A veteran's Kerry vs. Clark quandary [View All]

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Don Duhamel, a grizzled, 69-year-old Vietnam veteran, does not seem like a power broker in the presidential campaign. All he wants to do, he says, is get enough money to open Liberty House, which will house a dozen homeless veterans who promise not to touch alcohol.

Yet Duhamel has found himself at the center of an unlikely bidding war between Democratic presidential candidates John F. Kerry and Wesley K. Clark, both of whom are Vietnam veterans vying for the support of other vets. Kerry has sent Duhamel's Liberty House two checks totaling $20,000, and Clark might top that amount with the proceeds from the eBay auction of his newly famous argyle sweater, which last night had a top bid of $16,000. Along the way, Duhamel has pledged his support to Kerry, and then publicly announced he was switching his allegiance to Clark. And then -- after receiving Kerry's second check -- back to Kerry.

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The letter also mentioned that Clark's "campaign has made a financial contribution and donated volunteer labor to Liberty House, which I very much appreciate," Duhamel said that while he did not write the letter, he agreed to sign his name to it, and sent it off to newspapers, including the Boston Globe, which published it. When Kerry associates saw the letter, they were stunned. "It looked like something written by a campaign operative to tweak another campaign and exploit a do-gooder for political gain," said Mark Kornblau, a Kerry spokesman. Clark spokesman Mo Elleithee said that while the campaign provides talking points, he could not say whether the letter was written entirely by the Clark associates.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2004/01/21/a_veterans_kerry_vs_clark_quandary

Well, at least it's for a good cause.