Bush, Kerry Both Face Attacks on Vietnam Records

[CatWoman]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Bush (news - web sites) struggles to answer questions about his military service during the Vietnam War era, a conservative counterattack has begun to try to impugn Democratic presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites)'s war record.

A photograph showing Kerry and actress and anti-war activist Jane Fonda taken at a 1970 anti-war rally in Pennsylvania surfaced on a conservative Web site on Monday. It spread across the Internet and showed up on the front page of the Washington Times on Wednesday. TV networks quickly picked up the story.

-snip-


"The issue with Bush's service record is less about what he did or didn't do while others of his generation were fighting in Southeast Asia, or his legitimacy as commander-in-chief of our troops now fighting in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites)," said Thomas Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.


"Rather, the more damaging effect of this story is that it strips away Bush's straight-shooting, plain-talking, everyman persona," he said.

One problem with Bush's service is that the White House has been unable to produce a single person who remembers serving with him. Lichtman said it seemed the White House was panicking a little at its failure to squash the story.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040212/pl_nm/campaign_vietnam_dc&cid=615&ncid=1963&sid=96378800

[xray s]

1. The Dem's knew they would throw this at Kerry

The AWOL story is an example of attacking before you are attacked, a "pre-emptive strike", if you will.

Somebody has learned how to play this game.

Good.

[DemNoir]

2. Yeah right, lets equate the two

Wow, is this peice a stretch!

[Another Bill C.]

3. Somewhere

There's a picture of Dubya's toadie Senator Norm Coleman at these rallies. It may not quash the anti-Kerry campaign but it certainly wouldn't hurt to find one of those pictures.

[StClone]

4. I didn't read the article

But I assume it probes the facts involving a decorated Viet Nam Vet appearing in public denouncing the war he fought in and accidentally, and innocently, appears within shouting distance of another infamous demonstrator?

This somehow equates with Bush's questionable past of avoiding the draft and dodging his responsibilities in the National Guard. The great minds given to define such similarities are beyond my feeble capacities to bring meaning to such comparisons.

[CO Liberal]

5. That Rally Took Place in 1970

Jane Fonda didn't go to Vietnam until 1972....two years later.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Vietnam is a loser as an issue to both parties

Anyone with a working knowledge of the history of Vietnam knows that there is plenty of blame to go around regarding that conflict.

Even President Kennedy comes out tainted because of his role in the assassination of President Diem.

Both major parties have blood on their hands.

[The Blue Knight]

8. I think Kerry earned his right to protest by paying with his blood in Nam

And I'm a Kucinich supporter!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. First of all, Kerry is the only one with a "Vietnam Record"

and secondly, Bush has nothing to be proud of in that regard, and everything to be ashamed of. Especially in light of his false rush to war in Iraq.

[chelsea0011]

11. Exactly! Where is this "Bush Vietnam record" coming from?

:crazy: Bush can't even spell Vietnam much less find it on a map.

[0007]

9. Why? Why is Colin Powell being ignored?

Colin baby has much garbage in his trailer concerning Vietnam. My Lai for one and the Iran/Contra cover up being another.

Here is Robert Parry & Norman Soloman's take on Colin Powell.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

Interesting -

[Luvpurp]

10. In the words of idiot boy " bring it on"

If Kerry doesn't go into a Gore-Dukakis shell, there is no way the Repubs can win on this one. Every time someone brings this up he should point out his Vietnam service record and say how dare they try to impeach him on that. He shed his blood in Vietnam, nuff said!

[UTUSN]

12. FONDA Blasted This off the Table Yesterday

On CNN when she ANGRILY said the two of them were at rallies, like other people, that she doesn't even know if they shook hands, that this smear "is NOT going to work THIS TIME." Unfortunately, this is now being eclipsed

[rodbarnett]

14. Here is a Pic that Proves Jane Knew John

John and Jane sharing a Podium at a Peace rally

On CNN when she ANGRILY said the two of them were at rallies, like other people, that she doesn't even know if they shook hands


cap said :
when you look at the picture, Fonda is in the front row. Kerry is 3-5 rows behind her to the left. There is a difference between a picture of people at the same event together and people who are standing side by side or even on a platform together.

They shared a podium at another rally. She should tell the truth.

[UTUSN]

18. She Didn't Say They Didn't Know Each Other

My report was incomplete but the info is all over this board and elsewhere: She was referring to the Repukes smearing that the VVAW was a Communist outfit. Betcha there's a transcript somewhere, full of her truth.

[CatWoman]

19. from yesterday's Inside Politics transcript

WOODRUFF: In a sure sign that the opposition research units are up and running in this presidential race, a photo featuring both John Kerry and Jane Fonda has recently surfaced. The snapshot saws Fonda at an anti-Vietnam War rally back in 1970. Kerry can be seen sitting several rows behind the actress.

Fonda told CNN earlier today when she stopped by for an interview that she had little contact with Kerry at that event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE FONDA, ACTRESS/ACTIVIST: The American people have had it with the big lie. Any attempts to 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.

And they're also saying this organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was a communist organization. This was an organization of men who risked their lives in Vietnam, who consider themselves totally patriotic. And anyone who slams that organization, and slams Kerry for being part of it, is doing an injustice to veterans.

How can you impugn, how can you even suggest that a Vietnam veteran like Kerry or any of them were -- are not patriotic? He was a hero there.

And this is the kind of big lie that's coming out of this current administration that I think the American people are sick of. And I don't think it's going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Actress Jane Fonda commenting just a short time ago on that photograph that surfaced in the last couple of days showing her and John Kerry at an anti-Vietnam War rally back in 1970.


http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/11/ip.00.html

[UTUSN]

21. Thanks, CW, I Didn't Think I Was Misrepresenting

FONDA was ON FIRE!

[cap]

13. this story on kerry is a good example of spin...

when you look at the picture, Fonda is in the front row. Kerry is 3-5 rows behind her to the left. There is a difference between a picture of people at the same event together and people who are standing side by side or even on a platform together.

Just Republican spin.

[leesa]

15. What's wrong with Kerry's Vietnam record? Nothing that I

know of. He protested an illegal war started with lies by our government. That is an extremely patriotic thing to do. The unpatriotic GOPers have a lot to learn about what true patriotism is...it has nothing to do with waving little flags and tying yellow ribbons around trees and posts.

[Retrograde]

16. While Bush was bravely defending Texas....

Kerry was lounging around on an all-expenses-paid vacation in a tropical paradise, courtesy of Ma and Pa taxpayer? Hey, it worked with Gore: the wacko right managed to turn his volunteering for duty in a combat area into a cushy safe posting (strange, on my planet during the Vietnam war journalists took a lot of flak - literally).

I remember Vietnam quite well. A lot of the males in my age group looked at ways of avoiding the draft, some legal, some borderline. If GWB could admit that he made yet one more mistake in his youthful days (he was under 40 then, right?) I could understand. It's the trying to have it both ways that bothers me.

linda, whose draft lottery number would have been 24 were it not for the extra X chromosome

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. So, Kerry disapproved of the war; but served anyway...

Sounds like a lot of brave men who served in Vietnam.

This sets Kerry far apart from those who approved of the war and didn't have the guts to serve.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. IMHO, the damage to Junior goes well beyond his alleged...

..."straight-shooting, plain-talking, everyman persona".

These are the facts:

1. The "Man Who Would be Dictator" was AWOL/deserting during the Vietnam War;

2. Junior has been the leader of an illegitimate junta since December 2000;

3. Junior and his cohorts allowed 911 to happen on purpose...some believe the NeoCons took part in the planning;

4. Junior and the NeoCons destroyed the strongest and fastest growing economy in the world while simultaneously plunging the country into massive debt;

5. Junior has illegally ordered American troops into two Middle Eastern conflicts based solely on a set of bare-faced lies.

These facts are, IMHO, EXTREMELY damaging.

How can the military justify taking orders from that lying little banty rooster is beyond my understanding. They would be well within their rights as American citizens and members of the American military to refuse any and all future orders from this worm and his fellow-travellers.

[Barkley]

22. We're still fighting the Viet Nam War 35 years later

[halley]

23. Really

x

[Ernesto]

24. OK I give up, I'll face the attack on my own record.

I am a traiter of the highest order...... Would you believe that I, as a US Marine, actually took pot while in Viet Nam?.. Yes it is true.... Big f%$king deal! Atleast I took my chances by joining with the intent to contribute the only thing I owned: me. Hail Kerry's service & to hell with the chimp/beast's avoidance of service. Both were born of privilege. One of them served & one of them hid..... Have I reduced this down to understandable terms for all?

[Matilda]

25. It was thanks to people like you who served that we at home learned

about the real horror of that war. Until the stories began to be
told, there were many, like me, who objected to our friends being
drafted, but really didn't know anything about the country or the
issues. We learned a lot from our friends who were sent there.
Enough to be wary of ever letting it happen again - that's why we
of that generation keep coming back to it; it marked all of us in
one way or another.

And I could never blame anyone who didn't want to go, in fact, I
supported those who objected, but I hate seeing a man who never
flew a single mission trying to pretend he's some kind of war hero.
And I despise a man who lacked the courage either to fight in the
war or against it, but who is happy to send others to do the job
he was too chicken to do himself.