Captain Ed Morrisey has been doing a great job of defoliating the jungle around the curious case of Rev. David Alston, former swiftboat colleague of John F. Kerry. (Just start at the above link and then scroll to get caught up.) But for those who want to cut to the chase, without all the detail, what it's about is this:
Speaking before the South Carolina Democratic faithful in a dreary ballroom last month, Kerry introduced his former boatmate David Alston:He sat up in a turret above my head in the pilot house--firing twin fifty-calibers to suppress enemy fire from ambushes. We were extremely exposed--always shot at first.... On one occasion in an ambush his turret was riddled with almost one hundred bullets penetrating the aluminum skin. This gunman kept firing even though he was wounded--one bullet going through his helmet, grazing his head and another hitting his arm....
Apart from McCain, no other possible presidential candidate can tell a story like that. Nor will they be able to air campaign ads like the rough Kerry biography video I saw, which shows vivid footage of PT boats speeding through Vietnamese jungle rivers, as a narrator recounts tales of Kerry's heroism. The words "courage and character," which sound like a slogan we'll be hearing more of, were repeated several times.
Except that Kerry appears to have simply appropriated the combat record of Lt. Ted Peck, for it was under Peck and not Kerry that Alston received his wounds. As Peck, himself, maintains (and is borne out by virtually all of the relevant combat records):
On the Kerry website, the report of the combat on that day on the 94 boat is posted as occurring during Kerry's time as skipper of the boat. Peck said Kerry replaced him after the Jan. 29, 1969, event."Those are definitely mine," Peck said, referring to the combat reports that the Kerry campaign posted as representing Kerry's action. "There is no doubt about it."
Now, why the hell would Kerry do this? Here's a theory posted by an anonymous blogger on Captain Ed's. In the heat of the campaign Kerry had just gotten a big bounce from his appearances with Rassmann in Iowa, and he wanted to build on that in the next primary state, which was Alston's home state South Carolina. One can imagine the conversation going something like:
Kerry: David, I'd like to have your endorsement as one of the men who served in my crew in Vietnam.
Alston: Well you have my vote, and I'll do whatever I can to support you, but of course I never actually served under you, so I can't really represent myself as being a crewmate.
Kerry: Yes, but we don't really have to mention that distinction to anyone. We can just say that we served "on the same boat," and people will make the logical leap that we were crewmates.
And then once they got on the campaign, and the adrenaline was flowing, and since Kerry was used to embellishing his record anyway, they just waded in too far... and having done so couldn't get back out.
That's what I think happened, or something like it. Having served on a number of campaigns, as an organizer, the scenario seems plausible to me. In the heat of a campaign the temptation is to cut corners, because you're usually tired, excited, overworked, and if you're the candidate you're living in a kind of fantasy world that revolves around you. Unless there's an "adult" on the campaign staff willing to rein things in, it's sometimes easy to just rationalize actions that you'd never undertake in the cold light of a normal day. I once worked for a candidate who, when he was hungry, just popped a can of chili into the oven. It blew the door off the oven and sprayed highly spiced bean and beef shrapnel all over two rooms. Never entered the fellow's head that the physical laws of the universe wouldn't let him get away with that sort of thing.
Now the issue concerns what the press does about John Kerry's "excellent adventure." The information is out there, but so far the press has a nearly absolute blackout on the "Christmas in Cambodia" thing, and has apparently decided to just "take a bullet" for Kerry... because they really really want him to win. Meanwhile, there are a few people like Evan Thomas (in statement on "Inside Washington" TV show, July 10 admitting media bias) who are starting to feel a bit queasy about the whole thing.
Can you imagine what'll happen to the press if we elect a President, largely on the strength of his war record, who has systematically lied about that war record (and who may actually be a pathological liar) and the press knew, and ignored the story? What would that do to US morale? It'd be as though we couldn't trust our own eyes and ears.
The thought just scares the hell out of me so much that I really hope Kerry isn't lying, at least about the Alston thing. Maybe he has an explanation? If so, let's hear it. In fact, lets see all of those military records that document a career that sits right at the heart of his candidacy.
Posted by Demosophist at August 16, 2004 12:05 AM | TrackBack