A Swift Boat for The Truth

"It's become so petty it's almost pathetic in a way as I listen to these things. You know every -- (Rep.) Chaka (Fattah) was telling me a minute ago he keeps hearing these commentators, Republicans all of them, saying "well John Kerry was only in Vietnam for four months blah blah blah." Well, I was there for longer than that number one. Number two, I served two tours. Number three, they thought enough of my service to make me an aide to an admiral. And the Navy 35 years ago made the awards that I made through the normal process that they make. And I'm proud of them and I'm proud of my service and I'm proud that I stood up against the war when I came home because it was the right thing to do." "I've been 35 years now involved in foreign policy one way or the other. From being at the tip of the spear when leaders made bad decisions to trying to oppose it when I came home as an act of conscience. And you can judge my character incidentally by that. Because when the Times of moral crisis existed in this country I wasn't taking care of myself, I was taking care of public policy. I was taking care of things that made a difference to the life of this nation. You may not have agreed with me but I stood up and was counted and that's the kind of president I'm gonna be."

- Big John, in a speech yesterday in Philadelphia, 8/24/2004

Meanwhile on Newsnight: The co-author of the book "Unfit for Command," former swift boat commander John O'Neill said Kerry made up a story about being in Cambodia beyond the legal borders of the Vietnam War in 1968.

O'Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then President Richard Nixon.

O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.

NIXON: In a swift boat?

O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE) --- OOPS!! ... you missed an important piece of the story Karl Rove. And Big John is going to beat you all mercilessly with it. Better get the keys to one of V.P. Repo's secret bunkers to protect you from the shrapnel.

The first sketches of the Swiftie counterattack was Tom Oliphant of the Boston Globe on Scarborough Country, of all freakin places. Being from Massachusetts originally, I, too, knew that Kerry was gonna drive this race right into Vietnam and steer his boat right into the political gunfire.

It's what Big John does when he's sizing up the competition and getting ready to pounce - he's done it this way for 30 years. Trippi has even stated that Kerry ate Dean's lunch when he went underground. It's his M.O. and he always wins with this card; are you beginning to notice how Bobo is now becoming the Swift Boat Ad? Another week of relentless pounding and they'll have Bobo running the camera for the Swifties in the voters' eyes. Pretty soon every ad out of the Rethug party is a smear ... are you catching the drift of what's going on?

And now we hear that Max Cleland and Rassmann are going to drop in for a visit in Crawford with Preznit Bobo to ask him to stop the smear. The letter, which was signed by at least seven members of Congress -- all veterans -- urge Bobo to specifically condemn the ads, saying they "represent the worst kind of politics." Talk about a true Michael Moore moment -- cameras running and two simple veterans asking their Preznit to stop an injustice? Might as well be asking WalMart to stop selling cyanide to minors.

Refight the Vietnam War, pick at the scab (as Tom O of the Globe put it), and lay the trash heap on Bobo's doorstep. This fight is gonna get nuclear before long and you watch the comparisons to Iraq and Vietnam creep up once Kerry has regular people taking sides. It will fire up the base, get people concerned and active.

A viewer could witness Scarborough double-take when he heard the history lesson from Oliphant? He knows that Kerry is pulling a fast one with this minefield. Bobo is getting sucked into the mess already, and this is how Kerry will dictate the agenda going forward with Iraq. Don't debate the war itself, debate the policy. The Dems want the Rethug convention "consumed" with Vietnam (err, Iraq) on the cable news shows, and it will be -- which means Kerry controls the debate. It also means that the lunatic fringe of the Left will take to the streets to further distract from the Rethug message.

Every time I have watched Kerry go to Vietnam, he has come out looking like a hero and he always wins. Kerry was a guerrilla in Vietnam and he's a guerrilla with elections. The scrap heap is just beginning to come into veiw for Bobo. And the Rethugs are falling into the trap by overestimating O'Neill and underestimating Kerry.