Everybody knows President Bush is a bass fisherman. But the President has spent most of August reeling in a more exotic specimen: the Giant New England Slack-Jaw.

Years from now, when tales of the catch are told around GOP campfires, small boys will marvel at how the supposedly intelligent Kerryfish swallowed Bush's bait, hook, line and sinker.

The 43rd President is often said by his critics to be a dunce. Maybe. But in politics, as in fishing, you don't have to be a genius. You just have to be smarter than the fish.

And the Swiftees are offering a deal: they’ll stop running their ads, if John Kerry apologizes for his actions after returning from Vietnam, and admits to the proven falsehoods about his service record.-Boon Me

Douglas Brinkley, author of the John Kerry biography Tour of Duty, was on Steve Malzberg's radio show today. He called on John Kerry to release his military records, saying: "Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press."

Brinkley also said that if the Navy investigation reveals deception in connection with Kerry's medals, it "could be" the "death knell" for Kerry's campaign. Professing uncertainty about what to make about the Swift Boat Vets' claims, Brinkley said:
Right now it's unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to.

While the piece linked to above provides only brief excerpts from the Brinkley interview, it sounds like he is trying to distance himself from Kerry, and has less than full confidence in Kerry's honesty. Considering that Brinkley's book has been termed a hagiography, and that until now he has been an unabashed advocate for Kerry, that's a striking development.

Mr. P:
You are fully on record about bush getting 75 percent of the vote.
I suppose you already know how ludicrous and basically IMPOSSIBLE that is.
Even Dukakis received 45.5 percent of the vote and of course lost in an electoral landslide.
There is no way Kerry will show as week as Dukakis, and of course Kerry has the big states locked up.
BTW: I am still on record to predict -- KERRY WINS.

Wait till the Secretary of the Navy completes his investigation into Kerry's Silver Star with a V for Valor that has never been issued by the Navy because it given for valorious service so it would be redundent to add a V. Kerry is finished, he is lost in the quagmire of his own lies-Politiphile

Makes perfect sense to me - just can't believe Waffles thought he'd get away with so many glaring inconsistencies and outright lies. But in further news...John Kerry yesterday slammed President Bush, calling the situation in Iraq, “The wong war in the wrong place at the wrong time". The Senator went on to say he’d bring troops home within four years.

President Bush replied back that Senator Kerry is the “wrong waffle in the wrong party in the wrong universe". Bush went on to describe Kerry’s various positions .... more than there are in the Kama Sutra.

You are of course making all this BS up. Are you one of those swift vets for never having being in Vietnam but give me the money ?

What Bush actually said was "We have a saying in Texas or is it Tennessee, fool me once shame on you, fool me again uh ah oh I've sh|t my pants".

Try sticking to the truth, but then you'd have nothing to say would you ?

Your boy has links with the bad guys. Thats a known fact. Vote for him if you want, but anyone who does is supporting the enemy.

If that's true then why are moslems supporting kerry ? Why does Hezbollah want to distribute Moores movie in the M.E. ? Why does every single Anti American and Anti God group in America support and endorse Lurch ?

I really wish that before allowing you to comment in the Bearpit you had to prove you knew the difference between the truth and a lie. That being the case, i wouldn't even have to listen to your delusional drivvle.

Do moslems support Kerry or Al Qaeda ? Watch this space.

Anti god ? That's a bit over the top. You know this how? Have you been talking to god again ? Get the I love me jacket quick.

Of course you don't have to listen to my drivel, unless you are reading aloud. Are you ?

You are of course making all this BS up. Are you one of those swift vets for never having being in Vietnam but give me the money ?

What Bush actually said was "We have a saying in Texas or is it Tennessee, fool me once shame on you, fool me again uh ah oh I've sh|t my pants".

Try sticking to the truth, but then you'd have nothing to say would you ?

Many Vietnam vets buried the memories of their less-than-welcome homecoming, and John Kerry moved off the national scene.  The feelings of betrayal had faded, but they were never resolved.  The unprecedented injustice inflicted on the Vietnam vets has always lain just under the surface, waiting for a chance to be uncovered.  The war had stolen their youth and innocence and John Kerry stole their dignity and rightful place of honor in history.

Like an unlanced boil, the anger festered but there was nothing that could ease the pain.  These vets didn't ask for "forgiveness" because they had done nothing wrong in serving their country.  They never asked to be treated as heroes, just good soldiers.  All they have ever wanted was the respect due all the men and women who have worn the uniform of this country.  Being allowed to march in a few parades wasn't enough.  A long over-due memorial was not enough.  The Vietnam Veterans moveable wall only brought back the suffering as they searched for the names of their fallen friends whose memory had been defiled and disgraced by people who considered them rampaging killers instead of men who died with honor for their country.

Now before them stands this man who would be president - this man who holds his service in Vietnam up as a badge of honor now that it suits his purposes.  This man Kerry brags about his medals and his tiny wounds and demands the respect they were denied, yet he offers no apologies for what he did to them.  "I will be a great leader!" Kerry proclaims, because of his brief and self-proclaimed valiant service while wearing a uniform - the very same uniform that they wore and were spat upon because of it.

All across America, soiled uniforms and memories of being shamed and humiliated have surfaced and Vietnam vets demand their rightful place in history.  John Kerry seems bewildered by the reaction of his "fellow vets."  He has become defensive and angry because now his service and honor are being questioned.  Kerry seems oblivious to the pain he caused three decades ago [when] he stole all honor and dignity from those same "fellow vets" for personal gain.  Now he wants to use them again, for the same reason.

All across America, Vietnam vets are smiling.  At last, perhaps they can bury their demons.  These angry vets are demanding that this man who sentenced them to being shunned as criminals, tell the world that he was wrong and that he is sorry for what he did to them.  Kerry must admit that he lied about them.

For many, it would still not be enough.  Satisfaction and hopefully peace will come when Vietnam vets see and hear John F.  Kerry give his concession speech the night of November 2, 2004 with the knowledge that it was their votes that helped defeat him.  There are approximately 2.5 million Vietnam veterans in America and they have not forgotten.

Kerry denied them their rightful place as heroes and they will deny him his dream of the presidency.  Angry Vietnam veterans, silent for so long, will finally have their say.  Payment in full will be delivered to John Kerry on November 2, 2004.

Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.

lamphun...I've still got my medals from Vietnam.  Nope, didn't throw them away like your "man".  Spent my year over there collecting tax-free and combat pay courtesy of Uncle Sam doing my Patriotic Duty.  Something I'm sure you're completely unfamiliar with.

Then we made another call, this time to an arms dealer in the Mideast. He confirmed that his partner attended a meeting in 1995 at the 5-star Hotel Royale Monceau in Paris where, allegedly, Saudi billionaires agreed to fund Al Qaeda fanatics. We understood it to be protection money, not really a sign of support for their attacks. Nevertheless, rule number one of investigative reporting is "follow the money" -- but the sheiks' piggy banks were effectively off-limits to the US agents during the Bush years. One of the men in the posh hotel's meeting of vipers happens to have been a Bush family business associate.

In 1978, Bush, while running for Congress in West Texas, produced campaign literature that claimed he had served in the US Air Force. According to a 1999 Associated Press report, Bush's congressional campaign ran a pullout ad in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that declared he had served "in the US Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard where he piloted the F-102 aircraft."

Bush lost that congressional race, but twenty-one years later, the AP questioned him about the ad. The news outlet had a good reason to do so. Bush had never served in the Air Force. He had only been in the Air National Guard. But when AP asked Bush [in 1999] if he had been justified in claiming service in the Air Force, Bush, then the governor of Texas and a presidential candidate, said, "I think so, yes. I was in the Air Force for over 600 days." Karen Hughes, his spokeswoman, maintained that when Bush attended flight school for the Air National Guard from 1968 to 1969 he was considered to be on active duty for the Air Force and that several times afterward he had been placed on alert, which also qualified as active duty for the Air Force. All told, she said, Bush had logged 607 days of training and alerts. "As an officer [in the Air National Guard]," she told the AP, "he was serving on active duty in the Air Force."

But this explanation was wrong. Says who? The Air Force. As the Associated Press reported,

The Air Force says that Air National Guard members are considered 'guardsmen on active duty' while receiving pilot training. They are not, however, counted as members of the overall active-duty Air Force.

Anyone in the Air National Guard is always considered a guardsmen and not a member of the active-duty Air Force, according to an Air Force spokeswoman in the Pentagon. A National Guard member may be called to active duty for pilot training or another temporary assignment and receive active-duty pay at the time, but they remain Guard members.

The AP report said, "It may be a question of semantics." But today I checked with two spokespersons for the US Air Force, and each confirmed that an active-duty member of the Air National Guard is not considered a member of the US Air Force. "If a member of the Air National Guard is in pilot training," says Captain Cristin Lesperance of the US Air Force media relations office, "they would remain on the Guard books. They would be counted as Guard, not as an active-duty Air Force member."

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