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

Media double standard

Rowan Scarborough:

When Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe accused President Bush this spring of being "AWOL," the Washington press corps saluted and started marching. What followed was a series of big media investigations into whether Bush, as an Air National Guard pilot, actually attended drills, as he maintained, during temporary residence in Alabama. It wasn't the first time reporters had looked into the matter. It was at least the fourth. And this time, the White House produced additional pay records to prove Bush did his duty. Most reporters reluctantly gave up, although some organizations continue to seek more of the President's Guard records.

This month, when Regnery Publishing (a sister company of HUMAN EVENTS) released a new book that dissects Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War record, the national press more or less yawned. The enthusiasm with which it greeted McAuliffe's call to arms never materialized. Some reporters expressed outright disgust for John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, authors of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. The liberal press's message: Bush's military record is fair game. John Kerry's is not.

But in a way, it makes no difference. Republicans have grown accustomed to such double standards. It is a major reason for the rise of the alternative conservative media in the forms of talk radio, Internet web sites and some cable TV outlets. And Messrs. O'Neill and Corsi are riding that right-leaning wave to the top of bestseller lists.

The book is selling so well because it proves a central point. John Kerry, who has made his four months in Vietnam in 1968-69 the centerpiece of why he should be commander in chief, lied about what he did....

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On the Cavett show, Kerry said he deliberated for two weeks before making the "difficult decision" to leave Vietnam. Records show he suffered the buttocks wound on March 13, 1969. Four days later, his written request to leave Vietnam sat at the Navy Department in Washington. "John Kerry would like many people today to view his service in Vietnam as one of honor and courage," the authors say. "But the real John Kerry of Vietnam was a man who filed false operating reports, who faked Purple Hearts, and who took a fast pass through the combat zones."