No medals and no clothes

American politics has hit a new low. Granted there has always been dirty tricks here and there in politics, has there ever been a situation as bad as it is now? The scurrilous attack on John Kerry's military record by the Swift Boat Veterans for (un)Truth is even worse than the Bushite’s previous attacks on John McCain. Now that they have been publicly exposed as liars and hypocrites even by the Bush friendly major media, condemned by John McCain, Max Cleland, and many others, they have made it clear they don’t intend to stop. Of course they haven’t been condemned by Bush except for his self-serving statement that all 527 ads should stop. Ted Sampley, one of the vile bunch, has said nothing will stop them. They intend to just keep on lying and apparently nothing will be done about it. William Rood, who was one of the other Swift Boat Commanders actually involved in the incidents, and is the only one still alive to comment, has broken a 30 year silence to defend Kerry. Even that is being ignored. It appears there are people who simply want to believe the slanderous charges and will continue to believe them even in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.

Of course it is not surprising the Republicans want to keep this disgusting gutter politics alive. After all, they might have to discuss the important issues facing the country, or even the Bush/Cheney record of dismal failures, lies, secrecy, war crimes, torture, treason, war profiteering and what have you. They have no record to run on, no results, no accomplishments, nothing but degradation everywhere you look: Afghanistan, Iraq, the Israeli/Palestinian situation, the economy, the environment, medicare, and the obscene national debt. And they are not going to let Kerry/Edwards talk about them either if they can possibly help it.

This downward spiral into the gutter began when they attempted to end the Clinton Presidency. They made it clear by their actions then that they would not hesitate to do anything, anything at all, no matter how vile and dishonest, no matter how ridiculously expense, no matter how purely personal, to bring down a Democratic President. And they have continued their totally dishonest ways ever since. Witness the 2000 election when they illegally conspired to keep people from voting and then had to depend upon a totally corrupt Supreme Court to steal the election for them. A Supreme Court decision so obviously dishonest and unconstitutional that the court itself declared it could not be used as a precedent for any other such case. The Republicans are attempting to use the same tactics again as is clear from what is going on in Florida even now with respect to voter roles and voting machines.

What are we doing, allowing the Republicans to keep us focused on Vietnam and Kerry’s military record? Bob Dole has recently questioned Kerry’s medals. Now others are questioning Dole’s medals. This is obviously insane. With so many vital issues at stake all they want to do is play their usual gutter politics because there is nothing else for them to do. The Democrats have no need to indulge in the same sleazy game, all they have to do is tell the truth about the state of the union and the world. They don’t have to defend Kerry’s medals, all they have to do is keep hammering on the fact that Bush has no medals -- and no clothes.