Mike Frey commentary: Two wrongs don't make right

[Omaha Steve]

http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=423923&query=%22jim%20wasser%22

07/14/2008, 9:55 am


It was perhaps the most dirty tactic used on the political campaign trail in this still-new century, and it's happening all over again.

But the tables have been turned this time around, and rural St. Anne resident Jim Wasser is in the middle of a balancing act as he weighs his background as a proud U.S. Navy veteran against his job as an equally proud union electrician.

Wasser's time in the Navy included three months spent as Lt. John Kerry's right-hand man on a Patrol Craft Fast, or swift boat, patrolling the rivers that make up the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. When Kerry was the Democratic candidate for president in 2004, Wasser was one of his most committed supporters, spending months on the road campaigning for the Massachusetts senator.

When President George W. Bush's political strategists attacked Kerry's military record, claiming the Purple Heart and Bronze Star he earned were not wholly deserved, Wasser was livid. He had every right to be.

Kerry made the most honorable of sacrifices by pursuing active duty in Vietnam, something he could have avoided as a child of privilege.

Bush himself knows something about that, and for his camp to assail Kerry's record when none of them could offer anything close remains an outrage. Yes, Kerry became one of the most visible war protesters after he returned home, and that choice was fair game for his foes. But remember, he made that perilous trip overseas, and that show of bravery deserves strict respect and admiration.

FULL story at link.