Kerry Vows Tougher Stance on Texas Group (Swiftboat Liars)

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-elect/2006/oct/08/100806475.html

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lashed out Sunday against a group that campaigned against him during his last run at the White House.

Kerry said he is concerned that Swift Vote Veterans for Truth is again resorting to "the politics of fear and smear."

The group, financed by Texas conservatives, ran commercials questioning his Vietnam record - the centerpiece of his presidential campaign in 2004. Those same conservatives have formed another group this year - Economic Freedom Fund - to campaign against Democrats across the country.

"We're not going to give them an ounce of daylight," said Kerry, who is considering another run at the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

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corporatist Democrats in Washington allowed the swift boaters to gain the upper hand during the 2004 election. Wow! If only the Dems could be as tough DURING the campaign season as Gore and Kerry have been when they are NOT campaigning.

Won't hold my breath because I'd turn blue.

The media of 2004 was not the media even of 2000. Democrats have to learn to fight the new media, where the right wing has their blogs, MattDrudge, talk radio and most of cable news to echo their positions. Second, the Kerry campaign did provide truth in the form of all the official records, and the vast majority of all available real eyewitnesses.

The TANG story - with many provable problems ended when documents could not be authenticated, though the content could. Their were SBVT claiming to have witnessed things that happened when they were NOT in Vietnam. Not only were the SBVT NOT asked to supply proof, Kerry, who had all the official records in his favor was asked to disprove the charges.

It is true that some Democrats didn't defend him as they should, but to suggest that Kerry "allowed" the SBVT is disgusting. He did what he thought he had to do - and it is clear he needed to do more - because the media was not playing fair. Spending more time and money on it would have been at the expense of defing other issues - we could be sitting here arguing if Kerry's obsession with defending his honor lost him the campaign as he should have been adressing key issues.

I wish him well with that. I really do, but it will have to be a personal thing for him and not the party's task anymore. Kerry has already shown that he cannot be trusted with the party's presidential nomination.

And then Bush must have outperformed Kerry in that same view.

See... The way I saw it go down the RNC machine worked for four years to suppress votes, purge voter rolls, and gain control of the input and output of the voting machines, and Kerry beat the crap out of Bush with great debate performances and far better policy plans and positions. But the weakASS Dem party infrastructure and the weakass Dem party spokepeople, and the weak left media got their asses kicked on a daily basis by their counterparts on the right and the party infrastructure did a pisspoor job of securing the election process for Dem voters and Dem candidates.

Guess you never noticed that Bush never once personally countered the AWOL charge or MoveOn or Dan Rather. The RW machine did it all for him.

How did the left do? How did the DNC do handling its job of securing the election process?

He is using HIS organization, prominance and standing as someone unfairly attacked to call out the same people using the same methods against 2006 candidates - many of whom not doubt appreciate it. This is the opposite of what you are complaining about - he is not asking the party to defend him, which the PARTY should have done a better job of in 2004.

He's a day late and a dollar short

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Instead of possibly saying..."good, I'm glad he's going after people trying to discount his military service", they resort to pre-Primary Deandroid red-faced stupidity with all the wrong talking points...and of course, well bedraggled and debunked Fox News talking points...

The only good thing about this kind of thread is to do a little "Ignore" additions...

and the rest of us will be sure to do the same considering all the other anti-Democrat crap that comes out of your camp, dumping on everybody and everything, acting out the misery you and your ilk clearly feel because your boy isn't in the WH. Funny thing is your nastiness is turning off any support your boy might have been able to garner for 2008. Well done.

Dean supporters will be thrilled to be referred to as "pre-Primary Deandroid red-faced stupidity with all the wrong talking points." Nice work.

Head's up because what goes around comes around.

As for your nasty note about "my ilk" and my "boy isn't in the WH"...real nice work there as well.

Is your face red right now? Bet it is...

a real gentleman .... not

Assuming you can have reasonable conversation about the topic, perhaps you can enlighten "my ilk" about what you think about my "boy".

:boring:

No matter what you say, you clearly have a problem with John Kerry. You enter EVERY Kerry thread and make snarky posts about anyone who respect Senator Kerry, whether they are Kerry supporters or not. Apparently, you don't get that the context of John Kerry's actions towards the SBVT people is that they are now funding attacks against other Democrats who are running.

In Pennsylvania, he smacked a Congressman who appeared with 2 later day spiritual descendants of the SBVT who trashed the record of an Iraq war veteran. Kerry's defense both corrected the lies and was intended to shame the Congressman for appearing with them. Don't you think that the fire power of the former Democratic Presidential candidate intervening in a Congressional race in this way has an impact? Or, in Virginia, the Patriot Group, headed by Kerry friends, very very quickly defended Webb. Kerry, was either the first (or one of the first) to defend Congressman Murtha.

You may a very sensible plea in another post that people not write poisonous things about Democrats because we may have to support them in the general election. It appears that plea only extends to Hillary and Bill Clinton. Most of us Kerry people spent at least 8 and maybe 12 years defending the Clintons, just like most Democrats. You cannot have it both ways, it's like asking for a cease fire, then shooting.

If you were following your OWN advise, wouldn't you avoid Kerry threads, because you seem incapable of not saying negative things about him or personally attacking anyone who defends or supports him? I don't see you do this with any other candidate and, as you feel he has no chance to win the nomination, why do you bother?

I want to wake up on Nov 8th to a Democratic Congress, House and Senate.

I seriously wonder what some people on this board want. It certainly doesn't seem to be any kind of Democratic agenda or unity in order to fight the Bush Administrations push for power. That's too bad.

We make better allies than enemies. That too will be remembered.

I couldn't agree more!

We have plenty of battles to fight even after the Dems kick some GOP butt (knock on wood) in November. If the Repugs lose hard in 2006, they will try to say nothing was done by 2008...after we attempt to clean up the absolute crisis they have created.

People like Kerry will continue to try to clean up the mess and probably will run for President and will have to fend off the usual suspects from the other side. It doesn't help when some would rather contribute to the lies from those usual suspects than stand up for someone who is indeed on our side and has proven it for over 30 years.

What happens after this upcoming election in the next months will be coming from all sides. A lot of storms are on the horizon.