Title: Democrats would do better to focus on the future
Description: Vietnam Lies
Description: Vietnam Lies
IGotMailYAY - August 19, 2004 05:47 PM (GMT)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html
snip:
John Kerry, for starters, has made his four-month service in that country the centerpiece of his campaign. But just last week his staff was forced to admit the Senator had been inaccurate, to put it charitably, when he claimed on multiple occasions to have spent Christmas Eve of 1968 in Cambodia while (he also said) the U.S. government was lying about his presence there.
snip:
Now comes Tom Harkin. On Monday the Iowa Senator lashed out at Dick Cheney, claiming the Vice President had no right to criticize Mr. Kerry's policies for the war on terror because Mr. Cheney had a deferment back then: "When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil."
"Coward"? Such a comment would take chutzpah coming from anyone. But Senator Harkin is a proven fabricator when it comes to his own Vietnam-era record, as shown during his own failed 1992 Presidential bid. Consider this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal news story by James M. Perry from December 26, 1991:
snip:
It turned out Mr. Harkin had not seen combat and was stationed in Japan. What's more, Mr. Cheney isn't the first Vice President to fall victim to Mr. Harkin's acid tongue. In an editorial in 1988, we quoted "Senator Tom Harkin who served in Vietnam" (we thought at the time) saying of his Senate colleague Dan Quayle, who did not serve in Vietnam: "It's so ironic; they get in Congress or the government and become big hawks. Don't they have any shame at all?"
Mr. Quayle, to refresh memories, spent late August of 1988 taking flak--as George W. Bush also since has--for having served in the National Guard, which was deemed by Harkin Democrats as somehow less courageous than either service in Vietnam or outright draft avoidance. One would think that the post-1991 Tom Harkin would know better by now than to assail anyone else's Vietnam record. As for our media colleagues, is it too much to ask that they finally take notice of which party is responsible for keeping Vietnam front and center in our Presidential campaigns?
snip:
John Kerry, for starters, has made his four-month service in that country the centerpiece of his campaign. But just last week his staff was forced to admit the Senator had been inaccurate, to put it charitably, when he claimed on multiple occasions to have spent Christmas Eve of 1968 in Cambodia while (he also said) the U.S. government was lying about his presence there.
snip:
Now comes Tom Harkin. On Monday the Iowa Senator lashed out at Dick Cheney, claiming the Vice President had no right to criticize Mr. Kerry's policies for the war on terror because Mr. Cheney had a deferment back then: "When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil."
"Coward"? Such a comment would take chutzpah coming from anyone. But Senator Harkin is a proven fabricator when it comes to his own Vietnam-era record, as shown during his own failed 1992 Presidential bid. Consider this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal news story by James M. Perry from December 26, 1991:
snip:
It turned out Mr. Harkin had not seen combat and was stationed in Japan. What's more, Mr. Cheney isn't the first Vice President to fall victim to Mr. Harkin's acid tongue. In an editorial in 1988, we quoted "Senator Tom Harkin who served in Vietnam" (we thought at the time) saying of his Senate colleague Dan Quayle, who did not serve in Vietnam: "It's so ironic; they get in Congress or the government and become big hawks. Don't they have any shame at all?"
Mr. Quayle, to refresh memories, spent late August of 1988 taking flak--as George W. Bush also since has--for having served in the National Guard, which was deemed by Harkin Democrats as somehow less courageous than either service in Vietnam or outright draft avoidance. One would think that the post-1991 Tom Harkin would know better by now than to assail anyone else's Vietnam record. As for our media colleagues, is it too much to ask that they finally take notice of which party is responsible for keeping Vietnam front and center in our Presidential campaigns?
FreeBird - August 19, 2004 08:18 PM (GMT)
COOL...........HOW'S THIS FOR FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE :?:
Have a nice day :) ....................Andrew Paul
Have a nice day :) ....................Andrew Paul