Pathological liars

Can we now please put to rest the absolutely unfounded charges against John Kerry’s record in Vietnam? It has been plainly established that the Swift Boat Veterans for (un)Truth who claimed to have served with Kerry did not actually do so. It is also well established that those individuals who actually did serve with Kerry all defend his record. It is also the fact that Kerry’s service records support his account. It is also established that the finances for the disgusting ad were provided by well known Bush supporters. The author of the book is known to have been appointed by Richard Nixon to smear Kerry thirty years ago. And while it may not yet be proven conclusively that Bush was behind the ad, there is very little reason to doubt it. It is not surprising that there are those who are willing to lie and make all kinds of preposterous claims for purely political reasons. Indeed, some of those who are now making these claims previously supported Kerry but have now done a complete about-face for political gain. But some of the lies approach the pathological. For example, Dr. Louis Letson claims to have treated Kerry for his wounds but as the medical record shows, he did not. Now a retired rear admiral, William L. Schachte, claims he was actually on the boat when Kerry was wounded. He claims this in spite of the fact that the two crewmen who were known to be on the boat say there was no third person other than Kerry. It is one thing to lie but quite another to lie so blatantly. Do you really believe that an admiral was riding around in a Swift Boat during that kind of combat?

Of course the truth no longer matters. Karl Rove managed to get this totally fabricated story out so the mainstream media could run with it, as they have, and thus the seeds of doubt have been successfully planted in the minds of people who will clearly want to believe it whether it is true or not. Congratulations Bush/Cheney/Rove for another unforgivable slime job. Too bad you have no possibility of defending your record up until now.