Howler: Swiftboat slanderers, once brave, now "girlie-men."

[BurtWorm]

Once lean mean fighting machines, now fat tubs of lard quaking under the scrutiny of a press corps actually doing its job for a change.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/

LARRY AND GEORGE, DUCKING FIRE: No, this morning’s Post can’t really settle the matter of Kerry’s disputed Bronze Star. (It’s almost impossible to “prove” what occurred in events that are four decades old.) But we couldn’t help chuckling as we read today about prime Kerry-trasher Larry Thurlow. The Post had to file an independent request to inspect Thurlow’s Vietnam records—records which seem to contradict his account of those Bronze Star events. Why didn’t Thurlow release his records? Tuesday, he told Michael Dobbs:

DOBBS (8/19/04): In a telephone interview Tuesday evening after he attended a Swift Boat Veterans strategy session in an Arlington hotel, Thurlow said he lost his Bronze Star citation more than 20 years ago. He said he was unwilling to authorize release of his military records because he feared attempts by the Kerry campaign to discredit him and other anti-Kerry veterans.

Poor baby! Thurlow—trashing Kerry for all he is worth—was afraid that someone might criticize him! Meanwhile, another brave warrior—Kerry-trasher George Elliott—is hiding beneath his desk too:

DOBBS: The Bronze Star recommendations for both Kerry and Thurlow were signed by Lt. Cmdr. George M. Elliott, who received reports on the incident from his base in the Gulf of Thailand. Elliott is a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and has questioned Kerry's actions in Vietnam. But he has refused repeated requests for an interview after issuing conflicting statements to the Boston Globe about whether Kerry deserved a Silver Star. He was unreachable last night.

Poor baby! Of course, Elliott is really a prime piece of work. In real time, he gave Kerry glowing recommendations in Nam. And in 1996, he flew to Boston to defend Kerry when the Boston Globe slimed his Silver Star conduct. But this year, the scatter-brained skipper has pulled three big flips. First, he signed up with the Swift Boat Veterans, saying that Kerry didn’t deserve the Silver Star. Then, in early August, he took it all back. “It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here,” he told the Globe’s Michael Kranish. “I knew it was wrong” to sign, Elliott said. “ In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake.” But the next day, the vacillating veteran changed course again, saying he had been misquoted. Now, he is simply “unreachable.”

Thurlow didn’t want to be criticized. Elliott won’t explain his reversals. Brave back then—but girlie-men now. Now, they prefer to give fire.