Monday, April 26, 2004 :::
Kerry's having more trouble with the medals:Kerry's campaign Web site calls Republican accusations that he surrendered his medals a "right-wing fiction." Instead, the site says, "John Kerry threw away his ribbons and the medals of two veterans who could not attend the event."
But according to news reports issued Monday, Kerry told a Washington, D.C., television station on Nov. 6, 1971, that he "gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals."
When the interviewer at the time pointed out that Kerry had a Bronze Star and a Silver Star as well as three Purple Hearts, Kerry said, "Above that, I gave my others."
In the interview Monday morning, Kerry said the military at the time made no real distinction between medals and ribbons.
"Back then, you know, ribbons, medals were absolutely interchangeable. ... The U.S. Navy pamphlet calls them medals, we referred to them as the symbols, they were representing medals, ribbons." Frankly, I think that's a reasonable rebuttal, provided that the hundreds of thousands of people who were in the armed forces at the time aren't going to contradict him. If ribbons weren't referred to as "medals", he'd be better off saying that he had misspoken, which I think is something he's generally too reluctant to say.
Unfortunately, Kerry didn't shut up:Commenting on the medal controversy, Kerry said Monday: "This comes from a president and a Republican Party that can't even answer whether he showed up for duty in the National Guard." Presumably, Kerry has his eyes closed and his fingers in his ears. The Bush team did "answer" the question, and even provided some evidence in the form of payroll records. If Kerry is going to continue to pedal this left-wing fiction, he should point to some shred of evidence that Bush didn't serve. And it should come close to refuting the payroll records and the fact that Bush got an honorable discharge.
::: posted by Steven at 12:42 PM
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