The phrase “Democrats playing fast and loose with the truth” brings to mind unbidden, Clinton era politics, where every statement Clinton, or any of the Democrats defending him from his gross misdeeds, needed to be parsed sliced and diced for all their meanings to be understood. There are many who thought we left all of that redefinition of ‘is’ behind us when Bill Clinton was shown the door nigh on four years ago. However, I’ve started to wonder if such truth stretching isn’t endemic to the breed, and thereby affecting the politics of today.
Deborah Orin writes in the New York Post the other morning;
“There’s now some real angst in Democratic circles be cause of the growing evidence that Democrat John Kerry’s claim to have a memory “seared in me” of spending Christmas 1968 in Cambodia was false — and just didn’t happen. But what worries some pro-Kerry Democrats is the fear that Kerry has, as one put it….that he’s a serial exaggerator.”
Ain’t it the truth…. And that truth is going to be a problem for Mr. Kerry going forward.
I wonder, though, if there isn’t something a bit more fundamental in the Democratic Party of today that is causing them these problems? (And our country as a whole, to the extent that we give Democrats the reins of power, of course.)
Orin goes on to point up a similarity between Mr. Kerry’s capacity to stretch the truth, and that of former Vice President Al Gore. She mentions in her article that even those in Kamp Kerry have begun (out of the public eye, of course) to describe this as an ‘Al Gore problem”, pointing out the now infamous claim of having invented the internet have having been the inspiration for the novel turned movie “Love Story”.
Orin points out some further problems with Kerry; pointing out Kerry’s claim for Vietnam missions when the missions were in fact performed by another man… Ted Peck.. and those claims were removed only when Mr. Peck complained.
Kerry’s Cambodia claims, are yet another stretching of the truth. The list of these is seemingly endless.
Orin points to the Swiftee Vets and the issues they bring to the table:
“Their online dialogue is punctuated with questions about why the “mainstream media” have been mostly ignoring this story — and why the 13 pro-Kerry vets are automatically assumed to have more credibility than 264 anti-Kerry vets.
Just imagine the coverage if 264 vets who served with Bush in the Texas Air National Guard made similar charges.
Well, Deb the answer is, we KNOW why that is.
Despite though, the efforts of the press to protect their candidate, revelations of Kerry Lies (TM)come in faster, these days than the leftist press can shore up the stone walls It’s come now to the point where even loyal Democrats, even those who defended Bill Clinton’s misdeeds, must view Kerry with suspicion. If one must needs to lie so much to make themselves look good, what kind of deficiency, are they hiding? What are the Democrats getting into with their support of Kerry?
Which brings us to Tom Harkin, the other day. Harkin, called Vice President Dick Cheney a “coward” for not serving in Vietnam. Harkin, has made claims in the past that he’s fought North Vietnamise MIG fighters, in ‘nam.But Harkin was never IN Vietnam. This lie of Harkin’s was exposed back in 1999 when he first tried to float it.
For all the problems that the SwiftVets have brought up, and for all the smoke and fire that Mr. Kerry has been fanning in his attempt to defned himself from his former comrades, there are yet other descriptions of the situation, from other groups… other individuals, tend to agree with the overall picture painted of Mr. Kerry.
Take for example, this link from the Captain’s Quarters [1]just the other morning:
“When I read “Tour of Duty”, I became concerned because the material on Kerry’s time on GRIDLEY appeared in many instances to be exaggerations and in some cases figments of an overactive imagination. …
4. Later on page 87 Kerry talks about Olongapo in the Philippines. He talks about bloated corpses floating in the river and starving women with babies dying of malnutrition. Now Olongapo was a wild and wooly town that existed solely for the entertainment of the US Navy, but in over three years of calling there, I never saw a single instance of either thing happening. Kerry uncovered this in his first visit. If this was from his letters home then he was certainly writing for dramatic effect. Balderdash. …”
You’ll have to go to the link and read the whole thing.
And let’s take the party as a whole, shall we? Can someone please explain to me how the political party of Bill Clinton, a man who dodged the draft and is on record as saying he “loathed the military”, and who demonstrated against his own country while living overseas, is now the party who now leans more on naked militarism than any who oppose it? Does this not take a fundamental stretch?
The bottom line here is Kerry’s truth stretching isn’t new… it’s part of being a Democrat. And lest someone argue that this is an overstatement, tell me; Given Kerry’s a proven liar many times over, where are the Democrats who are taking John Kerry to task for it?