Sorry Hugh, I ain't buying it:
The Elder is bored by the Purple Heart story. Tsk, tsk. It is not about the Purple Heart, it is about Kerry's wanting the world to play by his rules, the rules of, as Time Magazine called him, "the Swiss-educated son of a foreign service diplomat," of the Yalie gone to war and back again in a few months to denounce as "war criminals" everyone who ever served in Vietnam, of the long-serving pompous blowhard suffering from what James calls "Senatitus," where no one tells you to shut up and sit down because you are scaring the kids and blocking the views. It is about the fellow who wants to rush the U.N. with apologies, who wants to "literally, formally rejoin the community of nations" even as the battle for Fallujah rages. Who wants his incoherence on the economy and Social Security to be overlooked because, after all, he is damn serious about both, and who doesn't want anyone to see his wife's wealth or question the completeness of his lobbyist contacts.
The disclosure battles are over whether Kerry gets to parade in the Emperor's clothes without anyone shouting naked. I hope we don't get bored, because that's what Kerry's team is counting on. It worked on Russert, on whom Kerry's repeated absurdities were largely lost or abandoned. Tim Russert and The Elder --I should have known.
So let me get this straight. Kerry tells Russert that his military records are available. A reporter from the Boston Globe (or Glob) tries to get the records from Kerry headquarters, but is denied. A couple of days later the records are released (granted not all of them yet) and they reveal...
Nothing. Kerry was a well regarded officer who received high marks for his service. Yesterday on Hugh's show, a number of callers desperately attempted to make something out of Kerry's records by trying to read between the lines and find negatives. It was a silly exercise in lame partisan hackery which convinced no one. No one who wasn't already down on Kerry anyway that is.
Read what Phil Carter at Intel Dump has to say on the records of both Kerry and Bush. Now Phil's not a big fan of the President, but I think overall he's pretty fair in his appraisal of both men. And as an ex-serviceman Phil is certainly qualified to judge.
Over thirty years ago John Kerry served in Vietnam and got some medals. George W. Bush served in the Air National Guard and flew jets.
What either has to do with their worthiness to be president today is beyond me. As Mitch Berg has said many times, being a combat hero does not qualify one to be a national leader. And not having served in combat does not disqualify one from being a leader in a time of war either. What matters is not what they did or didn't do in the military thirty years ago. It's what they will or won't do in the next four years.
Yeah, I know. It's not the Purple Hearts, it's the fact that he lied about releasing the records. But Kerry's lied about other things much more substantive than this. And if you want to get excited about someone's reluctance to release records, you might want to put that stone down and consider the glassy nature of the Bush administration's house in regard to that subject. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact I support many of the administration's calls in locking down sensitive information. The last thing I want now is for a wave of "complete openness" spurred on by the media to sweep over the campaign and have both sides required to bare all.
John Kerry's promise to rush to the U.N. after his inauguration, prostrate himself before the world body, and buff Kofi's happy lamp is disgusting and should be talked about today.
His flip flops on Iraq, his lack of understanding of the basics of Social Security reform, his ties to lobbyists, his calls to repeal tax cuts, his vague positions on free trade, his views on whether we're really at war and whether there is a terrorist threat, his ridiculous claims that the environment is getting worse under Bush, are ALL subjects (among others) that should be talked about today.
What shouldn't be talked about is whether getting an "excellent" on a fitness evaluation really means average because of the inflated nature of the grading. Or whether John Kerry flossed and brushed every day on his swift boat.
Because the truth is no one cares. I shouldn't say no one because there's always the hard core political wonks who live and breathe this level of minutia. But I suspect even some of them are getting tired of the military records blahbering. Heck, even the Beltway Boyz, the wonkiest of the wonks, are probably ready to move on.
By no means do I want to give Kerry a free pass. I just want to focus on what really matters. Because wasting our time on frivolous stories like this is the definition of distraction.
Over the years Hugh has tarred my good name many a time calling me a homeless drunk, a figure skater, a dateless loser, a bloated powdered donut, and a Monkees loving geek living in my mom's basement (there's actually a lot more-this is all I can recall at the moment, you know repressed memories and all).
But to compare me with Tim Russert? Ouch. That one stings Mr. Hewitt. And after all I've done for you? Tsk, tsk.
