Remember that letter JK organized to defend McCain in '00? McCain confronted Bush with it..

[beachmom]

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/worst_selfinflicted_campaign_m.php

This is a great post by James Fallows, where he speculates that McCain's suspension of his campaign & pulling out of the debate may be the "Worst Self Inflicted Campaign Move Ever". But within the post, he talks about the "old" McCain in 2000, who would have been ashamed of the 2008 McCain. Check out these quotes from Larry King when McCain & Bush appeared on the show in 2000:

On February 15, four days before the vote, Bush and McCain appeared together on Larry King Live (along with Alan Keyes, the motormouth former ambassador, who was still in the race). Beneath a smile, McCain was seething. Two weeks earlier he had pulled off a surprising victory over the much better financed Bush in New Hampshire. Bush had responded in South Carolina by attacking McCain mercilessly from the right. On Larry King, Bush and McCain traded complaints about unfair negative campaign ads. Bush's complaint was that McCain had run an ad comparing him to Bill Clinton. "That's about as low a blow as you can give in a Republican primary!" he said.

McCain held a tight smile. "Let me tell you what really went over the line," he said shortly afterward, when asked by King for a reply. At a recent Bush rally Bush had stood alongside someone McCain called "a spokesman for a fringe veterans' group," who had denounced McCain for "abandoning" Vietnam veterans.

With feigned politeness, McCain told Bush, "I don't know if you can understand this, George, but that really hurts. It really hurts." No mention of McCain's service as a military pilot, nor of his imprisonment and torture in the "Hanoi Hilton"; everyone knew what McCain meant. McCain turned to King. "And so five United States senators--Vietnam veterans, heroes, some of them really incredible heroes--wrote George a letter and said, 'Apologize.' You should be ashamed."

Bush sputtered, "Let me speak to that ..."

McCain faced him again, calm but contemptuous: "You should be ashamed."

I had NO IDEA how big a role that letter played! We know that Kerry organized the letter, but I figured it was probably a one day response thing with it being in the papers and on the news. I did not know that McCain used it in a debate, which really elevates its status. Remember this is how it happened:

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101040802/

Kerry talks all the time about the lessons he learned in Vietnam but rarely about what he did there. The story of how he saved Green Beret Jim Rassmann from the Bay Hap River under fire in 1969 would never have been told if Rassmann hadn't offered to tell it—dramatically, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. Years ago, three of the Vietnam combat veterans Kerry served with in the Senate—John McCain, Bob Kerrey and Max Cleland—told me something that Kerry had never even hinted at: that Kerry had come to their rescue on occasions when they had been publicly attacked. He organized Op-Ed pieces and television appearances to defend his colleagues; he wrote a letter during the 2000 South Carolina primary, signed by Vietnam combat veterans of both parties, calling on George W. Bush to stop associating with veterans' groups who said McCain had abandoned vets; when Kerrey was accused of participating in a massacre of civilians in Vietnam, Kerry called some mutual friends and had them hang out with Kerrey until the storm passed. "I just love the guy," Kerrey once told me.

I think this shows how much more powerful Kerry's letter was in 2000 than McCain saying the SBVT ads were "dishonest and dishonorable". Kerry did two things that made it more effective:

1. He made sure it was a bipartisan letter from all the Vietnam vets in the Senate. This made it more of a consensus letter -- a conventional wisdom. Instead of just coming from one person.

2. It asked for action: it asked Bush to apologize. McCain NEVER put that kind of pressure on Bush in '04. Therefore when Bush didn't bother condemning the SBVT ads, McCain could continue supporting him, since he never DEMANDED any action from Bush. Believe me: McCain had the power to stop the SBVT in '04. He could have STOPPED them, but that would have been at the expense of his alliance with the Rovians who now run his campaign. So he didn't.

[TayTay]

1. Perhaps a search committee should be formed

to go out and search for the remains of Mr. McCain's honor.

It most certainly is something missed right now on the national stage.

[MBS]

2. .....n/t

[YvonneCa]

4. No kidding...

... "...the remains of Mr. McCain's honor." :7

[ProSense]

7. Excellent idea.

John McCain is in crisis.

[Noisy Democrat]

3. You are so right

That is an excellent analysis, and it's deeply moving because it reminds us of two things that are significant about JK -- his loyalty to his fellow veterans and his desire to avoid unseemly bragging about his service in Vietnam. It makes it all the more wrenching that he was attacked in exactly that area and that McCain didn't stand by him. Was it McCain or only Bob Dole who said JK shouldn't talk about Vietnam too much?

BTW, a few days ago I ran across a recording I have of the ad that the Kerry campaign ran briefly, featuring that footage of McCain described above. It's shameful that McCain told them to stop using it.

[karynnj]

6. It was both of them and a regular Republican talking point

that real veterans don't speak of their service. They literally turned it into a joke - and even people in the middle and left picked it up. (Remember the Jibjab that had Kerry repeatedly saying he served in Vietnam.)

Dole also distinguished himself with the disgusting claim that Kerry never bled. (Kerry was actually forced to comment on that Dole statement.

I too hadn't known how McCain was able to use that letter. Beachmom is right, McCain had the ability to stop the SBVT. In fact, even after not doing that when he should have - he could have regained his soul by demanding people take off the purple heart bandaids when he spoke. After he did that, Kerry should have put that ad with McCain in it back out - and actually hoped for a reaction. Kerry had the high moral ground.

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. JK has always been there

to defend his fellow veterans. I remember Joe Conason talking about this on the Al Franken show back in '04 , when no one else came to his aid, Daschle had JK to defend him.

Kerry Fires Back At G.O.P. Snipers
by Joe Conason | March 10, 2002 |

On March 2, John Kerry took the podium at a political dinner in New Hampshire to defend Mr. Daschle, a colleague who is likely to become his rival for their party's Presidential nomination. What the Massachusetts Senator said about Messrs. Lott and DeLay-and, by implication, about all the would-be White House enforcers-deserved more attention than a single article in his hometown paper, The Boston Globe.

"Let me be clear tonight to Senator Lott and to Tom DeLay: One of the lessons that I learned in Vietnam-a war they did not have to endure-and one of the basic vows of commitment that I made to myself, was that if I ever reached a position of responsibility, I would never stop asking questions that make a democracy strong," he told the audience of New Hampshire Democrats, whose startled murmurs quickly erupted into a standing ovation.

"Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend and how we best defend our troops," he continued. "We will ask questions, and we will defend our democracy."

A combat veteran who received three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star in two Navy tours-and who later founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War-Mr. Kerry has ample stature to challenge the character assassins and commissars of the far right. The day after the Concord dinner, he didn't hesitate to reiterate his rebuke, adding the name of another Southern-fried chicken hawk.

"My message to Trent Lott and Tom Delay and Dick Armey-each of whom did not have to endure the war in Vietnam … the lesson I learned in that war is, the best way to defend American democracy and our soldiers is to ask the right questions at the right time."

Suddenly, it was the Republicans who had nothing to say.

http://www.observer.com/node/45707">more

[MBS]

8. Thanks to you and beachmom for all of the wonderful

articles here.