an ass

who always has to stick his noise where it does not belong.

Two years ago he was trying to move a marine training base to the closed base at El Toro, some 80 miles north, and without even consulting with the congresswoman (D) in whose district the base was.

When someone living close to El Toro tried to email Cunningham, it was rejected since the writer was not a constituent.

[daleo]

7. This is desperation

Hard to believe they can't come up with something better than claiming he knew (gasp) Jane Fonda. I mean, the Republican red meat base may care about such things, but I doubt many others do.

Where was Bush passed out that day?

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

9. But...Tucker Carlson said the GOP was above gutter politics

and the politics of personal destruction.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. RUMSFELD+SADDAM, RUMSFELD+SADDAM, RUMSFELD+SADDAM PHOTO!

This is a great time to just hammer that Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam into every pundit's face when they talk about Kerry's anti-war activities.

[Kool Kitty]

11. You know, that could be a good campaign poster.

Photo of Rummy shaking hands with Saddam, next to the Kerry-Fonda photo, with the caption-Which twosome frightens you more?

[SilasSoule]

20. Here ya go Kitty.....

WHICH TWOSOME SCARES YOU THE MOST?

..

[Kool Kitty]

24. Perfect!

Thanks, baby! :yourock:

[Tuttle]

37. Isn't that Rove undercover in between Jane and John

wearing the wig and glasses?

Tut-tut

[JohnOneillsMemory]

21. and for a campaign commercial, the BBC tv feed they opened 'too early'

on the night * announced the official beginning of the Iraq Invasion. Viewers in Great Britain got to see the pResident pump his fist like a frat boy at a ball game and ejaculate "Feels good!" as if he was a winning quarterback who scored a touch down.

Play that over and over intercut with military funerals, dead Iraqi civilians, homeless US families in shelters etc.

Where is that video clip? We need it badly. Along with "Bring it on!"

Put these together and TV Nation will get a visceral gut feeling that something is very wrong in the White House and the press corps.

Oh, and add the recent ranting by Rumsfeld in Germany trying to convince the Europeans that we are good guys who can be trusted with pre-emptive wars. He sputtered, "Good gracious! Any...monkey! that came down from...Mars! can see that!"

Unbelievable. There's so much material to work with.

[Kool Kitty]

25. Absolutely right.

Use all of them, the off-the-cuff remarks, stupid expressions, flubs, etc. Sometimes it's so easy, they write themselves. And that Rumsfeld quote, in Germany, jeez...This is the guy they send to Europe on a DIPLOMATIC mission?

[Nomad559]

12. Jane Fonda Defends John Kerry - Video

Jane Fonda

[ConcernedCanuk]

17. Saw Jane on TV tonight, saying that those suggesting conection

.
.

between her and Kerry back then was "ridiculous"

she "didn't even shake hands" with him. (she's still lookin' good tho !)

haven't come a long ways from "muckraking" now have we !!

(oh - muckraking n : spreading malicious gossip {syn: scandalmongering})

[mondo joe]

16. If this is the best they've got, Bush should start packing now

If this is the best they've got, Bush should start packing now.

[notbush]

18. Backfires all over the place

We're 10 months out of the election.....Both parties are throwing bombs....I'll bet you there is going to be a backlash.
Who's information is true and who's isn't?
We must be careful that our bombs don't blow up in our faces.
We must hope the repugs do.
Another day or two on the AWOL could turn against us.
If the repugs push too hard on the Kerry anti-war thing it could turn on them.
I remember the repug attacks on "the big dog" and how you could see it turning on them....
If you have good, solid information it can still be turned against you by the media.
I will admit, some of the facts that came out during the Clinton impeachment bothered me...however I was always glad to see the American public ignore them.

[Kool Kitty]

26. But look at what happens when we play nice.

Sometimes we have to get down in the mud and slug it out. I never used to think so, but now I do.

[Guaranteed]

29. That doesn't necessarily mean going negative- not necessarily, at least

Sometimes you have to be negative in order to get your point across. But the most important thing is to have clear, consistent, and RIGHTEOUS positions on the issues that affect us.

[saigon68]

32. Ask my friend Mike Dukakis

The object of a sad lesson of "nice" in the late 20th century

[fearnobush]

28. Tighten your seat belt. Your in for a rough ride. This is only the

beginning. Playing nice Chimp ahh, Good Boy.. does us no good, no matter what right wing media you see. They stole our election in 2000, we are owed our due........GregPalest.com

[diamond14]

19. here's the picture...that's JFK way in the back, behind Jane Fonda

Actress and anti-war activist Jane Fonda listens during a 1970 rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Sen. John Kerry, then a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against The War, is in the background, directly above Fonda.


Kerry's campaign confirmed that he was at the rally and spoke.


But aides stressed that Kerry and Fonda were only acquaintances, and the meeting took place two years before Fonda took a controversial trip behind enemy lines and posed for pictures on a North Vietnam army anti-aircraft gun which prompted her angry detractors to dub her "Hanoi Jane."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/11/elec04.prez.kerry.fonda/

[fizzana]

22. I'd say right now the Vietnam war is causing far more problems

for Bush* than for Kerry,

Check out Atrios for some interesting new updates.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

[Danieljay]

23. veterans supporting Kerry...check this quote

But the president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Bobby Muller, said Kerry has strong support among Vietnam vets.

"We have been contacted by veterans across the country , 'How do I connect to the Kerry campaign?'" he said. "I have not seen in the 26 years that I've been in Washington, ever, the kind of dynamic and energizing of a Vietnam veteran community in this country as I am right now."


Kerry enlisted, did his duty, and then fought for the right of veterans and demostrated against the politics of the war. No shame in that. Good for him.

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[Lorien]

31. Um, the "antiwar movement"

was as mainstream and popular then as kissing BushCo a** has been for the past three years. My parents protested, my grandparents protested (and they were of the WWII generation) and all my teachers protested. I didn't know a single "pro-war" individual growing up, because to believe our involvement in Vietnam was correct then would have been seen as absurd (SO many body bags coming home)! There's absolutely no shame in saying that we should not have been there, just as we should not be in Iraq.

[saigon68]

33. I have said this continuously here

Since the Chimpanzee and Wolfman started this Cluster Fuck

[boblynn]

35. This is going to get very Ugly

[dusty64]

36. Kerry actually served

and had EVERY right to return and oppose a horrible war. The fact he attended an anti-war rally is immaterial. I sadly fully expect the media to try and make a bigger deal out of this than the fact the pretender in chief didn't fullfill his duty and created his own rules.

[latebloomer]

40. The mention of Jane Fonda's name still has the power

to make hordes of people get out the lynching ropes. Her trip to Hanoi, more than 30 years later, still provokes rage in certain quarters.

They can't stir up that kind of emotion with just mentioning that Kerry served and then protested the war, so they must throw in "Hanoi Jane" to provoke the "Slowly I turn" kneejerk response.

Get ready for lots more of this manipulation. . .

[rodbarnett]

39. Here is a slide show of Kerry photos - LINK HERE

It is being circulated as negative publicity by the RW but I don't see it as negative. What do you think?

http://members.cox.net/macallan_the/Kerry/Kerry_MainPage.html

[brooklynite]

41. Who Really Cares?

I suspect the people who are going to get riled up today about Jane Fonda's anti-war activities 30 years ago weren't very likely to vote Democratic anyway. Even John McCain has buried the hatchet with the Vietnamese.

[leesa]

42. So what. Both were right to protest an illegal unethical war started

by government lies. Don't let the RW play this card. There was NOTHING right about what happened in Vietnam. It "bothers" sleazebag Cunningham, well isn't that too bad.

[DoYouEverWonder]

43. BTW: How old is Kerry in this pic? Early 20's maybe?

I wonder what W was doing the day this picture was taken. He was probably too drunk and stoned to even get out of bed?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

44. The Guard story is "gutter politics"

But this is fair game. They make me sick.

Guess what? He went to Vietnam, so he knew what it was about, and he didn't want anyone else to go - that's a little different than hiding from the draft and then being a warmonger later in life.

Besides...isn't this the period of life that the Repugs have classified as "youth," as in "youthful indiscretion?" So Kerry should have a free pass, right?

[rodbarnett]

45. Look what Ann(thrax) Coulter is saying about Max Cleland

Cleland drops a political grenade

Former Sen. Max Cleland is the Democrats' designated hysteric about George Bush's National Guard service. A triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, Cleland is making the rounds on talk TV, basking in the affection of liberals who have suddenly become jock-sniffers for war veterans and working himself into a lather about President Bush's military service. Citing such renowned military experts as Molly Ivins, Cleland indignantly demands further investigation into Bush's service with the Texas Air National Guard.

<snip>

Moreover, if we're going to start delving into exactly who did what back then, maybe Max Cleland should stop allowing Democrats to portray him as a war hero who lost his limbs taking enemy fire on the battlefields of Vietnam.

Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix. In fact, Cleland could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman – or what Cleland sneeringly calls "weekend warriors." Luckily for Cleland's political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it while in Vietnam.

There is more than a whiff of dishonesty in how Cleland is presented to the American people. Terry McAuliffe goes around saying, "Max Cleland, a triple amputee who left three limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam," was thrown out of office because Republicans "had the audacity to call Max Cleland unpatriotic." Mr. Cleland, a word of advice: When a slimy weasel like Terry McAuliffe is vouching for your combat record, it's time to sound "retreat" on that subject

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20040212.shtml