Kerry campaign provides some military records:
Amid questions about his military records, Democratic Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign provided documentation Tuesday of injuries he sustained during the Vietnam War, including shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and buttocks that earned him three Purple Hearts.
Earlier today, The Boston Globe reported that all of the records were not, in fact, publicly available as Kerry had said they were on his Sunday appearance on Meet The Press. By this evening, he had made the record available in their entirety to the press, though not to the public, as some of them are considered private military records.
Apparently, even that isn't good enough for the Bush campaign.
Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, accused Kerry's campaign of waffling on the release of his military records, saying the campaign's position Tuesday to release the records in "due diligence" was contrary to Kerry's comments on "Meet the Press" that the records would be made public immediately.
"Senator Kerry's record of nondisclosure and his flip-flop on this issue should concern voters," Mehlman said.
Oh really? Remind me again how many times we had to press Bush to release his records. And even then, we seem to still have not gotten everything.
The GOP has quietly been testing language suggesting that Kerry did not deserve one or all of his three Purple Hearts. They claim that they would never impugn Kerry's military service, but that is exactly what they are doing with this fishing expedition.
Can you imagine them suggesting that a soldier returning from Iraq was undeserving of a Purple Heart? Of course not. And yet John Kerry is a combat veteran just like they are. In trying to score political points, they are besmirching the record of someone who fought for his country and was wounded. Support the troops indeed. They forget that their opponent was one.
I hope they keep at this. We'll be happy to accept another opportunity to talk about how George W. Bush used his privilege and his connections to secure an easy job in the Air National Guard, where the closest he'd get to combat was the evening news. Tell the GOP to bring it on. That's language they understand.