What Goes Around, Comes Around...

I know, I was going to avoid any more mention of the swift-boaters, but...

News anchor Aaron Brown, on CNN of all places, realized something last night that the Repubs haven’t got the brains to understand. As Aaron Brown mused and scratched his head, he asked (paraphrased), “..I don’t get it, the Republicans really don’t want to open a comparison of Bush’s & Kerry’s military records do they? Why doesn’t the president repudiate the swift-boaters and their attack ads?” Too late, it’s hardball time. Move-On.Org aired hard-hitting TV ads on Bush’s “military record” in three southern states yesterday with more to come.

And, OK I’m a glutton for punishment, but tuning into O’Reilly, I found instead one Judge Napalitano saying words to the effect that every veteran he has heard from has blasted Kerry and his “lack of honorable representation of his service record, and even more so for attacking the Vietnam war after his return from the war.”

That was even too much for me to keep quiet. My email to CNN:

For Judge Napalitano: No sir, not all veterans agree with the swift-boaters, not by a long shot. In fact you are going to see that the Bush campaign will be sorry it ever started this attack when Mr. Bush’s avoidance of military duty is hammered home in the next two months before the election. The Repubs thought they had a “Willie Horton” issue and were frustrated when Hurricane Charlie and the Olympics knocked their issue off of every conservative media outlet. Now they are trying to again force the issue, not Sen. Kerry.

The massive assault on John Kerry's war record appears to be being blamed, by you, on Kerry hyping the subject himself. But let's look at one very important piece missing from what you might call the "chain of evidence." This whole onslaught actually began with conservatives and their media sympathizers’ heavy criticism of Kerry, before the Democratic Convention. Mr. Bush and virtually all of the talk radio conservatives (and several CNN TV notables) blasted Kerry for being, in their words, “the most liberal of U.S. Senators, who is soft on national security.” Mr. Bush continues to use those words, and because Mr. Bush led the polls in that subject area, the attack had to be addressed at the convention and afterwards, and the Kerry campaign did so. This is one veteran, as even Senator John McCain has expressed, who believes that the swift-boaters and their supporters are in deep water and over their heads in personal agendas.

I know, I probably won’t get an answer, but I sure feel better.