Kerry surrogate Max Cleland tried to pull a grandiose stunt and deliver a letter to President Bush at his ranch in Texas only nobody would take it.
Or, rather, that's what Max wants you to think.
Turns out a Texas official by the name of Jerry Patterson agreed to take it.
Patterson also had a letter for Max to take to John Kerry:
"You can't have it both ways," the letter said. "You can't build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up."That pesky First Amendment seems to really bother Kerry/Edwards...
Mark's Remarks
For disclosure's sake, I must point out that Mr. Patterson is chair of Veterans for Bush, and was also the only Navy pilot to rate an ace during the Vietnam war, if memory serves....back to the issue....
Mr. Cleeland and Mr. Kerry do in fact want to have it both ways. And, with Mr. Cleland's letter, they are encouraging the President of the United States to do something illegal, to wit:
the current campaign finance laws prohibit contact between a candidate and one of the 527s for coordination or approval. It is in the law, and Mr. Cleland and Co. are asking the President to break the law. He cannot talk to SBVT. However, what Mr. Cleland and Co. as well as the Partisan Press in the Democratic Smear Machine won't tell you is that John Kerry HAS ALREADY VIOLATED campaign finance/election laws by personally calling and harassing members of SBVT. Mr. Kerry is in direct violation of the law, notwithstanding the fact that his own campaign people have confirmed interactions with moveon.org and other of the majority of far left leaning 527s.
Mr. Cleland is a bitter old man. He is still bitter about his own state rejecting his radical left views, so instead of blaming it on the people of his state or, God forbid, on his own views and deficiencies as a legislator; instead let's blame it on the President, as he does in the letter. Give me a break!
And Mr. Kerry, boy does he stir the ire! This is a man who fought in Vietnam, came home and betrayed his comrades by calling them babykillers, admitted to war crimes, misrepresented what he did; but yet he claims it is an insult to veterans that the Swifties are exercising their right to free speech!!! I guess you were not insulting or hurting them when you called them babykillers, right Mr. Kerry? I guess you were not insulting veterans when you staged a picture of yourself for your book (and why are you suppressing publishing of your own book, sir?)The New Soldier mocking the valiant Marines on Iwo Jima; I guess you were not seeking to hurt veterans when you staged in Washington mock killing exercises, caricaturing your fellow soldiers? I guess vets were not hurt when you met with the North Vietnamese in Paris as some of our soldiers were being held in camps by the VC, eh?
However, it must be so terrible and hurtful to vets when some among their number who actually are just as decorated as you, Mr. Kerry (I know it is hard for you to understand, so mired in self-delusion you are, that you were not the only American in Vietnam) who choose to exercise their right to tell their story.
The fact is, Mr. Kerry, that you are hurtful to Vietnam veterans. It was your testimony that was played to assist in the torture and breaking of our soldiers at the Hanoi Hilton. It was your testimony that convinced people that our soldiers were babykillers and which caused a nation to wrongly turn their backs on a valiant group of young men who answered the call of their nation. It is YOU, Mr. Kerry, who have never repudiated your own comments, even though every investigation into the Winter Soldier information has revealed the fact that those you interviewed either lied about serving in Vietnam or made up stories. It is YOU, Mr. Kerry, who silenced and hurt our soldiers returning from Vietnam, along with your radical Lefty pals. And, it is YOU, Mr. Kerry, who seek to silence them from telling their stories today! How shameful and disgraceful!
