AGAINST MCCAIN: REMEMBER THIS?

From our Remembering Division:

Friday 6th August 2004 : Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of President Bush's campaign in Arizona, called an ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.

"When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry," one of the veterans, Larry Thurlow, says in the ad. Thurlow didn't serve on Kerry's swift boat, but says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Kerry's crew mates support the candidate and call him a hero.

The ad, scheduled to air in a few markets in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, was produced by Stevens, Reed, Curcio and Potham, the same team that produced McCain's ads in 2000.

"I wish they hadn't done it," McCain said of his former advisers. "I don't know if they knew all the facts."

"I deplore this kind of politics," McCain said. "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam."

Retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, head of the Swift Boat group, said they respected McCain's "right to express his opinion and we hope he extends to us the same respect and courtesy, particularly since we served with John Kerry, we knew him well and Sen. McCain did not."
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I've been reading Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler's brilliant and inspiring history of the SwiftVets impact on the 2004 campaign, "To Set the Record Straight." I'll review the book another time, but suffice it to say that, in the space of 328 pages, plus 40 pages of footnotes, they make it crystal clear that the SwiftVets were honest, honorable, truthful and accurate to a fault...But were themselves the targets of a gross, furious, dishonest, and dishonorable campaign by the MSM/Dhim axis to abort their historical revelations.

And John McCain, for his own egotistical, perverse and short-sighted reasons, took it upon himself to join the MSM/Dhim lynch mob. Idiot. Fortunately he/they failed, heheh.

Note that Sen. Bob Dole stood by the SwiftVets in 2004, as a real hero and team player should.

Three little words that I'LL NEVER FORGIVE Sen. McCain for: DISHONEST AND DISHONORABLE.

UPDATE: The great Hugh Hewitt does some serious remembering here: Flashback: The Real John McCain

AMEN ON THAT, BRUTHAH HUGH!!