[lbo-talk] NYT: Conservatives Shine Spotlight on Kerry's Antiwar Record

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Fri Feb 13 03:28:48 PST 2004


[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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