Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Dem smear machine goes after Sift Boat Vets

NY Times:

After weeks of taking fire over veterans' accusations that he had lied about his Vietnam service record to win medals and build a political career, Senator John Kerry shot back yesterday, calling those statements categorically false and branding the people behind them tools of the Bush campaign.

His decision to take on the group directly was a measure of how the group that calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has catapulted itself to the forefront of the presidential campaign. It has advanced its cause in a book, in a television advertisement and on cable news and talk radio shows, all in an attempt to discredit Mr. Kerry's war record, a pillar of his campaign.

The story, which appears to be coordinated witht he Kerry campaign's decision to take on the vets head on, attempts to tie many of the people who support the vets with people who support President Bush. It could be that George soros just will not donate to groups that oppose Kerry, but the story does not go into that. There is a lengthy attempt to find incosistencies in the vets stories, but most of them have been explained including the WaPo's story on Larry Thurlow's Bronze Star, where Thurlow disputes the citations claim that he and the others were under fire.

John O'Neill, who was co author of "Unfit for Command," said on Fox's Hannity and Combs that the Washington Post reporter who worked on the Thurlow story refused the opportunity to interview seven eye witneses to the events surrounding the Bronze Star. Thurlow believes the erronous mention of enemy fire is the result of a false report filed by Kerry.

At the end of the lengthy story, the Times does acknowledge that Kerry cannot explain his Christmas in Cambodia fantasy.