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MISCELLANEOUS
LIES OR B.S. FROM SBV
SUMMARY
FACTS
(For detailed proof, scroll down or click here)
- This page lists the sheer litany of lies,
misleading statements or just plain B.S. from SBV, especially it's
star spokesman and Nixon-loving serial liar John O'Neill. Please scroll down to
"enjoy" this collection.
DETAILED
FACTS
1. KERRY'S 2004
CAMPAIGN
1A. SBV claim
on Kerry's ad
1B. SBV claims
on Kerry's character and ability to be Commander-in-Chief
1C. SBV claim
about swift boat commanders being "neutral"
1D. SBV claim
on the number of veterans who signed anti-Kerry SBV letter
2.
MISCELLANEOUS LIES or GARBAGE
2A. O'Neill's
claim about his television appearance
2B. O'Neill's
claims about Kerry and his own service in "Kerry's" unit
2C. O'Neill's
claim that SBV would have raised this storm even if Kerry had been a
Republican
2D. O'Neill's
claim that he has had "no serious involvement" in politics
for over 32 years
2E. O'Neill's
claim that half of the GOP campaign contributions attributed to him
actually came from his law partner
2E1. O'Neill's
claim that records show he has contributed more money to Democratic
candidates than to Republican candidates
2F. O'Neill's
claim that Kerry's courage is "millions of steps behind"
that of most people including that of President Bush!
2G. O'Neill's
claim that "more than 60 people that served with John Kerry
that contributed to this book [Unfit for Command]"
2I. O'Neill's
claim that his [book's] co-author is, get this, not really the
co-author!
2J. O'Neill's
claim that he is "not a Republican from Texas"
2K. O'Neill's
claim that he was never in Cambodia
2K1. O'Neill's
claim that he was never within 50 miles of the Cambodian border
2L. O'Neill's
claim that SBV has "no partisan ties"
2M. O'Neill's
claim that it was not true that he was Richard Nixon's stooge
against Kerry
2N. O'Neill's
claim that Kerry has told his Cambodia story over 50 times
2O. O'Neill's
claim that Kerry was just "horsing around" when he blew up
rice stacks in Vietnam
2O.1 O'Neill's
claim that Kerry "admits" he "fabricated" the
rice incident injury
2P. O'Neill's
claim that SBV is self-funded
2Q. O'Neill's
claim that SBV member Hoffmann's conduct "sickens" him
[Kerry]
2AA. Gardner's
claim about other Kerry crewmates' opinions of Kerry
2AB. Gardner's
repeated claims about being qualified to evaluate Kerry's
capabilities based on his working "with" Kerry
2BB.
Hoffmann's
claim about Kerry having been in a "safe" place while in
Vietnam [error corrected]
2BC.
Hoffmann's claim of Kerry having served four months and 12 days
2BD.
Hoffmann's claim that he is speaking up because he wanted to set the
record straight
2CC. French's
claim about having personal knowledge about Kerry's "lying"
2DD. Cordier's
claim on not being part of the Bush campaign
2EE. Schacte's
claim that he is a "political independent who has voted for
candidates of both parties"
2EF. Schacte's
claim that "I don't know that I know anybody in his [Bush's]
campaign"
2FF. Spaeth's
claim of not having visited the White House since 2002
1.
KERRY'S 2004 CAMPAIGN
1A.
SBV CLAIM
ON JOHN KERRY'S AD:
[via CNN]: A
group of Vietnam veterans opposed to John Kerry's presidential
campaign demanded Tuesday that he remove a photograph that appears
in one of his television advertisements.
In Tuesday's
"cease and desist" letter, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
called on Kerry's campaign to stop what it said was the unauthorized
use of the images of some of them in a 60-second biographical spot
titled "Lifetime." The ad began running nationwide in
early May.
FACT
Of course, SBV decided that they could somehow use the same picture on
an ad without Kerry's permission!
REFERENCES
Jesse
Taylor (Pandagon):
I did love this bit from
the Kerry campaign, which points out that in the group's political
campaign, they used the exact same image:
A Kerry spokesman
dismissed the group's claim, noting the Swift Boat Veterans used
an enlarged version of the same photo at a news conference
announcing the anti-Kerry group's formation in early May.
"Somehow they
didn't call to ask if they could use John Kerry's image,"
Michael Meehan said. "When it was useful for their politics
they show a big blowup."
1B. SBV
CLAIM
ON KERRY'S CHARACTER AND ABILITY TO BE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
[Former Rear Admiral Roy Hoffman]: I
do not believe John Kerry is fit to be Commander-in-Chief of the
armed forces of the United States. This is not a political issue. It
is a matter of his judgment, truthfulness, reliability, loyalty and
trust -- all absolute tenets of command. His biography, 'Tour of
Duty,' by Douglas Brinkley, is replete with gross exaggerations,
distortions of fact, contradictions and slanderous lies. His
contempt for the military and authority is evident by even a most
casual review of this biography. He arrived in-country with a strong
anti-Vietnam War bias and a self-serving determination to build a
foundation for his political future. He was aggressive, but vain and
prone to impulsive judgment, often with disregard for specific
tactical assignments. He was a 'loose cannon.' In an abbreviated
tour of four months and 12 days, and with his specious medals
secure, Lt.(jg) Kerry bugged out and began his infamous betrayal of
all United States forces in the Vietnam War.
[Adrian Lonsdale, via John
Kerry.com]: He
lacks the capacity to lead.
[Larry Thurlow, via John
Kerry.com]: When
the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry.
FACT
Character judgments are to some extent subjective, although they can
be objective when based on facts. Unfortunately, SBV members'
claims of knowing so much about Sen. Kerry and their poor opinions of
Sen. Kerry are contradicted by their past praise for Kerry and the
views of other veterans, including Kerry's crewmates. This is
substantiated also by swift boat commanders who recently came out to
support Kerry; in particular, Rich Baker pointed out that he
recalled a 1995 reunion of Swift boat crews in Washington at which
praise for Kerry's service in Vietnam was unanimous.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
While the veterans
attacking Kerry in the ad are veterans of the Vietnam War and may
have served at the same time as Kerry, as The New York Times
reported on August 5, the Kerry campaign noted
that "none of the men had actually served on the Swift boats
that Mr. Kerry commanded." Adm. Roy F. Hoffman, one of the
veterans in the ad, has even "acknowledged he had no first-hand
knowledge to discredit Kerry's claims to valor," the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel reported
on May 6, "and said that although Kerry was under his command,
he really didn't know Kerry much personally."
Snopes.com:
Many of Kerry's Vietnam
commanders and fellow officers also continue to speak positively of
him:
Navy records, fitness
reports by Kerry's commanders and scores of interviews with Swift
boat officers and crewmen depict a model officer who fought
aggressively in river ambushes and won the respect of many of his
crewmates and commanders, even as his doubts about the war grew.
"I don't like what he said after the war," said Adrian
Lonsdale, who commanded Kerry for three months in 1969. "But
he was a good naval officer."2
...
How well all of these men knew John Kerry is questionable, and
discrepancies between how some of them described Kerry thirty-five
years ago and how they describe him today suggest that their
opinions are largely based upon political differences rather than
objective assessments of Kerry's military record. For example, Rear
Admiral Roy Hoffman is quoted above, yet the Los Angeles Times
reported:
. . . Hoffman and
Kerry had few direct dealings in Vietnam. A Los Angeles Times
examination of Navy archives found that Hoffman praised Kerry's
performance in cabled messages after several river skirmishes.1
Milan
Simonich, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
via reader JL (bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
For 35 years, Rich
Baker seldom talked about Vietnam, Swift boats or John Kerry's ability
as a young naval officer.
But now, with
Republican partisans challenging Kerry's wartime record, Baker said
he feels compelled to strike back.
"Every Swift
boat officer gave his all in Vietnam, but Kerry stood above the rest
of us," said Baker, 61, of Scott, a former Navy lieutenant and
Swift boat commander. "He was number one as far as
courageousness and aggressiveness. He set the tone."
Campaign aides to
Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president, yesterday asked Baker
to speak out publicly to counter television ads attacking Kerry's
military record.
Baker, who ran a
bakery after coming home from Vietnam, complied. He granted a
handful of interviews and agreed to appear today at a Pittsburgh
news conference organized by the Kerry campaign.
A registered
Democrat, Baker voted for Republican George W. Bush for president in
2000. But this time, Baker said, he is supporting Kerry for two
reasons.
For one, Baker said,
he considers Kerry better qualified than Bush to be commander in
chief.
Second, Baker said,
he is perturbed that Kerry is being criticized for his service in
Vietnam while Bush's activities during wartime receive almost no
scrutiny.
"George Bush has
two silver dental fillings in his teeth to show what he did during
the Vietnam War," Baker said. "John Kerry has a Silver
Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts."
Bush was in the Air
National Guard during the Vietnam era, an assignment that kept him
stateside.
Baker, who grew up in
Crafton, graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1965, then
enlisted for Swift boat duty. He arrived in Vietnam in 1968, just
before Kerry.
Kerry served about
four months in Vietnam, and, Baker said, he made a habit of putting
himself in harm's way.
"You wouldn't
want to be there for four hours or four minutes," Baker said.
"John Kerry went above and beyond the call of duty, sticking
his nose into enemy fire. Not everybody liked that because some were
just intent on survival. But until recently, nobody ever said he did
not serve honorably."
Attacks on Kerry's
war record have come from a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans
For Truth.
But, Baker said,
these men never criticized Kerry until he became the Democratic
presidential nominee. Baker specifically recalled a 1995 reunion of
Swift boat crews in Washington at which praise for Kerry's service
in Vietnam was unanimous. Kerry then was the pride of the group as a
U.S. senator from Massachusetts.
Joe
Conason, Salon.com:
Until now, Hoffmann
has been best known as the commanding officer whose obsession with
body counts and "scorekeeping" may have provoked the
February 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians at Thanh Phong by a
unit led by Bob Kerrey -- the Medal of Honor winner who lost a leg
in Nam, became a U.S. senator from Nebraska and now sits on the 9/11
commission.
After journalist
Gregory Vistica exposed the Thanh Phong massacre and the surrounding
circumstances in the New York Times magazine three years ago,
conservative columnist Christopher Caldwell took particular note of
the cameo role played by Kerrey's C.O., who had warned his men not
to return from missions without enough kills. "One of the myths
due to die as a result of Vistica's article is that which holds the
war could have been won sensibly and cleanly if the 'suits' back in
Washington had merely left the military men to their own
devices," Caldwell wrote. "In this light, one of the great
merits of Vistica's article is its portrait of the Kurtz-like
psychopath who commanded Kerrey's Navy task force, Capt. Roy
Hoffmann."
More
information/examples catalogued at John Kerry.com:
Roy Hoffmann was
NOT a crewmate of John Kerry's
"Hoffman
acknowledged he had no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry's
claims to valor and said that although Kerry was under his command,
he really didn't know Kerry much personally." [Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, 5/7/04]
Hoffman's
Boss Awarded Kerry Silver Star & Bronze Star: "Captain
Roy Hoffman" was Admiral Zumwalt's "trusty aide."
This is What Zumwalt
Said About Kerry: "KERRY's calmness, professionalism and great
personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest
traditions of the United States Naval Service." [Kerry
Bronze Star Citation; www.JohnKerry.com]
Former
Senator Bob Kerrey Described Roy Hoffman as "The Classic Body
Count Guy"
Hoffmann was a cigar-chomping officer who brandished an M-16 assault
rifle and wore a revolver when he visited troops in the field.
"He was the classic body-count guy," Kerrey says.
"Bunkers destroyed, hooches destroyed, sort of
scorekeeper." [New York Times Magazine, 4/29/01]
Hoffman
Thought His Rules of Engagement in Vietnam Were "Too
Restrictive"
In the summer of 1968, Hoffmann complained to his superiors in Pearl
Harbor that the prevailing rules of engagement were too
constrictive. "This was war," Hoffmann said in an
interview last month. "This wasn't Sunday school." He made
what he said was a pro forma request for looser rules, which was
granted. Previously, Hoffmann said, military personnel had not been
permitted to fire unless they were fired upon. Under the new rules,
he said, they could attack if they felt threatened. "I told
them you not only have authority, I damned well expect action,"
Hoffmann recalled. "If there were men there and they didn't
kill them or capture them, you'd hear from me." [New York
Times Magazine, 4/29/01]
Hoffman
Described by Fellow Vets as "Hotheaded",
"Bloodthirsty" and "Egomaniacal"
"Interviews with various Swift boat veterans turned up
descriptions of Hoffman as 'hotheaded,' 'bloodthirsty,' and
'egomaniacal'." [Tour of Duty, Brinkley, 2004, p. 105]
...
Adrian Lonsdale
was NOT a crewmate of John Kerry's
Adrian
Lonsdale in 1996:
"As far as I was concerned, the war was won over there in that
part for that period. And it was mainly won because of the bravado
and the courage of the young officers that ran the boats, the SWIFT
boats and the Coast Guard cutters and Senator Kerry was no
exception." [Kerry for Senate Press Conference, 10/27/96]
...
Larry Thurlow was
NOT a crewmate of John Kerry's
...
Larry
Thurlow Even Praised Kerry Despite Coming From Different
Backgrounds:
"John was sharp as a tack... But he came from a background most
of us couldn't understand." [Tour of Duty, Brinkley, 2004 p.
300]
Snopes.com:
Although the men quoted
above are often identified as "John Kerry's shipmates,"
only one of them, Steven Gardner, actually served under Lt.
Kerry's command on a Swift boat. The other men who served
under Kerry's command continue to speak positively of him:
"In 1969, I was
Sen. Kerry's gun mate atop of the Swift boat in Vietnam. And I
just wanted to let everyone know that, contrary to all the rumors
that you might hear from the other side, Sen. Kerry's
blood is red, not blue. I know, I've seen it.
"If it weren't for Sen. John Kerry, on the 28th of February
1969, the day he won the Silver Star . . . you and I
would not be having this conversation. My name would be on a long,
black wall in Washington, D.C. I saw this man save my life."3
— Fred Short
"I can still see him now, standing in the doorway of the
pilothouse, firing his M-16, shouting orders through
the smoke and chaos . . . Even wounded, or
confronting sights no man should ever have to see, he never lost
his cool.
I had to sit on my hands [after a firefight], I was shaking so hard
. . . He went to every man on that boat and put his arm
around them and asked them how they're doing. I've never had an
officer do that before or since. That's the mettle of the man,
John Kerry."3
— David Alston
"What I saw back then [in Vietnam] was a guy with genuine
caring and leadership ability who was aggressive when he had to
be. What I see now is a guy who's not afraid to tackle tough
issues. And he knows what the consequences are of putting people's
kids in harm's way."2
— James Wasser
Hesiod:
TESTIMONIAL: I
thought this was enlightening
Radarman Second Class
James R.] Wasser was . . . sent to South Vietnam, in March 1968,
and assigned to a succession of Swift boats. He earned a
reputation for fearlessness under fire, an asset born of his
fiercely passionate loathing of the Viet Cong and Communists in
general. The pair of American flags tattooed on the back of his
right shoulder attested to his political leanings, when tended
toward the view that antiwar protesters, conscientious objectors,
and rich kids
who finagled cushy stateside assignments to fulfill their military
service obligations were all 'chickenshit punks." His
opinion of the draft dodgers who fled to Canada or europe is
unprintable. Never one to mince words, Wasser simply could not
comprehend ho true Americans, even pacifists, could not want to
help their country in wartime. 'I still hate Jane Fonda's guts,'
he proclaimed thirty-three years after he returned from South
Vietnam and thirty-one years after the actress's controversial
visit to North Vietnam. 'I wouldn't give her oxygen if she were
dying.'
[...]
The die-hard conservative Democrat petty officer . . . got along
fine with his liberal Democrat superior, [John Kerry]. 'You've got
to understand Kerry was an extremely aggressive officer, and so
was I,' Wasser avowed. 'I like that he took the fight to the
enemy, that he was tough and gutsy -- not afraid to spill blood
for his country. Some people were suspicious of him because he
would take to himself into a tape recorder. And I didn't like his
later antiwar attitude. But I'm talking straight: he always put
his men's welfare first, and was tough, tough, tough. He was a
great leader. Plus he served his time in-country and fought for
the right to have his opinion.'"
Douglas L. Brinkley, Tour
of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, at pps 156-158.
(2004).
John
Gonzales, Dallas Observer:
Among those who have
been most vocal about Kerry – Hoffmann, Gardner, O'Neill and
Thurlow – only Thurlow was portrayed kindly in Tour of Duty.
Gardner is described as a hothead, O'Neill was written off as a
Nixon flack, and Hoffmann, who was most vilified of all, was likened
to the colonel from Apocalypse Now – the one who loves "the
smell of napalm in the morning." All of which, in turn, makes
many suspicious of the group's motives. Are their intentions
genuine? Do they truly believe the aspersions they're casting upon
Kerry? Or are they driven by revenge and a political agenda?
Maria
L. La Ganga and Stephen Braun (Los Angeles Times):
During the war,
Elliott gave Kerry high marks in fitness reports and recommended
Kerry for the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. "John was one of
50 young officers who performed extremely well," Elliott said
in an interview in May. "I wrote his fitness report, and I
stand by that."
Hesiod:
Almost forgot,
Admiral Zumwalt actually recommended Kerry for the Navy
Cross, but decided that the bureaucracy was too slow, so he
personally pinned the Silver Star on kerry's chest.
1C.
SBV CLAIM
ABOUT A SWIFT BOAT COMMANDERS BEING
"NEUTRAL"
[SBV]:
The Kerry campaign has evidently persuaded formerly neutral Swift
officers Rich McCann and Rich Baker to support John Kerry's
candidacy
FACT
These "neutral" men were apparently not quite pleased
on being portrayed as "neutral".
REFERENCES
Lois
Romano and Dana Milbank, Washington Post:
[Rich] McCann said he
tried to stay out of politics, but that when he saw that the Swift
boat group had identified him on its Web site as being
"neutral" on Kerry without asking him, he was furious.
Kerry's commendation record "has stood for 35 years, and
suddenly you've got people coming forward saying, 'Well, I've had
second thoughts about this,' " McCann said. "That is
dishonoring not only (Kerry), it is dishonoring all veterans."
Media
Matters:
COLMES: Mr. O'Neill,
on your website at one point, you showed a photo of 19 officers from
your division. The group -- you said that only one man in the
picture that supported Kerry. A couple of others were neutral, you
said. Two of those have come forward. Let me show you what they have
said.
One of them said --
Rich McCann says,
"I was never neutral about Kerry as president. If the question
is whether John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief, my answer is
absolutely."
Another guy named
Rich Baker comes forward, and USA Today reports
today that Baker says he was never contacted by your group.
"Kerry is very well fit for command. He was one of the most
courageous and aggressive swift boat captains in the division."
I know you've since
took their pictures down. But why did you put them up in the first
place if their stories don't confirm with what you say?
O'NEILL: We did
exactly the right thing. We showed them as neutral. That was the
best information they had. As soon as they announced for Kerry, we
could.
The current count is
of 23 officers there, there are 17 who condemn Kerry as unfit. There
are four, by our count, that are for Kerry and indicate that he's
fit. So the current count is about four and a half to one. And those
guys are entitled to their opinion. But isn't it remarkable that
when those few guys come out, they get a headline everywhere,
whereas the 17 get no headlines anywhere?
COLMES: What I want
to know, this is all about credibility, and you have put people
up on your site who have since come forward. A number of people
have changed their stories. Last time you were on, I confronted you
with some of those people. And now more people come forward and say,
"We were never contacted." Or "I'm not neutral about
John Kerry," as your site suggests." So what does that
say about the credibility of the Swift Boat Vets?
1D. SBV
CLAIM ON THE NUMBER OF VETERANS WHO SIGNED ANTI-KERRY SBV LETTER
[Billings
Gazette, via reader VM]: ...[Anderson's
name was one of ] about 300 signed on a letter questioning Kerry's
service...The letter, which was posted on the Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth Web site, claims the Demo-cratic presidential candidate
has "grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the
American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that (Vietnam)
war."
FACT
Several people whose names appear on the anti-Kerry letter from SBV
have stepped forward to state that they never approved the use of
their name in that letter and that they do not support SBV. One of
them suggests up to 25% of the names on SBV's letter may have been
fictitiously included. How unsurprising.
REFERENCES
Linda
Halsted-Acharya, Billings Gazette, via reader VM:
Swift boat veteran
Bob Anderson of Columbus is ticked.
It bothers him that
Sen. John Kerry's swift boat history has become such a political hot
potato. But he's even more irritated that his name was included -
without his permission - on a letter used to discredit Kerry.
"I'm pretty
nonpolitical," the 56-year-old Anderson said Tuesday. So, when
he found out last week that his name was one of about 300 signed on
a letter questioning Kerry's service, he was
"flabbergasted."
"It's kind of
like stealing my identity," said Anderson, who spent a year on
a swift boat as an engine man and gunner.
The letter, which was
posted on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Web site, claims the
Democratic presidential candidate has "grossly and knowingly
distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and
airmen of that (Vietnam) war."
The letter also
criticizes Kerry for trying to change his image from a critic of the
war to a war hero.
"After reading
the letter," Anderson said, "it kind of got under my skin.
I had never come across a situation where someone used my name
without my support or approval. It's not a very comforting
feeling."
What's worse, he
said, he disagrees with the letter.
"Had they asked
me to use my name, I wouldn't have allowed them to," he said.
Anderson, a 1966
graduate of Chinook High School, describes himself as a naive
Montana kid who was smacked by the reality of war soon after
arriving in Vietnam in 1967.
"It's not a very
pleasant way to grow up," he said.
He served on a swift
boat about the same time Kerry did. However, the first time he met
Kerry was during a reunion of swift boat vets in Norfolk, Va., in
March 2003.
Anderson said he
cannot dispute or verify Kerry's experience. In fact, he's forgotten
much of his own.
"You remember
the simple things," he said. "The rest is what you don't
want to remember."
He does, however,
support Kerry's right to state his opinion.
"We say we're
protecting democracy. That's why we go to war. As Americans, we can
have our opinions, right?"
Anderson can vividly
recall the last day of 1969, when his boat was attacked.
"The thing I
remember before we got hit was the grass dragging on the sides of
the boat - the canals were so narrow," he said. "I can
also remember the smell of napalm."
Anderson's boat was
about the fourth boat back in a string of 10. He describes the scene
as an Armageddon. Fellow swift boat sailor Bob Wedge was so badly
wounded, Anderson doubted he would survive.
"That boat was
like a slaughterhouse that day," he said. "He (Wedge) just
about bled to death before we got a tourniquet on him and the
chopper got him."
Wedge, who lost a
leg, was flown home. Thirty-four years passed before the two met
again. Now they find themselves on the same side of another
conflict.
Wedge, 60, of
Mesquite, Nev., said his name, too, was on the list - and he's mad.
"This is the
fourth or fifth time someone has called me or e-mailed me in regard
to signing this damn letter," he wrote in an e-mail to
Anderson. "I don't agree with it and want no part of it and
especially don't want my name on it."
Both men have tried
to contact the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to have their names
removed from the list. Neither have had any success.
"I can't seem to
get a response when I reply to their e-mail," Wedge said.
"They come back
undeliverable."
Anderson said he
first learned about the situation last week when he received an
e-mail from a third party. The e-mail, from a Tom Pyle, said Pyle
had contacted a dozen men whose names showed up on the list. Of the
dozen, three said they had not given permission, Anderson said.
"That leads me
to believe that as many as 25 percent of the names are fictitious
supporters of that group," he said.
Anderson does not
know how the Swift Boat Vets for Truth got his name, but it appears
exactly as it has appeared on rosters at swift boat vet reunions. He
suspects the list was pulled from the Swift Boat Sailors
Association, a nonpolitical, not-for-profit organization linking
swift boat veterans.
Wedge said he's known
about the list for several months. Unlike Anderson, he remembers
receiving an e-mail asking if he wanted to sign the letter in
support.
He speculates that
his name was automatically added to the list when he opened the
e-mail.
Both men say they are
angry that Kerry's swift boat service has dominated so much of the
campaign. And they say both sides are at fault.
"You see it
every campaign, there's dirty politics on every side," Anderson
said. "If the politicians spent more time on issues than on
this, we'd know more about them."
Anderson cites the
economy as one of the issues most important to him - that and
getting the nation out of Iraq. Wedge is more focused on Social
Security, Medicare reform, prescription drugs and adequate funding
for education.
Anderson describes
himself as an independent, saying he has voted both sides of the
ticket when it comes to presidential races. Neither he nor Wedge, a
registered Democrat, say they know who they will vote for this
election.
"I don't know
enough about Kerry to say whether I will vote for him,"
Anderson said. "I know enough about Bush that I won't vote for
him."
Regardless of
political loyalty, Anderson said he has a message he'd like to pass
along.
"Don't believe
everything you read. All it tells me is there is some politics going
on there."
2.
MISCELLANEOUS LIES OR GARBAGE
2A.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
ABOUT HIS TELEVISION APPEARANCE:
[CNN's Wolf] Blitzer:
"Why have you decided you want to speak out against John Kerry
right now?"
O'Neill: "I have
no choice, Wolf. I would far rather be home or on the other side of
a TV camera than being on television. I haven't been on television
in many, many years."
FACT
Not unexpectedly, O'Neill's claim is false. Once
a Nixon-loving compassionate conservative patsy, always a
Nixon-loving compassionate conservative patsy.
REFERENCES
Martin
Lewis, Salon.com:
The trouble is,
O'Neill had given an extensive interview for a TV show that had
aired nationally on Sunday, March 28. The interview was prominently
featured in C-Span's signature political show, "The Road to the
White House." It followed a broadcast by C-Span of the entire
original "Dick Cavett Show," featuring Kerry and O'Neill.
Also interviewed for the new sequence was Cavett.
C-Span producer
Richard Weinstein confirmed that he had interviewed O'Neill
approximately 10 days before the March 28 air date. "We tracked
down John O'Neill and told him that we were going to broadcast the
entire 'Dick Cavett Show' from 1971 on which he appeared and asked
if he would be interviewed for our show. We asked him to share his
memories. He agreed to be interviewed."
I asked Weinstein if
there could have been any possibility that O'Neill had been confused
and not realized that his interview was going to be used on TV.
"No," Weinstein said. "He spoke to us before and
after the interview. He was fully aware. I feel confident that he
knew exactly what he was doing. He was giving an interview for us to
air on C-Span TV."
Repeated calls to
O'Neill and his representatives have gone unanswered.
eRiposte note: Reader GCS points
out that O'Neill appears to have been on C-SPAN on 4/21/04 as well.
This search
on C-SPAN has a link to the video.
2B.
O'NEILL'S CLAIMS
ABOUT KERRY AND HIS OWN SERVICE IN "KERRY'S" UNIT
I saw some war heroes
... John Kerry is not a war hero...He couldn't tie the shoes of some
of the people in Coastal Division 11.
FACT
John O'Neill never served with John Kerry in Vietnam! He is in no
position to make any judgment based on his personal experience with
Kerry since he came to Vietnam's Coastal Division 2 (*) months after
Kerry had already left Vietnam. Thus, any claims he has about
knowing about Kerry's fitness or about facts relating to Kerry's war
record are objectively speaking, fraudulent, or at best hearsay (being
overly generous here!).
[* I had accidentally listed 11 here previously and this has been
corrected to 2, as of 8/19/04. Apologies for the inadvertent error].
REFERENCES
CNN:
John O'Neill, a
Houston lawyer who joined the Navy's Coastal Division 11 two months
after the future senator left Vietnam...
2C.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT SBV WOULD HAVE RAISED THIS STORM EVEN IF KERRY HAD BEEN A
REPUBLICAN
We don't think that
he'd be a very good president of the United States. And if he were
running as a Republican, you'd have every one of these guys here in
line.
FACT
With O'Neill or SBV or their other cronies having shown no interest
in going after George W. Bush for his long track record of
fabrications about his National Guard service, I say, yeah, right!
With the exception of Gardner, none of the other members of
SBV actually served in Kerry's unit. John O'Neill certainly was not
even in the unit when Kerry was. Even if you set aside the question of
how he could possibly know what Kerry did, the point is this: if
they believe lying about one's military service is grounds to expose
someone running for President, why aren't these folks doing everything
they can to expose the myriad lies from George W. Bush about his
National Guard record. Surely, not having actually
served under Bush in Bush's same unit cannot be a disqualifying
criteria - because O'Neill clearly believes that is irrelevant! Bush's
numerous
fabrications about his record in 2000 were not challenged by these
so called "truth-tellers". These folks have also shown no
interest in Bush's continued fabrications about his record, as exposed
systematically by Paul Lukasiak at GLCQ. So, how come these guys
(or others) are not lining up?
For more readings on the garbage and
lies from SBV, go here.
2D.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT HE HAS HAD NO SERIOUS INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS FOR OVER 32 YEARS
[On Crossfire, CNN]: I've
had no serious involvement in politics of any kind in over 32 years.
[On Hardball,
MSNBC]: I haven't voted for a Republican since
1988.
FACT
O'Neill has contributed over $14,000 solely to Republicans in
various elections since 1990. Perhaps we have to act like sheep and
pretend that this constitutes "no serious involvement".
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
Moreover, since 1990,
according to the Center
for Responsive Politics, O'Neill has contributed $14,650 to
federal candidates or national political organizations -- all
Republicans:
-
2004:
$2,000
to Duane Sand (ND)
-
1999:
$1,000
to Peter Staub Wareing (TX)
-
1998:
$250
to Rudy Izzard (TX)
-
1996:
$1,000
to Brent Perry (TX)
-
1994:
$2,500
to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
-
1993:
$2,500
to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
-
1992:
$1,000
to Texas Republican Congressional Committee
-
1992:
$1,000
George H.W. Bush
-
1992:
$1,000
to Clark Kent Ervin (TX)
-
1991:
$1,000
to Clark Kent Ervin (TX)
-
1990:
$400
to Hugh Dunham Shine (TX)
-
1990:
$1,000
to A Tribute To Ronald Reagan
Media
Matters:
Houston lawyer John
O'Neill is a Republican -- as the Houston Chronicle noted the
day after O'Neill's interview
with Blitzer. According to the paper, O'Neill voted in the 1998
Republican state primary. But O'Neill's ties to the Republican Party
extend far beyond party affiliation.
2E. O'NEILL'S
CLAIM
THAT HALF OF THE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM ACTUALLY
CAME FROM A LAW PARTNER OF HIS
[via
Media Matters]: Appearing on the August 17
edition of FOX News Channel's Special
Report with Brit Hume, O'Neill claimed that half of the
nearly $15,000 in contributions (first identified
by Media Matters for America) were actually made by his
"law partner who has almost the same name, Edward J.
O'Neill"...
FACT
Mr. O'Neill, as usual was swift with the facts. Sorry, at least
some of us don't work for the GOP's propaganda news channel where fact
checking is done only when convenient.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
FOX News Channel
managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit
Hume asked O'Neill to respond to "allegations" that he
had seen "on websites and so on -- that you [O'Neill] are a
Republican activist and partisan ... who has given something on the
order of $14,000 to Republican candidates." O'Neill said of MMFA's
research, "that is not true"; of the nearly $15,000 in
donations to Republicans, he said, "[a]ctually, about half of
them were mine." When Hume asked about "the other
$7,000," O'Neill claimed: "Those are actually funds, as
nearly as I can tell, that were given my -- by some -- my law
partner who has almost the same name, Edward J. O'Neill. I simply
didn't give them. I would have been happy to give them. I just
didn't."
But for each donation
MMFA identified in our original summary of O'Neill's
contributions, the Center
for Responsive Politics (CRP) database -- which uses data
directly from the Federal Election Commission -- lists the
contributor unambiguously as "John E. O'Neill."
The CRP database does
contain records
of political contributions by an Edward J. O'Neill, John E.
O'Neill's partner
at a Texas law firm. According to CRP, Edward J. O'Neill donated
$1,000 to then-Texas Governor George W. Bush's campaign in 1999,
$250 to former Democratic presidential candidate General
Wesley K. Clark's primary campaign in 2003, and similar amounts
to other candidates from both parties.
Though CRP records
show that both Edward J. O'Neill and John E. O'Neill contributed to
then-Texas Republican candidate for U.S. Congress Clark
Kent Ervin in the early 1990s, the record
of Edward J. O'Neill's July 1992 donation of $250 is distinct from
the records of John E. O'Neill's two $1,000 donations to Ervin in 1991
and 1992.
The names, dates, and amounts of these donations are all different,
and the contributions are for different amounts.
2E1.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT RECORDS SHOW HE HAS CONTRIBUTED MORE MONEY TO
DEMOCRATS THAN REPUBLICANS
[via Media Matters]:
O'Neill has repeatedly declared himself nonpartisan. Yet during an
August 17 appearance on FOX News Channel's Special
Report with Brit Hume, he claimed that the "actual
records" show that he has contributed "more money to
Democratic candidates than to Republican candidates," including
to Democratic Houston mayoral candidate Bill White. O'Neill said that
he had "given in excess of $25,000 to Democrats over the same
15-year period. About three times as much [as he admitted having given
to Republicans]."
FACT
Records show something quite different. No prizes for guessing the
right answer.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
MMFA's
review of White's campaign finance filings (filed with the City of
Houston) confirmed
(pdf) that, as O'Neill claimed, "John O'Neill" contributed
$5,000 to White in 2003; but MMFA's review of the Texas
Ethics Commission's (TEC) searchable
database of campaign finance reports also found record of a
Republican contribution beyond those previously noted
by MMFA and beyond those previously acknowledged by O'Neill.
Records
(pdf) show that "John E. O'Neil" [sic] of Houston
contributed $5,000 to the campaign of Republican
"Judge Elizabeth Ray for Texas Supreme Court." While the
filing spells O'Neill's last name incorrectly, it lists his employer
as the law firm "Clements, O'Neil, Pierce, Nickens &
Wilson"; O'Neill is currently a partner
in the Houston-based Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson &
Fulkerson, L.L.P.
These are the state
and local contributions MMFA was able to document. Records on
local contributions in Texas are available through local filing
authorities but must be searched by candidate rather than by
contributor. The TEC database, which keeps records of all
contributions to candidates for statewide office, dates back only to
July 2000. Thus far, through federal, state, and local records, MMFA
has documented $19,650 in contributions O'Neill has made to
Republicans and $5,000 to a Democrat.
2F.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT KERRY, IN HIS COURAGE, IS "MILLIONS OF STEPS BEHIND"
MOST PEOPLE, INCLUDING PRESIDENT BUSH
[via
Media Matters] From the
August 12 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
MATTHEWS: [I]f a
man shows any courage in the battlefield, he's done more than most
people do in this country. He's gone out and fought for his
country and risked his life for his country and shot one of the
enemy for his country. That puts him a step above most people,
doesn't it?
O'NEILL: I think he is millions of steps behind, because he went
over ...
MATTHEWS: Behind whom?
O'NEILL: Behind everybody.
MATTHEWS: Behind Bush? President Bush?
O'NEILL: Yes. I'm not going to speak to President Bush.
FACT
Does it even need to be stated that President Bush avoided
the draft and went AWOL in the Air National Guard and lied
repeatedly about his record - to put it mildly? Thus in Mr.
O'Neill's compassionately conservative logic, avoiding the draft shows
greater courage than volunteering to go to Vietnam. Mmmm-hmmmm.
2G.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT THERE ARE "MORE THAN 60 PEOPLE THAT SERVED WITH JOHN KERRY
THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THIS BOOK [UNFIT FOR COMMAND]"
[via
Media Matters]: The anti-Kerry group Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth claims 254
members, and O'Neill, the group's co-founder, claimed on the
August 12 edition of CNN's Crossfire
that there "are more than 60 people that served with John Kerry
that contributed to this book [Unfit for Command]."
FACT
A grand total of 1 member of SBV actually served WITH Kerry on his
boat - Steve Gardner. Gardner himself, after repeatedly lying, finally
conceded that he had not actually served with Kerry at the time Kerry
won his Purple Hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star. The rest of the SBV
members served at or before/after the time Kerry served
and in other boats or duties.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
On the August 12
edition of FOX News Channel's Special
Report with Brit Hume, FOX News general assignment reporter Major
Garrett distorted the truth about support for Senator John Kerry
(D-MA) among veterans who served with Kerry in Vietnam. Garrett
asserted that John
E. O'Neill and Jerome
R. Corsi, co-authors of Unfit
for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,
"correctly point out that, of those Navy personnel who served
alongside Kerry or performed similar duties, more now questioned his
war record than defend it."
The anti-Kerry group Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth claims 254
members, and O'Neill, the group's co-founder, claimed on the
August 12 edition of CNN's Crossfire
that there "are more than 60 people that served with John Kerry
that contributed to this book [Unfit for Command]."
While the group's members are veterans of the Vietnam War and may
have served at the same time as Kerry or even near Kerry,
Steve Gardner is the only one of the men attacking Kerry to have
actually served on the swift boats that Kerry commanded. Of those
veterans who served under Kerry, the Kerry-Edwards '04 campaign has
pointed out that 11 of the 12 support him, many of whom appeared
with Kerry in Boston at the Democratic National Convention,
according to an August 4 Scripps Howard News Service report.
2I.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT HIS [BOOK'S] CO-AUTHOR IS, GET THIS, NOT REALLY THE CO-AUTHOR!
[via
Media Matters]: "Corsi acted as sort
of an editor of our book. ... He simply helped us in editing the
book," O'Neill said. When Blitzer returned, asking, "All
right, but he's listed as the co-author of the book, isn't he?"
O'Neill admitted that Corsi was listed as the book's co-author but
again claimed that he performed only "a function in editing, in
-- particularly in the second half of the book, in historical
research, because he had done a great deal of research on the
anti-war movement, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, but not in
the Vietnam section of the book."
FACT
Oy. Flip-flop, flip-flop, lie here, lie there! Co-author, not
co-author.
Not to mention that one has ample reasons to doubt any
"research" done by this "couple".
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
The preface to Unfit
contains three paragraphs: The first describes O'Neill; the second
describes Corsi; and the third details their friendship -- which
dates back 30 years to their college days, when "the two
competed against each other in intercollegiate debate" -- and
notes that O'Neill and Corsi "decided to work together to write
this book."
The book's
acknowledgements section is written in the plural, suggesting that
both O'Neill and Corsi thank those who contributed to the book:
"We particularly appreciate..."; "We recognize
that..."; "We, as so many others, are indebted..."
The acknowledgements section also refers to "our work"
and "our words."
Contrary to O'Neill's
assertion that Corsi only edited "particularly" "the
second half of the book ... but not in the Vietnam section of the
book," according to the book jacket (as well as Unfit's
"BOOK
DETAILS," which are posted
on the Regnery website), O'Neill and "his coauthor" Corsi
"interviewed dozens of veterans" and "meticulously
documented" Kerry's record:
In this stunning
new book, John O'Neill and his coauthor Dr. Jerome Corsi
(an expert on the anti-Vietnam War movement) have interviewed
dozens of veterans who served with Kerry and have meticulously
documented a shameful record of betrayal and deception on the
part of John Kerry.
The book jacket also
includes brief profiles and photographs of both authors. Both also
contributed dedications.
2J.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM
THAT HE IS A "NOT A REPUBLICAN FROM TEXAS" [see footnote]
[via
Media Matters]: During
an August 12 appearance on MSNBC's Hardball
with Chris Matthews, O'Neill claimed, "I'm not a
Republican from Texas. That's just not true."
FACT
Bwahahahaha. Oh, RIGHT - he must be a Fox News Democrat
who only donates to Republican candidates and votes in Republican
primaries and supports Presidents like Nixon, Bush etc! Tammy
Bruce and Susan
Estrich, move over!
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
O'Neill is, in fact,
from Texas. And he has given
more than $14,000 in federal contributions to Republican
candidates and causes since 1990, including $1,000 to George H. W.
Bush in 1992. And he hasn't made any federal contributions to
Democratic candidates or causes during that time. And he voted in the
1998 Republican state primary.
Media
Matters:
MMFA has
previously noted
O'Neill's close ties to the Nixon administration, including to the
notorious Charles
Colson; that O'Neill voted in the 1998 Republican primary in
Texas, according to an April 21 Houston Chronicle examination
of Harris County records; that the Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth are backed
by a longtime donor to President George W. Bush; and that the
group's media contact is longtime Republican p.r. operative Merrie
Spaeth, as Salon.com's Joe Conason reported
in May.
FOOTNOTE: I regret the error in this
section which has now been corrected. It stated previously that
O'Neill claimed he was a Democrat. Actually he has
claimed he *was* a Democrat, but his latest position is
that he is "not
a Republican".
2K.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT HE WAS NOT EVER IN CAMBODIA
[O'Neill via Media
Matters]: I was never in
Cambodia, and Kerry lied when he said he was in Cambodia.
[O'Neill via Liberal
Oasis]: O'Neill said Kerry would have been
"court-martialed"
for such an act. Further, that he did the same patrol two months
after Kerry and it only ran "50
miles from Cambodia. There isn't any watery border."
FACT
Pants on fire, Mr. O'Neill.
O'Neill had stated to then-President
Richard Nixon that he was "in Cambodia" himself, in a swift
boat and that he worked along the border on the water.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
As CNN congressional
correspondent Joe
Johns reported on the August
24 edition of CNN's NewsNight
with Aaron Brown, "O'Neill said no one could cross the
border by river, and he claimed in an audiotape that his publicist
played to CNN that he himself had never been to Cambodia either. But
in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then-President
Richard Nixon." CNN then aired the audiotape of O'Neill telling
Nixon that he was, in fact, in Cambodia during the Vietnam War:
O'NEILL: I was in
Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.
NIXON: In a swift
boat?
O'NEILL: Yes, sir.
Although there was no
response from O'Neill on CNN (O'Neill had "not returned CNN's
calls," according to Johns), O'Neill was confronted on the
issue by Alan
Colmes, co-host of FOX News Channel's Hannity
& Colmes. The Cambodia issue was first raised on the
program by co-host Sean
Hannity, who attempted to dismiss it by asking O'Neill, "[D]o
you want to even respond to this attack against you so they [the
Kerry campaign] can distract from him [Kerry] never answering a
question about the discrepancies in his life?" and then
asserting that O'Neill's contradicting comments were
"consistent statements." However, Colmes refused to let
O'Neill -- who attempted to dismiss his lie by saying "I was
talking in a conversation" -- off the hook for his false claim.
The
Left Coaster (via reader PT)
(bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
[quoting transcript
of NewsNight with Aaron Brown]:
BROWN: And just
quickly on the O'Neill thing, just for my edification here, Mr.
O'Neill's publicist played for you a tape where Mr. O'Neill says
what again?
JOHNS: Well, he
says in the tape essentially that he did not go to Cambodia, plain
and simple. He says that a couple times in fact in this little
short interview that was played for me on the phone. Now, of
course, as you listen to that conversation with Richard Nixon, he
says something completely different or, at least, that's what it
sounds like -- Aaron.
BROWN: It does.
Thank you, Joe Johns in Philadelphia tonight.
Also see Matt
Yglesias.
2K1.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT HE WAS NEVER WITHIN 50 MILES OF THE CAMBODIAN
BORDER
[Via Pandagon]: In an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week" O'Neill
said: "Our boats didn't go north of, only slightly north of
Sedek," which he said was about 50 miles from the Cambodian
border.
FACT
As Atrios points
out, it is unclear if O'Neill says anything that is truthful.
REFERENCES
Pandagon,
via Atrios:
In 1971, John O'Neill
told the president that he
was in Cambodia.
O'Neill said no one
could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape
that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been
to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the
opposite to then President Richard Nixon.
O'NEILL: I was in
Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.
NIXON: In a swift
boat?
O'NEILL: Yes, sir.
But the story doesn't
stop there. O'Neill's been trying to explain why he told the
president that he did something that supposedly couldn't have been
done.
Well, it's because he
wasn't actually in the country, obviously. Where
was he?
In an interview with
The Associated Press on Wednesday, O'Neill did not dispute what he
said to Nixon, but insisted he was never actually in Cambodia.
"I think I
made it very clear that I was on the border, which is exactly
where I was for three months. I was about 100 yards from
Cambodia," O'Neill said in clarifying the June 16, 1971,
conversation with Nixon.
2L.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT SBV HAS "NO PARTISAN TIES"
[via Media
Matters]: O'Neill said on CNN on August 11,
"[T]he people in our organization have no partisan ties, we
didn't campaign in the last four elections for Democrats, by and large
we didn't campaign for anybody."
FACT
A fine Sean Hannity moment, er, blatant lie.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
That's a lie. The new
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertisement, unveiled August 20, features
Ken Cordier criticizing Kerry. Cordier is identified in the ad as
"P.O.W., Dec. 1966 - Mar. 1973."
But Cordier isn't
just a former prisoner of war. He was also a member of the
Bush-Cheney '04 National Veterans Steering Committee until
controversy over his dual role with the campaign and the SBVT led to
his resignation.
The Bush-Cheney '04 campaign website suddenly -- mysteriously --
omits Cordier's name from the list of Steering
Committee members, presumably in an effort to hide ties between
the campaign and this 527 advertising. But images
from a cached copy of the page, as well as a list
of committee members, prove his membership.
Cordier was also named
to a Bush administration POW Advisory Committee.
Cordier's involvement
with the Bush campaign is not a new development. In September 2000,
Dick Cheney personally
announced Cordier's selection as Vice-Chair of the Veterans for
Bush-Cheney '00.
There's more here
and here.
2M.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT IT WAS NOT TRUE THAT HE WAS RICHARD NIXON'S
STOOGE AGAINST KERRY
[via Media
Matters]: After Chris Matthews said to
O'Neill, "You go back to the Nixon era, when [former President
Richard] Nixon was looking for someone. [Chuck] Colson and those guys
were looking for somebody to debunk the Kerry record, because all the
records show they were scared to death of this guy. And you played
that role," O'Neill replied, "That's just not true."
FACT
Another fine Sean Hannity moment, er, blatant lie.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
O'Neill was lying.
Former Nixon special
counsel Chuck
Colson has said that Kerry was an "articulate" and
"credible leader" of those veterans calling for an end to
the Vietnam War and therefore "an immediate target of the Nixon
administration." As such, the Nixon administration found it
necessary to "create a counterfoil" to Kerry. Colson
recounted, "We found a vet named John O'Neill and formed a
group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O'Neill meet
the President, and we did everything we could do to boost his
group." Articles from the April 21 edition of the Houston
Chronicle and the June 17, 2003, edition of The Boston Globe
confirm close ties between O'Neill and the Nixon administration.
Details: http://mediamatters.org/items/200405040004
and http://mediamatters.org/items/200408130010
Photo, from left to
right: John O'Neill, Richard Nixon, and Charles Colson.
2N.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT KERRY HAS TOLD HIS CAMBODIA STORY OVER 50 TIMES
[via
Daily Howler]: O’NEILL (8/22/04): You
asked about Cambodia...[Kerry's] told it over fifty times,
George. That was on the floor of the Senate [in 1986].
FACT
False, even according to a right wing nut job from the AEI.
REFERENCES
Daily Howler:
“He’s told the story
over fifty times,” O’Neill said. But was O’Neill just showing
his way with numbers again? In yesterday’s Post, Joshua
Muravchik wrote a shaky op-ed piece trashing Kerry as a big liar
(“Kerry’s Cambodia Whopper”). But Muravchik, a scholar from
the American Enterprise Institute [AEI], seems to count differently
than O’Neill does. He referred to Kerry’s “apparently
fabricated claim that he fought in Cambodia:”
MURAVCHIK (8/24/04):
It is an assertion he made first, insofar as the written record
reveals, in 1979 in a letter to the Boston Herald. Since then he
has repeated it on at least eight occasions during Senate
debate or in news interviews, most recently to The Post this year
(an interview posted on Kerry's Web site).
So which is it? Is it fifty
times? Or more like eight? You’re never quite sure when
O’Neill plays the numbers. After all, moments earlier he had told
Stephanopoulos that “there's not a bullet hole anywhere” in the
Bronze Star incident (a baldly false statement) and “we have every
other officer on the scene that day, all of whom, four of them, who
say there was no enemy fire” (also untrue). It seems O’Neill has
a way with numbers. In fact, it seems that he just makes them up.
2O.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT KERRY WAS JUST "HORSING AROUND" WHEN HE
BLEW UP RICE STACKS IN VIETNAM
[via Media
Matters]: On The Rush Limbaugh
Show, O'Neill claimed that when Kerry blew up a cache of rice that
was a source of food for the Viet Cong, "[h]e simply was playing
around. He threw a grenade into some rice and got a tiny amount of
rice and shrapnel in his fanny." Limbaugh asked, "Is there a
strategic reason, like blowing up food stocks, to blow up rice, or was
is just -- is it just a thing to pass time?" To which O'Neill
responded, "I think it was just horsing around. Nobody would ever
throw a grenade into rice to try and destroy it. It doesn't destroy
it, Rush, as far as I can tell."
FACT
Another in a long line of lies from Mr. O'Neill. Rice stacks were
routinely destroyed at that time because of the fear that they might
serve as food supply to the enemy.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
However, Annenberg
Political Fact Check has noted
that "[a]ll agree that rice was being destroyed that day on the
assumption that it otherwise might feed Viet Cong fighters." Even
O'Neill's fellow Swift Boat Veterans for Truth member Larry
Thurlow stated in his signed
affidavit that Kerry was wounded by throwing a grenade "to
destroy a rice supply." On August 22, The Washington
Post reported
the incident: "As they were heading back to the boat, Kerry and
[fellow crewmate Jim] Rassmann decided to blow up a five-ton rice bin
to deny food to the Vietcong."
2O1.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT KERRY "ADMITS" HE
"FABRICATED" HIS RICE INCIDENT INJURY
[via Media
Matters]: O'Neill...asserted on Limbaugh's
program that Kerry "admits that the wound [resulting from the
rice incident] was fabricated on the -- you know, this hip shrapnel
wound"...
FACT
False as usual.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
Kerry has said no such
thing, and there is no evidence to support this claim. According to FactCheck.org,
in Douglas Brinkley's book Tour
of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (William Morrow,
2004), Kerry remarked of the incident: "I got a piece of small
grenade in my ass from one of the rice-bin explosions." And the
"personnel
casualty report" (pdf) -- though mistakenly attributing the
rice explosion injury to a combat incident later that day -- states
that he "suffered shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks." The
initials on the report are KJW. Kerry's initials are JFK (John Forbes
Kerry). O'Neill has claimed the "KJW" initials appearing on
the report prove that Kerry wrote it, according to the August 22 Washington
Post article.
But as the Post noted, "It is unclear why this should be
so, as Kerry's initials are JFK. A review of other Swift boat
after-action reports at the Naval Historical Center here reveals
several that include the initials 'KJW' but describe incidents at
which Kerry was not present."
2P.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT SBV IS SELF-FUNDED
[O'Neill via Media
Matters]: We were set up with our own money.
FACT
False as usual.
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
In order to claim that
"[t]he one group of all of them [the 527s] that has an
independent right to speak is ours," O'Neill lied on Limbaugh's
show by asserting, "We were set up with our own money."
However, as MMFA has reported,
FactCheck.org noted
that $100,000 of the $158,750 the group had raised as of June came
from prominent Texas Republican and Bush-Cheney '04 campaign
contributor Bob
Perry. The New York Times reported
on August 20 that Perry has now given $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth.
2Q.
O'NEILL'S CLAIM THAT SBV MEMBER HOFFMANN'S CONDUCT "SICKENS"
HIM [Kerry]
[via Daily
Howler]:
O’NEILL/CORSI (page 68-69): On March 15, 2004, Admiral
Hoffmann’s phone rang again. Once again, the caller was John Kerry.
Kerry had clinched the Democratic nomination, and he knew that
Hoffmann was organizing Swiftees to bring out the truth about
him...Kerry made the admiral an offer: If you will back off and drop
your efforts, I will ensure that my biography, Tour of Duty, which
I know is unfair to you, will be changed to make it accurate in a
revised edition. Here is my secretary’s number—you can get me
anytime.
The offer from the
Democratic candidate was an attempt to flatter Hoffmann, a warrior
whose coin is not power or wealth, but honor—an honored deeply
impugned by Kerry’s book...
If Admiral Hoffmann
were truly a butcher whose conduct “sickens” John Kerry
to this day, an impression one could easily gain from reading Tour
of Duty, then why did he call Hoffmann to seek his support?
FACT | 
