Although folks might not believe it, as a blogger, I do exercise judgement in what I publish. And as it turns out, over the weekend, I decided to hold off on publishing a story after having some doubts as to whether it was genuinely newsworthy or not.
Fast forward to this afternoon, and the following story:
WASHINGTON Aug. 24, 2004
Day: August 24, 2004
FEC To Kerry: Quit Whining
So FEC Chairman Bradley Smith just told John Kerry to down and shut up:
Kerry, 60, a four-term Massachusetts senator, alleged last week that the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth illegally coordinated its activities with President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. Smith, a Republican, said members of the group are exercising their constitutional right to free speech.
“I think it’s great we live in a country where 260 average guys can go out and put their point of view out there before the public and influence a major presidential race,” Smith said in an interview with Bloomberg television. “I am not one who agrees it is illegitimate for citizens to take a stand on these kind of issues and only the politicians should be able to say what they want about the issues they want to talk about.”
“For the Kerry group to be complaining” when Democratic donor-funded groups have raised much more “seems a little bit absurd,” said Smith, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
I have no idea what he’s talking about.
Friends Like These
editorial, this morning:
Mr. Kerry’s conflicting statements about where and when he was in Cambodia remain troubling. He has backed away from repeated claims that he spent Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia, a memory that, he said in a 1986 Senate speech, is “seared — seared — in me.” This does not undermine Mr. Kerry’s military bravery, but it does raise an issue of candor. It’s fair to ask whether this is an episode of foggy memory, routine political embroidery or something more. Indeed, the Kerry campaign ought to arrange for the full release of all relevant records from the time. Mr. Kerry granted historian Douglas Brinkley exclusive use of his wartime journals and other writings; the campaign should seek to be freed from that agreement and to make all the material public. Though the ads are being underwritten by longtime Bush partisans, the Kerry campaign’s claim of illegal coordination between the Swift boat group and the Bush campaign is unconvincing.
With defenders like this, who needs enemies?
By the way, is this a good time to remind y’all of how I got started on this whole issue over two weeks ago? I think it is!
The Truth Laid Bear, Kerry’s Swift Demise, 8/8/04:
I’m going to go on record and predict that the Swift Boat Veterans kerfuffle won’t just be a major negative for Kerry: it will be a campaign-killer. ..Unless Kerry’s campaign manages to completely discredit the Swifties — which seems increasingly unlikely — the campaign is over; Kerry is done. And after Election Day has passed, I expect that anyone looking backwards will wonder why in the world the Democrats ever thought making Kerry’s Vietnam service a centerpiece was a good idea in the first place.
That wondering seems to be beginning sooner rather than later.