March 19, 2004
MUDD, NOT BOOTH:
KERRY RETREATS FROM HIS DENIAL ON VIETNAM MEET: Evidence Puts Him At Kansas Parley (JOSH GERSTEIN, 3/19/04, NY Sun)
Senator Kerry of Massachusetts yesterday retreated from his earlier steadfast denials that he attended a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plan to assassinate U.S. Senators was debated.The reversal came as new evidence, including reports from FBI informants, emerged that contradicted Mr. Kerry’s previous statements about the gathering, which was held in Kansas City, Mo. in November 1971.
“John Kerry had no personal recollection of this meeting 33 years ago,” a Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, said in a statement e-mailed last night from Idaho, where Mr. Kerry is on vacation.
Mr. Wade said Mr. Kerry does remember “disagreements with elements of VVAW leadership” that led to his resignation, but the statement did not specify what the disagreements were.
“If there are valid FBI surveillance reports from credible sources that place some of those disagreements in Kansas City, we accept that historical footnote in the account of his work to end the difficult and divisive war,” the statement said.
It did not address the murder plot, though as recently as Wednesday a top aide to Mr. Kerry said that the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was “absolutely certain” he was not present when the assassination plan, known as the “Phoenix Project,” was discussed.
The New York Sun first reported last week that other anti-war activists placed Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting. A total of six people have now said publicly that they remember seeing Mr. Kerry there.
His failure to report the plot to authorities would seem tough to explain away. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2004 12:29 PM
One thing that the reports never mention (or I just can't seem to notice) was the result of the vote-- Did the plan of assassinations pass or did it fail? Because if it failed, Kerry can claim the resignation was due to principle. If it passed, then it can be spun that he quit not because he objected to killing, but just the plan's particulars.
I can't believe, with the number of skeltons that have started rattling out of the closet, that this man ever believed he should be running for President. I guess it's just something else for which we need to thank Clinton.
Probably he voted for it before voting against it.
Posted by: brian at March 19, 2004 1:42 PMPolitics are like wrestling matches, in the sense that the participants posture in outrage to the crowd. If Democrats could zero in on this type of in Bush or any of his Administration you would never hear the end of it.
So whether Republicans care about it or not they need to complain loudly for the next six months about as you say the failure to report this to the police 30 years ago, but also his lies of just a few weeks ago when he told the historian Douglas Brinkley that he had not attended that meeting.
Posted by: h-man at March 19, 2004 2:33 PM
At least Kerry had the sense to split when they started talking about offing the pigs.
PS: Kerry was still an officer in the U.S. Navy (Inactive Reserve) at the time.
Posted by: Tonto at March 19, 2004 6:42 PM