950+ US soldiers killed in a foolish military
adventure, Abu Ghraib, Chalabi, Plame, WMD lies,
pre-9/11 incompetence (at best), post-9/11
incompetence (at best), hundreds of billions of
dollars in Federal budget deficit, seven trillion
dollars in national debt, dismal economic news,
soaring oil prices, Medifraud, Enron and the phoney
"California energy crisis," Halliburton (both under
Cheney and in Iraq), the prostitution of the EPA and
other government agencies...Yes, let's spend another
news cycle debating the Vietnam war record of Sen.
John F. Kerry (D-Mekong Delta)...
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: The media have to do
more than "he said/he said" reporting. If the charges
don't hold up, they don't hold up. And, yes, now that
John Kerry's life during his 20s has been put at the
heart of this campaign just over two months from
Election Day, the media owe the country a comparable
review of what Bush was doing at the same time and the
same age.
If all the stories are about what Kerry did in Vietnam
and not balanced by serious scrutiny of Bush in the
Vietnam years, the media will be capitulating to a
right-wing smear campaign. Surely our nation's editors
and producers don't want to send a signal that all you
have to do to set the media's agenda is to spend a
half a million bucks on television ads.
This is also a test of John McCain. When he ran
against Bush four years ago, McCain was smeared
mercilessly. When McCain protested to Bush about the
attacks at one of their debates during the 2000
primaries, Bush brushed him off. "John," Bush said,
"it's politics."
McCain snapped back, "George, everything isn't
politics."
McCain was right, and when he returns to the United
States from a trip to Europe this week, he should
stand up for that principle by suspending his
campaigning for Bush's re-election until the smears
against Kerry's Vietnam record stop. More than anyone,
McCain is the person to make the case that
slaughterhouse politics is particularly ill-suited at
this moment in our history.
Now that John Kerry's life during his 20s has been put
at the heart of this campaign, the media owe the
country a comparable review of what Bush was doing at
the same time and the same age.
Cleanse the White House of the Chicken Hawk Coup, Show
Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17523
E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Washington Post Writers Group
08.24.04
Just politics? Nation, media, and Bush should stand up to Swift Boat smear campaign
WASHINGTON -- You would have thought that if the issue
of who served under fire during the Vietnam War became
a big deal at this point in the presidential campaign,
it would be a major advantage to John Kerry.
After all, there is no dispute that Kerry served in
Vietnam's combat zones while both President Bush and
Vice President Cheney avoided the war. Bush served
stateside in the National Guard (it's still not clear
exactly how much of his duty time he missed) and
Cheney avoided the military altogether. The hawkish
veep has explained blithely, "I had other priorities
in the '60s than military service."
Republicans insisted that military service was an
important criterion for leadership when Bill Clinton
ran against the elder George Bush and former Sen. Bob
Dole, war veterans both. But the Republican attack
maestros were never as interested in service as they
were in taking and holding power. So now it's Bush
supporters, through a front group, attacking the war
veteran -- much as they attacked Vietnam hero John
McCain during the Republican primaries four years ago
when McCain dared to challenge Bush.
This episode is a great test of how politics work in
our country. It is, first, a test of George W. Bush.
Bush claims that his highest priority is uniting the
country in the war against terrorism. A president who
would be a uniter and not a divider knows that
cheap-shot politics can only further rend our nation
and weaken his own ability to lead.
On Monday, Bush offered what you might call a nuanced
response to the controversy over the anti-Kerry ads.
While praising Kerry's service, Bush issued only a
blanket condemnation of all ads by outside groups.
What Bush really needs to do is tell the
inappropriately named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to
stop smearing Kerry's service record and urge his big
money contributors to stop bankrolling the
distortions.
This is also a test for the media. We see here a
fascinating and ugly development in the politics of
annihilation. A supposedly outside group raises money
from close Bush supporters, staffs itself with
political operatives close to Bush and the
Republicans, and then puts up several hundred thousand
dollars worth of television ads. This is, as one
operative with years of experience in Republican
campaigns, put it, "a professional hit." Suddenly,
questions about Kerry's service that were asked and
answered months ago become big news again.
To their credit, several news organizations -- The New
York Times, Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post
among them -- have run reports exposing the
distortions, inconsistencies and fabrications of the
anti-Kerry crowd, and the links between this operation
and the Bush machine.
But this hasn't stopped the run of unproven innuendo.
Even highly respected Republicans have jumped in.
"There's got to be some truth to these charges," Dole,
a true war hero, said on CNN.
Alas, this is the classic course a smear campaign
takes. A group throws up accusations that, when
subjected to scrutiny, prove to be full of holes.
Supporters of the attack campaign say that, well,
those charges may not pan out, but there must be
something here. Let's just keep attacking.
The media have to do more than "he said/he said"
reporting. If the charges don't hold up, they don't
hold up. And, yes, now that John Kerry's life during
his 20s has been put at the heart of this campaign
just over two months from Election Day, the media owe
the country a comparable review of what Bush was doing
at the same time and the same age.
If all the stories are about what Kerry did in Vietnam
and not balanced by serious scrutiny of Bush in the
Vietnam years, the media will be capitulating to a
right-wing smear campaign. Surely our nation's editors
and producers don't want to send a signal that all you
have to do to set the media's agenda is to spend a
half a million bucks on television ads.
This is also a test of John McCain. When he ran
against Bush four years ago, McCain was smeared
mercilessly. When McCain protested to Bush about the
attacks at one of their debates during the 2000
primaries, Bush brushed him off. "John," Bush said,
"it's politics."
McCain snapped back, "George, everything isn't
politics."
McCain was right, and when he returns to the United
States from a trip to Europe this week, he should
stand up for that principle by suspending his
campaigning for Bush's re-election until the smears
against Kerry's Vietnam record stop. More than anyone,
McCain is the person to make the case that
slaughterhouse politics is particularly ill-suited at
this moment in our history.
Now that John Kerry's life during his 20s has been put
at the heart of this campaign, the media owe the
country a comparable review of what Bush was doing at
the same time and the same age.
For more, please visit the E.J. Dionne, Jr. archives.
(c) 2004, Washington Post Writers Group
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