September 5, 2004

MAN OVERBOARD! (via Frederik Jacobsen):

Brinkley: Navy Probe Could Doom Kerry Campaign (NewsMax, 9/05/04)

Sen. John Kerry's campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley said Sunday that if an ongoing Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid.

Praising reporter Thomas Lipscomb, who broke news of the Navy investigation on Friday, Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Journalists are going to have to see whether there's a discrepancy on [the citations posted to Kerry's] Web site - whether there's something wrong that's said there or not."

"If so," said the "Tour of Duty" author, "Kerry would have to fix it immediately - and it does raise some questions as to why that would happen."

"Is it sloppiness, is it purposeful intent, is there an easy explanation for it?" Brinkley wondered.


Wow! Those are the words of a guy who sees his reputation as a historian on the line and isn't willing to sacrifice it for the Kerry candidacy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 5, 2004 2:42 PM
Comments

He also calls for Kerry to immediately release **all** his military records to clear up the discrepancies.

Posted by: jd watson at September 5, 2004 3:34 PM

How did Rove get Kerry to hire this guy?

Posted by: some random person at September 5, 2004 3:37 PM

No "historian" ever risks his reputation by shilling for a Democrat candidtate. They all do it. They regard it as a singular honor. Like carrying the flag at the Olympics.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 5, 2004 3:48 PM

You can lose tenure for active falsification of work, as that anti-gun nitwit Bellesiles did at Emory. If Brinkley can be shown to have frauded up his Kerry book, he will be discredited. No more advances, no more fancy book tours, it's back to grading papers and (gasp!) teaching.

Posted by: Bart at September 5, 2004 4:10 PM

Brinkley adumbrated this a week or so ago when he told an interviewer that it wasn't he who was holding the records back because Kerry still controlled them all and had only lent them to Brinkley for the purposes of writing the book, and that people should quit bothering him about the records and go pester Kerry instead for them. He's saying the same thing again as we see here, only more strongly phrased.

Posted by: Joe at September 5, 2004 4:58 PM

Bart: Don't be an optimist. Brinkley is taking one for the tem, and he is setting it up to blame Kerry. Before this is over, they will discover that Kerry is a android robitcally controlled by Karl Rove. And they will absolve Brinkley.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 6, 2004 12:15 AM
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