[Things like this make me wonder whether the Democratic voters' instincts in choosing the most boring guy available won't be proved prescient. The vast right wing conspiracy has only been at work for a month and they've already made him into the homosexual rights anti-war candidate. It looks like he'll end up having to defend radical positions no matter what he does. And where a guy with radical rhetoric would end up looking like a monster, a guy with neutral rhetoric will end up looking like a fiery radical. He won't govern as one, of course -- that was never on offer. But he might win as one. And the right will have done all the running, blithly positive they can always win a culture war because their memory only goes back 24 years.]
[So far the right wing propaganda machine has killed Dean and created the Guard firestorm out of nothing -- two great examples of being too clever by half in their sneaky interventions. Perhaps their money isn't as scary as it looks at first sight.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/13/politics/campaign/13VETS.html
The New York Times In America February 13, 2004
Conservatives Shine Spotlight on Kerry's Antiwar Record
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
W ASHINGTON, Feb. 12 Ted Sampley, a retired Green Beret who runs a Web
site for veterans devoted to defeating John Kerry, says he spent
months looking for a photograph of Mr. Kerry and Jane Fonda, the
actress whose antiwar protests still evoke bitter memories. Then, last
week, a message from a stranger arrived by e-mail, telling him
precisely where he could find one.
For $179, he bought the image and posted it on his site. By Wednesday
it was popping up all over the Internet and on television. Mr.
Sampley, of Kinston, N.C., says he does not know who tipped him off to
the photograph, and he does not care. "I'm going to use it as much as
possible," he said.
He is not the only one. With Mr. Bush answering questions about his
National Guard service, conservatives are working hard to shine an
unflattering spotlight on Mr. Kerry's antiwar activities and his
record on military and intelligence matters in the Senate.
Commentators, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, have been
talking up the Fonda photograph. National Review has a cover article
entitled "The Senator's Other War Record." It says Mr. Kerry, who
returned from Vietnam a highly decorated veteran and then led protests
against the war, "helped to slander a generation of soldiers who had
done their duty with honor and restraint." The Weekly Standard is
highlighting a 1971 book co-written by Mr. Kerry, "The New Soldier,"
which commemorated a march on Washington by Vietnam Veterans Against
the War.
And on Thursday, a new photograph of the senator and the actress began
circulating via e-mail. Unlike the image Mr. Sampley bought, which
shows Mr. Kerry seated several rows behind Ms. Fonda, this picture its
origins are unclear shows them side by side, Ms. Fonda behind a
microphone and Mr. Kerry, holding a notebook, to her right.
In a sense, the examination of Mr. Kerry's record as a war protester
is the mirror image of the Democrats' focus on Mr. Bush's military
record. Spokesmen for the president's re-election and the Republican
National Committee say they have no connection to the Kerry-Fonda
photographs or the articles about Mr. Kerry's past. And some
Republican strategists privately say the president and his campaign
are best served by avoiding the issue altogether.
But just as Mr. Kerry has organized fellow Vietnam veterans on his
behalf, the president's re-election campaign is putting together "a
very strong organization of veterans in support of President Bush," a
campaign spokesman, Scott Stanzel, said. One of them, Joe Repya, a
retired Army lieutenant colonel from Minnesota, says he has been
writing letters to newspaper editors defending Mr. Bush. He said none
had been published so far.
At the same time, Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican
National Committee, has been giving speeches around the country
detailing Mr. Kerry's votes on military and intelligence programs,
including his 1984 opposition to the missile defense program promoted
by Ronald Reagan and his 1991 Senate vote opposing the use of force in
Iraq.
"John Kerry has a history of hypocrisy on defense issues," said a
spokeswoman for the committee, Christine Iverson. She said Mr. Kerry's
"rhetoric as a presidential candidate does not match his record as a
United States senator."
But officials with the Kerry campaign provided documents showing that
Mr. Kerry questioned the science behind the Reagan-era missile
program, and quoting him as saying he believed the country needed more
time in 1991 to build support for the war in the Persian Gulf.
"This is part of an overall slime-and-defend strategy," said Max
Cleland, the former Georgia senator and Vietnam veteran who has been
campaigning for Mr. Kerry. "They don't want to talk about Vietnam, and
they don't want their candidates to talk about veterans' issues
because it hurts the president."
One Republican, a friend of Mr. Cleland who is running for statewide
office in Nevada, said he attended a meeting where officials from the
Bush re-election campaign urged Republican candidates not to talk
about Vietnam.
"Basically, they're saying don't bring up veterans' issues and don't
bring up Vietnam; our surrogates will take care of it," said the
candidate, Ed Gobel.
Mr. Gobel is running in a Republican primary for a seat in the Nevada
state assembly, but says he is opposed by a candidate who has the
backing of the party.
Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster, said Republicans believed Mr.
Kerry's Senate votes would be a "potentially very potent" issue
against him. "You could not ask for a clearer contrast with a
Republican position than that entire array of issues over 20 years,"
he said.
But whether an exploration of Mr. Kerry's antiwar record will hurt him
politically is unclear. Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly
Standard, which ran the article about Mr. Kerry's 1971 book, said he
did not believe voters would pay much heed to what either Mr. Bush or
Mr. Kerry did more than three decades ago. "This election will turn on
the war in Iraq, not on the war in Vietnam," Mr. Kristol said.
Even so, Jane Fonda still draws the ire of some veterans. She earned
the nickname Hanoi Jane for her 1972 trip to North Vietnam, where she
criticized the United States government over Hanoi Radio.
The photograph with Mr. Kerry was taken two years earlier. But it
brings up deep memories for people like Mr. Sampley, who said he had
been seething for years over Mr. Kerry's protests, including one in
which he threw away his ribbons and some war medals, though not his
own. Mr. Sampley publishes an Internet newspaper for veterans; two
weeks ago, he established a Web site, www.vietnamveteransagainstjohn
kerry.com.
"Jane Fonda, to Vietnam vets is the symbol of all this," said Mr.
Sampley, who says he is not supporting any presidential candidate,
including President Bush. "That's why they don't want these pictures
out, and that's why, I'm sure, some other people want them out."
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