Senator Kerry went after Ambassador to Belgium-nominee Sam Fox for his support of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group in his confirmation hearings yesterday.
That group went after Kerry's war record during the 2004 Presidential Elections after allegations arose that Kerry was distorting his military record and that he had refused to sign a Form 180 privacy waiver which would have allowed the Navy to release all of his records.
Kerry finally did sign the form in 2005, months after losing the Presidential Election. We'll skip his excuse for not signing the form earlier, but it is in the linked article.
He may have released the information in 2005 to avoid being attacked on the same issue if he decided to run for President in 2008 (he decided against running for now).
The records contained nothing new or explosive as some of the hard-core Swift Boat Veterans had been expecting. After-action reports of the battles that Kerry got decorated for are still missing, so the Swift Boat Veterans will continue to be a force to be considered.
Enter Sam Fox. Fox is a conservative St. Louis businessman who gave the Swift Boat Veterans $50,000 in 2004, during the height of the Kerry-Swift Boat Veterans fight. Kerry challenged Fox in the hearing, saying that Fox's decision makes him unfit to be a United States Ambassador.
I don't care about the Ambassadorship or who has it.
I'm not happy that Kerry is attacking Fox for supporting a conservative group and exercising his freedom of association, which is derived from the freedom of assembly clause and right to petition the government to redress grievances.
If we applied the same standard to Kerry that Kerry is applying to Fox, Kerry's membership in the Skull and Bones secret society would make him unfit to be a United States Senator.
The difference is that the Swift Boat for Veterans group operates in the open, where everyone can see them and what they're doing; S&B does not.
So who's more suspect: a businessman who gives $50,000 to a conservative group who wants to be an Ambassador, or a United States Senator who joined an elite secret society, wants everything both ways, engages in deception throughout the Presidential campaign, and refuses to allow the Navy to let his official military record to be released to the media--even thought the release would have helped his campaign against the Swift Boat Vets?
Senator Kerry ought to get over it.
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