Can Kerry counterpunch?
New questions about Vietnam put the candidate against the ropes
Kerry aggressively went on the offensive last week after some Democrats felt he initially had been slow to strike back. He spoke forcefully in New York against "fear and smear." His campaign rounded up Vietnam vets to speak to reporters about Kerry's bravery, and the campaign fought back with new television ads, accusing the Bush campaign of smear tactics. One 60-second spot featured Sen. John McCain rebuking then candidate Bush during the 2000 GOP primary fight for seemingly embracing what McCain called a "fringe" veterans' group that said McCain had abandoned vets. However, a day after releasing the ad, complaints from McCain, who has remained in the Bush camp, forced the Kerry campaign to pull the spot. The week's most dramatic bit of political theater occurred when wheelchair-bound former Georgia senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, and former Green Beret Jim Rassmann, whom Kerry rescued in the Mekong Delta, traveled to Bush's Texas ranch to try to deliver a letter signed by nine Senate Democrats, urging the president to publicly condemn such "character assassination." Cleland and Rassmann were rebuffed. Instead, Texas land commissioner Jerry Patterson had a letter for Kerry, signed by six other veterans, including Republican congressmen Duncan Hunter, Duke Cunningham, and Sam Johnson. "You can't build . . . much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up," their letter said.
On guard. Some prominent Democrats last week also tried to contrast Kerry's service with Bush's stateside stint in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Questions remain about an apparent gap in Bush's guard service in Alabama from 1972 to 1973. "If you want this election to be decided on the Vietnam War, then I ask you one question: Who served this country better during the Vietnam War, John Kerry or George Bush?" Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said at a Kerry fundraiser.
Despite the pressure on Bush to condemn the swift boat ads, it seems unlikely that he will. Instead, the president last week repeated his opposition to all political advertising aired on television by the independent groups, called 527s, named for the section of the federal tax code that grants them tax-exempt status. Republicans complain that many of the 527s attacking Bush have ties to Kerry. Bush called for a ban on all ads from outside groups that receive large, unregulated donations; recent campaign finance laws have given these groups new prominence. By week's end, McCain and Bush were teaming up to work against such ads.
Whether the attack ads ultimately benefit Bush-or backfire-remains to be seen. But what was exceptionally clear last week was that the wounds from a war that divided the nation 35 years ago seem almost as fresh today.
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