August 23, 2004
Dole Goes Bananas
Had to use that title now, we aren't ever likely to have a Senator Chiquita...
As the Swift Vets story continues to swirl around the Presidential campaign, former Republican Senator and Presidential candidate Bob Dole weighed in, and took a few shots at Kerry and the Vietnamization of his campaign.
Dole clearly has had this controversy in his mental forefront for a while. Kerry invited this level of scrutiny by integrating his Viet Nam story so closely with his campaign - attempts by the Kerry to deflect this utter truth are fallacious. Stating that Kerry took it "too far", Dole clearly feels bitterness toward Kerry's postwar activities, recommending that Kerry may owe veterans of that war, and in general, something of an apology.
But Dole, always acerbic in his political life, turned that nibble into a bite by bringing up Kerry's Purple Heart-shortened tour of duty.
While Dole's statement about Kerry's war injuries, "...three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of", is of course intrinsically false - surely there was blood, after all - it's not a literal statement, but really a rhetorical one. Kerry had a very brief tour of active duty in Viet Nam, which was enabled due to Navy regulations allowing those with three Purple Hearts to ask for non-active assignment. Dole's point clearly is that anyone who get's three Purple Hearts but never misses any duty is capitalizing on a very liberal definition of "war injury". And Dole, who has had a relatively useless arm due to Nazi machine gun fire, has the Valhalla street cred to pull off the statement.
The Kerry campaign gently deflected Dole's remarks, and wisely so. They continued however to try and hang the Swift Vets ads around the President. Even though the President has repeatedly praised John Kerry's service, there has been no reciprocation whatsoever.
Even if Kerry thinks it's just lip service from Bush, it would look better for him to give a little lip service back.