November 01, 2004

LEGENDARY MILITARY SUPERMAN PROBED

Ever heard of this alleged gap in George W. Bush's military record? Me neither. Anyway, it seems John Kerry has a gap issue of his own, as The New York Sun reports:

The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in the office of the Secretary of the Navy between 1975 and 1977.

On behalf of the Kerry campaign, Michael Meehan and others have repeatedly insisted that all of Mr. Kerry's military records are on his Web site at johnkerry.com, except for his medical records.

"If that is the case," Mr. Sullivan said, "the true story isn't what was on the Web site. It's what's missing. There should have been an honorable discharge certificate issued to Kerry in 1975,if not earlier, three years after his transfer to the Standby Reserve-Inactive."

Another retired Navy Reserve officer, who served three tours in the Navy's Bureau of Personnel, points out that there should also have been a certified letter giving Mr. Kerry a choice of a reserve reaffiliation or separation and discharge. If Mr. Meehan is correct and all the documents are indeed on the Web site, the absence of any documents from 1972 to 1978 in the posted Kerry files is a glaring hole in the record.

Read the whole piece for further less-than-honorable-discharge theorising. The conclusion:

All officials with knowledge of what specifically happened in Mr. Kerry's case are muzzled by the Privacy Act of 1974.The act makes it a crime for federal employees to knowingly disclose personal information or records.

Only Mr. Kerry can do that. As of this writing, Mr. Kerry has failed to sign a Standard Form 180 giving the electorate and the press access to his Navy files.

Files and records keep vanishing from the Kerry record, as Little Green Footballs has discovered. Hey, here's a shock:

Sen. John Kerry has gotten the white-glove treatment from the press, garnering more praise from journalists than any other presidential candidate in the last quarter-century, according to a new analysis of almost 500 news stories released today by the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

"It's not just that John Kerry has gotten better press than President Bush before this election, he's gotten better press than anyone else since 1980. That's significant," said Bob Lichter, director of the D.C.-based nonpartisan research group.

(Via non-partisan researcher J.F. Beck)

Posted by Tim Blair at November 1, 2004 11:50 PM
Comments

Cue "Who cares what happened 30 years ago?" comments from shrieking lefties...

Posted by: PW at November 1, 2004 at 11:56 PM

it's all about oiiilll!

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at November 2, 2004 at 12:16 AM

Normally this would bother me, but not now.

He's still going to lose and that being the case, his deceit will only make his world wide humiliation and spiritual de-pansing even sweeter.

Posted by: gaz at November 2, 2004 at 12:21 AM

Hypocrisy from the lefties. Again. And again. And again. And.....

Posted by: The Real JeffS at November 2, 2004 at 12:28 AM

Compare the photos of Bush and Kerry from the early 70s. Bush's has a military haircut and Kerry's hair is far longer than Navy regulations (reserve of active duty). This indicats that Kerry had be flushed out of navy.

Kerry’s rebuttal is Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian and this is an attack against my patriotism.

Posted by: perfectsense at November 2, 2004 at 12:29 AM

This has been bubbling quietly under the surface. I wish it would have come out earlier. I hope they can get his less than honorable discharge reinstated so he can be dis-barred (sp?).

Posted by: JEM at November 2, 2004 at 12:34 AM

On the one hand, this is nonsense. The Navy had far more important things to do in the mid 70's than worry about every last shred of paperwork and pointless obligation from some obscure reserve officer.

On the other hand, so did the Air National Guard, so I won't shed any tears for Kerry.

Posted by: Otter at November 2, 2004 at 12:38 AM

Well, maybe this will be asked when President Kerry is up for re-election.

Yeah, unfortunately Kerry will win this. Momentum is slowly edging his way. The early/absentee votes are, to me, suprisingly going to Kerry. And the undecideds are going to break to Kerry probably 7-3 or 8-2.

President Kerry. Ugh. I wouldn't mind it too much except for the fact that the anti-American Left will celebrate this. The thoughts of Michael Moore and Harold Pinter and the other obscene elements dancing in the streets over this almost makes me physically sick.

T.S. Eliot had the line: there are no lost causes because there are no won causes. Everything is a continual battle.

Dammed.

SMG

Posted by: SteveMG at November 2, 2004 at 12:40 AM

Other than the New York Sun and the internet, there won't be a peep heard about this. Kerry and Edwards could go on a Thelma and Louise cross-country crime spree and no one would know. Perhaps they already have.

Posted by: Ernie G at November 2, 2004 at 01:00 AM

OT: Clock Could Stop on 60 Minutes II

"Deep inside CBS, there have been discussions about canceling the Wednesday edition of 60 Minutes, the newsmagazine where Dan Rather got into big trouble for using dubious documents in a report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service."

Now we just need them to consider cancelling the Sunday edition, too. Well, there are four years in Bush's second term to get to that.

Posted by: PW at November 2, 2004 at 01:28 AM

JEM,
Although Kerry calls himself a lawyer, he no longer has an active law license. Kerry is merely a law school graduate.

Posted by: perfectsense at November 2, 2004 at 02:01 AM

All officials with knowledge of what specifically happened in Mr. Kerry's case are muzzled by the Privacy Act of 1974.The act makes it a crime for federal employees to knowingly disclose personal information or records.

That's funny, Clinton & Co. had no trouble leaking Linda Tripp's records in order to smear her to save Billy's behind.

Posted by: perfectsense at November 2, 2004 at 02:03 AM

Otter:

Point taken, but Kerry was not an obscure Navy officer in the mid-70's. Far from it. He might have received no discharge at all, just separation with disgust. I was unaware of this, but it was mentioned on Powerline (I think) as a possibility.

It will have no bearing on the election at all, because far worse from Kerry has already been discounted by his supporters.

Posted by: Rhod at November 2, 2004 at 02:05 AM

Otter:
Yes, the US Armed Services DO care about every bit of paper on everyone who serves. It all has to do with post-service entitlements and benefits based on quality and length of service. I'd like to see Kerry's DD Forms 214; they contain a summary for every segment of service from officer training through release from the Naval Reserve. I'll bet that his release from the reserves contains a notation of a general discharge, at best.

Posted by: George at November 2, 2004 at 02:17 AM

Although Kerry calls himself a lawyer, he no longer has an active law license. Kerry is merely a law school graduate.

Yes, but killing his option of becoming a bar member again could well pay future dividends if you're of a spiteful nature, considering how the Democrats' hard left will turn on him after he loses tomorrow and make him persona non grata. Kerry will probably be looking for a new job once his Senate term is up in 2008, and one could make sure that lawyer ain't gonna be it.

Posted by: PW at November 2, 2004 at 03:02 AM

He would be looking for a job? How about marrying a rich heiress?

Posted by: Ernie G at November 2, 2004 at 04:16 AM

Well, I didn't mean job in the sense of "something to enable him to make a living", but rather "something to enable him to continue to flout his status"...I'm not saying he'd actually do work as a lawyer, just that he could always join a star-studded partnership for the prestige value. Much as it would be financially possible for him, I don't think "rich and unemployed" would really do it for JFK.

Posted by: PW at November 2, 2004 at 04:47 AM

PW, he could always wash windshields at a traffic light.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at November 2, 2004 at 05:36 AM

SMG,
It is not breaking Kerry's way. It looks like the worst it will go for Bush is 40/60. He is up in early balloting by almost 15%. And look where they are all campaigning. Kerry is in Detroit (where rain will kill his base), of course Ohio because everyone is, Iowa, Wisconsin and NM. All blue states except for Ohio. Pa. is moving to Bush on late break - whether it will be enough to overcome dem fraud, we will have to see. Florida appears safe. Bush is probably looking to get over 300 with a 3 to 4% win in overall. Go Bush - vote early and often!

Posted by: JEM at November 2, 2004 at 06:13 AM

Let's see. Let us compare Bush possibly missing a flight physical in the TANG as the 'Nam War was winding down and Kerry perhaps missing an Honorable Discharge from the Navy because he helped wind down the 'Nam War by talking with the Cong, supporting their terms, and contributing to our ignominous defeat in the war's outcome:

Yes, I can see why the MSM has relentlessly hounded Bush on his record.

Posted by: charlotte at November 2, 2004 at 07:27 AM

Yeah, no kidding, charlotte! It's amazing what misdirection can do.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at November 2, 2004 at 08:09 AM

Charlotte's absolutely right: Kerry's a traitor. He was an officer in the United States Naval Reserve when he went to Paris on his (second) "honeymoon" (minus the missus), for a smooch-fest with the enemy in wartime.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have done a great job getting the word out about the junior senator from Massachusetts. Thanks, guys!

The MSM is lazier than ever, forever quoting themselves.

Posted by: Butch at November 2, 2004 at 11:21 AM

All this nonsense about kerry being a traitor-war was never declared in vietnam,nor korea,which was a "police action".
How anyone can criticise kerry who went to war whilst bush,cheney,rumsfeld,wolfowtitz etc etc didn't want to go....
Watch the fog of war again all you right wing nutters and then tell us what a good idea the war was.Macnamara has more intellect than all the right wing bloggers put together,and he was aginst the war from the beginning.
This nonsensical rewriting of history blaming everything including the liberal media for the disaster is pure bullshit.
And of course you can't compare Iraq and vietnam-bush had a plan to get out of vietnam.

Posted by: marklatham at November 2, 2004 at 06:24 PM

That's the third time you've used that line mate, and its still not

A) Funny
B) Witty
C) Relevant

Posted by: Quentin George at November 2, 2004 at 07:02 PM

Quentin, do you too have the feeling that marklatham had his last few brain circuitries shorten out after his namesake lost and he's now posting on autopilot? It's been all BushDraftDodger!!!! all the time lately...well, maybe our armchair insurgent (thanks Mark Steyn) is just projecting.

Posted by: PW at November 3, 2004 at 12:08 AM