What’s a Medal Worth?

58 thoughts on “What’s a Medal Worth?”

1. I’m reading Hendrick Hertzberg’s Politics and he mentioned that Bill Graham, proprietor of The Fillmore in San Francisco, earned a bronze metal in Korea. It wasn’t very long ago when this would have impressed me. Yet the first thought I had when I read this is that he worked the system.

2. Would the value of the medals be better preserved if veterans–not just the SBVT–who hold their worth in high esteem said nothing, thereby giving tacit approval to a man who valued them so little that he threw “someone else’s” medals away?

3. Would the value of the medals be better preserved if veterans–not just the SBVT–who hold their worth in high esteem said nothing, thereby giving tacit approval to a man who valued them so little that he threw “someone else’s” medals away?
   Sigh.
   I knew the cheapshot response to this post was “Well, if Kerry valued the medals, why did he throw some away.” but I really hoped no one would go there.
   The main question was, sadly, already answered by Fabius. His first thought was that a medal means less now than it did before the Swift Boat Vet’s smear campaign.

4. Basically, you have war heroes who support Bush, and everyone else is an alleged war hero unless they change their political support.
   It’s already de facto Bush policy — military service personnel of the Iraq War who give even the slightest apparent aid to anti-war views get screwed over.
   What’s startling is how much Bush ’04 vs. Kerry is the same playbook as Bush ’00 vs. McCain. Including the non-denials and the after-the-fact charges of “loony” when the target, for some unknown reason, reacts strongly about the slime.
   The Republican response that “he brought it on himself” because Kerry highlights his Viet Nam war service shows that these people are missing a moral compass. The issue here is deliberate falsification of both the charges and the calculated use of this slime by Bush to try to gain an advantage.
   I guess in the Bush universe, if you dare to cross him, he is then entitled to slime you in any manner because “you brought it on yourself.”

5. No cheap shot was intended, Edward; it’s a legitimate question that I have. I suppose that it comes to a matter of perspective–from a casual observer’s viewpoint, maybe the worth of a military award is lessened by public scrutiny, and questioning whether the award was truly earned.
   From my perspective, as a veteran, this is one of the things that really troubles me, and in fact, pisses me off, about Kerry–that he held the worth of those medals, and the sacrifices that he and his fellow veterans in such little regard.

6. Whoops. Forgot to preview: that last sentence should end with “and the sacrifices that he and his fellow veterans made to earn them in such little regard.”

7. Jesse,
   With all due respect, your response begs the question of whether Kerry was not just as brave and noble in protesting the war as he was in fighting it.
   I’d argue that he was.

8. “From my perspective, as a veteran, this is one of the things that really troubles me, and in fact, pisses me off, about Kerry-”
   Gee, are you equally troubled and pissed off by the SBVT and the echoing legions who aren’t just symbolically, but literally and daily questioning the worth of his medals? Seems to me your targets are skewed if you really have a problem with it.
   Of course, your argument (which is perfectly reasonable otherwise) is completely tangential to the issue at hand. What Kerry does or doesn’t do with his medals has nothing to do with whether or not it’s honorable or reasonable to slanderously scrutinize the events that merited them. If you want to argue about Kerry and his handling of his medals, figuring out what angle he shot a Vietnamese soldier at is totally immaterial, and yet eagerly lapped up by the usual suspects.

9. One other point. Kerry didn’t intend to suggest US military medals were worth less by throwing them. Quite the contrary. He was relying on their being viewed as worth quite a great deal in choosing to participate in throwing them. The symbolism of that gesture by one who had fought in Vietnam may not have been his grandest moment, diplomatically speaking, but it clearly relied on the medals having significance for the point to be communicated clearly.

10. Mind-reading foul, there, Jesse. You don’t know how Kerry felt about those medals he threw over the fence. It is convenient for you to assume that he had no strong feelings about them, but the opposite argument holds weight too.
    It is quite possible that Kerry felt pride in those medals. He does today, certainly, and the pride he felt in his accomplishments, when contrasted with the betrayal he felt from the government with respect to their actions and motives in Viet Nam could have contributed to him becoming the leader he was within the Viet Nam Veterans Against the War.
    Whether Viet Nam was or was not a ‘just’ war, those people clearly felt that it wasn’t, and they had risked their lives for it. They earned the right to feel that way, no doubt about it.
    If that is how he felt, then those wearing those medals would have been a daily reminder of the things he’d done, the things he’d seen, and the twisted reasons behind them. I imagine a person could develop a pretty conflicted sense of what those medals stood for that way. Should I be proud of these, or ashamed?
    This is a tough point to get across, and I’m sure I’ve bungled it. If someone can take a more eloquent pass at it, please do!

11. I disagree with Tina that That’s the logical outcome of this process.
    Is it the logical outcome of a process that alleged some minorities were placed in high-ranking positions due to set-asides to wonder if all minorities are there only because of set-asides? Is it the logical outcome of a process that alleged some women slept with professors to get excellent grades in a tough class to wonder if all women achieving high grades sleep with their professors?
    No it is not.
    This is about our faith in each other right? I won’t let the NYT scandal cast in doubt my faith in reporters. I won’t let Enron cast in doubt my faith in people who run companies. Nor will I will I allow a bunch of vets, ticked off at another vet for calling them war criminals some 30 years ago, cast in doubt my faith in soldiers. Medals, jobs, grades etc. are all rightly earned in my mind until proven otherwise on a case by case basis.
    I may have issues with Senator Kerry as a Presidential candidate, but his service ain’t one of’em. Nor, for that matter, is the President’s. This all seems like a Baby Boomer spat to me. And guess what, we get to look forward to this type of thing 30 years from now with Iraq II as the war in question. Oh goody.

12. Edward, just FYI this isn’t the first time that the issue has been raised. CNN reports on a previous president. Which may give you some pause, but maybe it won’t.

13. Dole’s medals were also put in question by David Corn, as I recall. Nothing new under the sun, indeed.

14. This is a tough point to get across
    You’ve done a nice job of it Crutan.
    Kerry is doubly admirable in my book. First for volunteering to fight and second for having the moral center to recognize that the war was wrong and to stand up and say so.

15. I guess a link would’ve been nice.

16. Is it the logical outcome of a process that alleged some minorities were placed in high-ranking positions due to set-asides to wonder if all minorities are there only because of set-asides?
    Yes.
    Is it the logical outcome of a process that alleged some women slept with professors to get excellent grades in a tough class to wonder if all women achieving high grades sleep with their professors?
    Yes.
    Or at least, in both cases, it’s a logical outcome. I have, and so no doubt have you, heard people alleging that a specific minority person only got their high office because of the color of their skin: and yes, it does appear to be a logical follow-on for those same people to begin to doubt that any minority person got a responsible job because s/he deserved it, and not because of the color of their skin.
    You don’t have to take that step of logic. “Logical” is not identical with “right” nor with “true”. But it’s a step often taken, as Tina points out, and I agree with her – and with Edward for making it the subject of a post by itself.
    But I also agree with this: “Nor will I will I allow a bunch of vets, ticked off at another vet for calling them war criminals some 30 years ago, cast in doubt my faith in soldiers.”
    Right on!

17. Edward, just FYI this isn’t the first time that the issue has been raised. CNN reports on a previous president. Which may give you some pause, but maybe it won’t.
    I read your diary on Tacitus, Timmy. Not sure how it applies here, unless you’re arguing the media is a tool of the right wing or that people from Texas can’t be trusted. 😉
    The issue we’re discussing here is the idea that anyone with a medal might be a fake…the “fiction” of the LBJ incident requires quite a stretch to connect, no?

18. The issue we’re discussing here is the idea that anyone with a medal might be a fake…the “fiction” of the LBJ incident requires quite a stretch to connect, no?
    OK, so that’s clear as mud. Let me rephrase.
    The issue here is whether someone who was injured deserves to have a frame-by-frame replay of their actual physical injury (compared to LBJ’s alleged fantasy) deconstructed and what unintended message that might send about others with Purple Hearts.

19. Dole’s medals were also put in question by David Corn, as I recall. And so was Bush 41’s medal, by Syd Blumenthal.
    Edward, I was just pointing out that questions about medals ain’t nothing new. Both Dole and Bush 41’s medals were questioned and we shouldn’t forget Bob Dole spent over three years recovering from his Second Purple Heart and a lifetime comtemplating its impact. That is Edward, if you ever want to shake Bob Dole’s hand put out your left hand, cuz Bob Dole’s right hand doesn’t work (I have a diary on that as well).

20. See the Dole exhumation, Edward. There is a precedent. Not that I like it, but there is a precedent.
    Just a thought experiment, here, but do you think that if Kerry were known far and wide to be a straight shooter (so to speak), integrity-wise, that there’d be quite so many vets up in arms (so to speak) over his involvement in the Winter Soldiers affair?

21. Then, via instapundit, there’s this. Apparently Bush the elder’s combat experience wasn’t sacred, either.

22. Then, via instapundit, there’s this. Apparently Bush the elder’s combat experience wasn’t sacred, either.

23. Edward, what we (I include Slarti)are saying is this particular dog won’t hunt.

24. Edward, what we (I include Slarti)are saying is this particular dog won’t hunt.
    The only issue I take with this is the way the campaign with the Swift Vets is running. That dog clearly will hunt, they way these guys are funded. The evidence of that is quite plain. That NRO piece you linked to put it pretty clearly: the media didn’t pick up Blumenthal’s story. Things are different here. The public is aware of these criticisms, in a way they weren’t before, thanks to the way this group has gotten their message out, smear or not.
    Kerry is doubly admirable….
    I agree wholeheartedly, Edward. Kerry did the right thing then, in my opinion. He’s not perfect, not be a long shot. For me, his inability to clearly, briefly enunciate ideas is a problem, and I think he second guesses himself. It galls me to no end that going through his positions during the Viet Nam era in public now would, more or less, be political suicide. I think he was brave in a number of ways, but for him to come out and say that he thought the government was wrong, that his actions with VVAW were what I think they were, would open him up to all sorts of accusations from the fringe right groups. Traitor, Commie, all that sort of crap. It would take some very careful oration to be able to explain his position publicly, and not have it backfire horribly.
    Which is too bad. For some reason, dissent is no longer able to be equated with a love of country. Patrick Henry would be destroyed by the press today.

25. Now it is all about the 527 campaign, a double edged sword no doubt, Moveon being a front for the DNC and the Kerry campaign.

26. We can start with this

    Dole rushed to the colors. As David Corn and Paul Schemm report [see elsewhere in this issue], Dole put off being sent to the combat zone until 1945. His reason for joining the Army’s Enlisted Reserve Corps was in all probability the same as mine and other college students’: to defer induction into the military.
    And Kerry joined the Navy to avoid what?

    It ain’t new folks.

27. But it’s a step often taken, as Tina points out, and I agree with her – and with Edward for making it the subject of a post by itself
    I read it as her pointing out that it is a step she already took.
    I agree with Edward making it a post too, though I’m a bit surprised he would waste time with the vets and The President when he could have noted that taking this step at the mere allegation of misdeed by one vet is just as incorrect as taking a step that leads some to suspect all Muslims due to the actions of a few proven killers.

28. Timmy says,
    Dole’s medals were also put in question by David Corn, as I recall. And so was Bush 41’s medal, by Syd Blumenthal.
    Starti says
    Apparently Bush the elder’s combat experience wasn’t sacred, either.
    True. But when questions were raised about Bush 41’s combat record Dukakis quickly denounced those who raised them. You won’t read that in NRO, or on InstaIdiot, of course, but it’s true.
    So maybe the proper comparison is not between Bush 41 and Kerry but between Bush 43 and Dukakis. Whose behavior is more honorable?

29. Edward, maybe you can go over here and tell them how they are calling into question legitamate SEALs.
    http://www.cyberseals.org/

30. I think there is a basic, massive gulf in the perception, between “reasonable-minded” democrats and republicans.
    I’m not talking about the partisans on either side now – I’m talking about decent people on both sides.
    When I see something like the SBFVT allegations, I am really dumbfounded. Kerry
    1. Serving with honor.
    2. Was injured.
    3. Saved another man’s life.
    4. Has all the Navy records backing him up.
    5. So much of the coordination of this smear comes from Republican hacks and thugs.
    The only reasonable response, seems to me to be to condemn this, as a complete and total smear.
    What I will call the “reasonable Republicans” will say “yeah, I know, but this is how it goes. Look at the AWOL on Bush issue, look at Clarence Thomas”, etc, etc.
    Matthew Yglesias got completely pissed off, a few days ago.
    Matthew Stoller, at BOP news, started a blogfight, basically, with Daniel Drezner a couple of months ago, that the misleading tactics of the Bush administration, actually undercuts Drezner’s assumption of policy being something that the Bush administration cares about, and that Drezner was simply being an apologist for the Republican camp.
    Check out Digby at Hullabaloo. He is going on and on about the method of the right wing attack dogs.
    So, an analogy:
    Are the Republicans the New York Yankees, and the Democrats, say, the Oakland Athletics (maybe the Boston Red Sox, but go with this).
    In a way, the Yankees represent everything I hate about baseball – in that they completely distort the game, because of money. But, I can’t stop watching them, given the history, and simply their success, and great cast of (bought) players.
    By contrast, the Oakland Athletics, without much money, have managed to be quite successful.
    What the claim is, is that in addition to simply being outspent, (big corporations lean Republicans, we all know this, and they have the money):
    1. The referees are actually employed by the Yankees.
    2. There are a couple of bad-boy hitmenhockey players, employed by the Yankees, going around with hockey sticks, whacking the Athletic star players.
    3. Whenever the Athletic complain about the hockey hitmen, either they are told not to be so “shrill”, or, they point to a couple of Athletic spotters, and say “hey, you guys do it too”.
    So, depending on your political proclivities, you will agree/disagree with this analogy. I’m interested in a more important question however:
    Can anyone suggest a method (comparative analysis, number of cites, behavioral patterns) that both sides would agree on, that would both test and validate/invalidate the republicans are masters of smear tactics, and are worse than democrats?
    This easily will degenerate into examples/counter-examples. But wouldn’t it be great if there were a scientific method for “smear tactics rating”?

31. But when questions were raised about Bush 41’s combat record Dukakis quickly denounced those who raised them.
    Too bad Michael wasn’t running in the 92 election.

32. But wouldn’t it be great if there were a scientific method for “smear tactics rating”?
    It would be great. But since it would undoubtedly prove that the Bush/Cheney campaign is smearing at a far greater rate of nastiness and with a vast disregard for truth, Bush would doubtless denounce it as “bad science”.
    It would be in good company, though.

33. Jesse V said: “…a man who valued them so little that he threw ‘someone else’s’ medals away?”
    What’s your understanding of the events involved in what you are alluding to? I ask because I don’t understand how such a description could be at all accurately applied.

34. Just a thought experiment, here, but do you think that if Kerry were known far and wide to be a straight shooter (so to speak), integrity-wise, that there’d be quite so many vets up in arms (so to speak) over his involvement in the Winter Soldiers affair?
    When this whole thing broke I wrote that I would be shocked if Kerry didn’t have enemies among vets, and I mean that to imply even if he had never protested the war. The Navy has as much back-stabbing and petty jealousies as any other large organization. What’s amazing is the mileage these sour-grapes-eating flakes are getting out of this.

35. “….Bill Graham, proprietor of the Fillmore in San Francisco, earned a bronze metal in Korea.”
    Back in the day, I remember Bill Graham keeping a lusty Fillmore crowd (all of whom, including me, had recently made massive pharmaceutical miscalculations) at relatively happy bay until they revived the guitarist for Jefferson Airplane so he could approximate his chops very late in the evening. Graham deserved the gold metal and a place in the Tomb of the Unknown Impresario for that heroic act.
    When Kerry is elected President, Bush and Cheney should be assigned infantry duty in Iraq. When they have their asses shot off, Kerry will hold a White House ceremony for cowards with no asses. There will be no ass replacement from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, however. Not on my tax dollar, bub.

36. John,
    The “cowards” bit can get you banned here…choose your terms more respectfully please. They are the President and Vice President of the United States (if only for a few more months). Thanks.

37. The veterans who threw their medals over the wall, IIRC, were not saying they hadn’t earned the medals. They were expressing their anger and disgust at the LBJ and RMN Administrations who had betrayed soldiers’ bravery and sacrifice by using it in an injust, unwinnable war; by continuing to send soldiers to kill and die and be maimed for nothing, or for worse than nothing (Nixon: “We must fight to preseve our credibility”). The issue was never “I didn’t earn these medals.” The issue was “The government has lost the legitimacy to award these medals.”
    The medals *were* very important to the men who threw them away; that was what made the protest so stunning.

38. With all due respect, your response begs the question of whether Kerry was not just as brave and noble in protesting the war as he was in fighting it.
    I’d argue that he was.

    I won’t venture an opinion about any nobility involved, but I gotta say that I went to a fair number of anti-Vietnam-war protests as a yout’, and I’m quite, quite, quite, sure that there was no bravery involved remotely comparable to showing up on a battlefield.
    I wouldn’t even remotely compare marching in Selma in 1963 and facing Bull Connor, bulldogs, firehoses, and the strong possibility of having my skull fractured, other bones broken, or having wound up with the fate of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, to being in a field of fire in Vietnam (during the war). Ditto having been present at the relevant place and time at Jackson State or Kent State.
    Not even close.
    Nor would I compare any other sort of bravery to the type that is shown by showing up at a time and place where a bunch of people are trying their best to kill you, and they have lots of weapons. Let alone doing this day after day.
    Just sayin’.
    Timmy: “Edward, I was just pointing out that questions about medals ain’t nothing new.”
    Having them become the subject of a major national ad campaign, as opposed to being in an entirely obscure magazine article or book no one paid attention to, seems to be on the new side.
    The Dole thing seems to be most directly comparable to noting that when Kerry asked for Swift boat service, he didn’t expect it to be riverine or involving much, if any, contact with the enemy. Both observations seem entirely legitimate, if not earth-shaking, to me. (For that matter, I have no inherent problem with people questioning Kerry’s medals/service record; I have a problem with anyone, on any side, who cites opinion and unreliable memory as fact, though.
    Edwward: “it seems to expire when one of those soldiers decides to challenge them (I’m thinking McCain and Clellan).”
    I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who or what you were referring to with that second name, on my first reading, but now, some time later, I’m suspecting perhaps you were referring to the White House Press Secretary, Scott McLellan? (Don’t you love his subtleness and lack of repetition here?)
    If not, I’m still clueless.

39. Gary: I’m pretty sure Edward’s referring to Max Cleland.

40. Gary — I assumed he meant Cleland.

41. Edward:
    I respect your respectfulness as a virtue, but not as a tactic during this vicious season. Nevertheless, thank you for the warning.

42. Gary, how much of the new ad campaign directly relates to the rise of the 527s or the decline of the major media to control the news cycle.
    Or just maybe, the electorate struggle with an individual wrapping himself in a mantle which 35 years ago he detested, understanding it is a stealth effort to avoid talking about his senate record. Naw to complicated.

43. Cleland! Yes, that makes much more sense. Thanks.
    “Naw to complicated.”
    Um, okay. I’ll gnaw on that gnomism. “Not too complicated”? The previous sentence is still making my brain hurt, though.
    “Gary, how much of the new ad campaign directly relates to the rise of the 527s or the decline of the major media to control the news cycle.”
    Too vague a question, in my book, but this cycle makes me miss those far-off, long-ago, halcyon days of yesteryear, way back at the turn of the century, when good old fashioned push-polling, anonymous phone-calling, anonymous fliers, whispers, and innuendo, were enough to turn the tide against John McCain in South Carolina in 2000.
    Ah, nostalgia.
    Just out of curiosity, what did you think of how that campaign in SC went in 2000, Timmy? (Mind, I’m not implying that scummy campaigning is unique to Republicans or that Democrats are soapy-pure all the time.)

44. Waitasecond, just noticed… hilzoy’s back! How ya feeling? 🙂

45. Edward,
    With all due respect, your response begs the question of whether Kerry was not just as brave and noble in protesting the war as he was in fighting it.
    I’d argue that he was.
    I would argue that he wasn’t. If his testimony is believable, he voluntarily took part in actions that he did not believe were justified, by his own admission. Admitting that he was wrong after the fact does not excuse him. Every member of the armed forces has a duty to refuse illegal orders and actions. Second-guessing aside, his participation in these actions in the field of battle and his subsequent criticism of those actions once he was out of danger does not speak to me of bravery and nobility.
    sidereal,
    Gee, are you equally troubled and pissed off by the SBVT and the echoing legions who aren’t just symbolically, but literally and daily questioning the worth of his medals? Seems to me your targets are skewed if you really have a problem with it.
    Yes, I am equally troubled and pissed off by the SBVT and the echoing legions who aren’t just symbolically, but literally and daily questioning the worth of his medals. I really don’t care what the circumstances surrounding the award were; he was brave enough to get into the theater and put his life in jeopardy. I know from experience that medal citations are “jazzed up,” but he won them, and that’s good enough for me.
    Edward,
    One other point. Kerry didn’t intend to suggest US military medals were worth less by throwing them. Quite the contrary. He was relying on their being viewed as worth quite a great deal in choosing to participate in throwing them.
    Perhaps, although this seems to be mind-reading on your part (don’t feel bad! I’ve been accused of the same thing in this thread, too!). The same point could have been made by publicly returning or rejecting the medals. I suppose that the shock value would have been less, but it’s a trade that I would have taken in deference to other veterans.
    crutan,
    Mind-reading foul, there, Jesse. You don’t know how Kerry felt about those medals he threw over the fence.
    Nah, no mind-reading involved whatsoever. I only know how I feel about those medals that he threw over the fence, and that’s where I disagree with his actions.
    Gary Farber,
    What’s your understanding of the events involved in what you are alluding to? I ask because I don’t understand how such a description could be at all accurately applied.
    My understanding of the events to which I am alluding is that John Kerry threw awarded military medals (either his own, or those of another veteran’s, depending upon the source) over a fence to the ground.

46. Just out of curiosity, what did you think of how that campaign in SC went in 2000, Timmy?
    Well I didn’t care for it. It reminded me of certain democratic primaries in the 1960s.
    I don’t believe McCain cared for South Carolina either but did you see who John is supporting and working for in the upcoming presidential election. Now Gary what does that tell you?

47. The Dole comparison is a pile of crap, as a few intellectually honest RedState posters have already noted. Questioning of Dole’s record was basically limited to those handful of articles; it was not a well-funded smear campaign with a book launch, an ad blitz, and a week-plus standing claim to the pre-eminent campaign “issue” dominating the twenty-four-hour news cycle.
    It was not, in other words, Clinton and his surrogates setting out to accomplish character assasination by proxy. The attack on Dole’s war record gathered dust on the pages of the Nation for eight years; it was not picked up and wildly embraced by every political hack and his mother.
    Of course this smears the reputations of vets beyond Kerry. It’s already smeared the reputations of the men who actually served with Kerry, as well as a number of his attackers by implying their war heroism was equally fraudulent (Larry Thurlow’s Bronze Star is as phony as Kerry’s, by Thurlow’s logic). And it demonstrates once again that the leaders of the Republican Party are willing to throw their most supposedly-cherished ideals out the window when a suitable political opportunity presents itself (see national security and the outing of Plame and Khan, see the long-moldering corpse of Republican Fiscal Responsibility).
    This sad little escapade has sickened me once again – although with Bush’s incompetent manhandling of Iraq I’ve already had more than enough to sicken me for two President’s careers.

48. Warning: off-topic threadjacking:
    Hi Moe — surprisingly well, actually. It was odd: I was awake for most of the surgery (though mercifully not the part involving slicing), and I could feel everything — pullings and pushings and jerkings and tuggings and everything — except for the pain. I asked the anaesthesiologist how this was possible, but unfortunately I have forgotten what he said, except that it involved neural myelation. — Actually, I would have written beforehand, except that I couldn’t imagine what to say about the Swift Boats, but couldn’t write about anything else either. I am formulating a post now, though.

49. CJM – Word! to your comment about the GOP throwing out its supposedly most cherished ideals. Reading and hearing commentary that not only justifies, but celebrates, incompetence, brutality and thievery is a mind-bending experience.
    How sad to see the GOP and its supporters tell the whole wide world that this is their vision of and for America.
    Quite a devolution from the Party’s beginnings.

50. Hilzoy, I had that same feeling when the surgeon was cutting open my leg when I had the flesh eating bacteria. A half-hour of slicing and pulling that really really should have hurt. You can feel all the tension and the motion but the pain sense isn’t there. It is very weird.

51. On the subject of questioning medals – Moe may like the last one, if not the sentiment of the whole.

52. I just thought some of you might find this interesting and some of you certainly won’t.

53. What amazes me about this whole issue is Bush’s mealy-mouthed refusal to either assent or dissent from the Swift Boat charges. If the charges should be made, then make them, dammit. If the charges are true, then Bush has the moral duty to stand up and tell the electorate directly. He should be welcoming the Swift Boat Vets, not keeping them at arms length. Hell, since Bush is apparently thinking of not even attending his own convention, maybe he can give them his spot. He won’t do any of this however, because he’s afraid to make those charges directly and afraid not to make them. And as Bush’s career goes, that’s pretty much par for the course as Josh Marshall notes today.

54. Gary — I assumed he meant Cleland.
    Frickinfrackin spelling skills…ARGHHH!
    Yes, of course, that’s who I meant.
    surgery…flesh eating bacteria…???
    You take a week off around here and you miss a lot.
    Glad to see you back hilzoy!
    Timmy, you’re prefacing far too many things with this “you may or may not find this interesting” idea lately. We value all of your comments around here. Just fire away.
    On this last one, however, yawn…

55. Timmy, you’re prefacing far too many things with this “you may or may not find this interesting” idea lately
    I fire away when I have something to say. I found the tidbit interesting but grain o’salt and all.

56. If you’re like me, and completely burnt out from vietnam-era military service scrutiny, things may be getting even worse for us:
    Does this picture contain a medal that GW Bush did not earn? All day at the Democratic Underground they’ve been congratulation themselves for finding the smoking gun. Is it really that easy? Acutally looking at a picture? Must the president *now* release his records to prove that he wasn’t wearing a medal that isn’t documented in any of his records?

57. Jonas, I think this comment on that thread sums it up for me:
    Fuck the medals — look at that unibrow.

58. Is that a unibrow, or just a shadow?
    Never let it be said that I’m unwilling to give GWB the benefit of the doubt.

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