In the new ad from the Kerry campaign, McCain says that a letter was written by five "war heros" in the Senate to Bush, calling on him to denouce the attacks against McCain and apologize to him.
One of those five war heros was Senator John Kerry. I have been trying to track down this letter... so far thanks to kossack Snapper, we have two contemporaneous news articles.
More after the jump.
Five Senators Slam Bush
FLORENCE, S.C., Feb. 4 -- Gov. George W. Bush was slammed today by five senators who, like his chief rival, fought in Vietnam for using a veterans activist to criticize Senator John McCain's record on veterans issues.
The incident also drew a rebuke from an official of Mr. Bush's father's administration.
On Thursday Mr. Bush shared a stage in Sumter, S.C., with J. Thomas Burch Jr., chairman of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Committee, who said Mr. McCain, hailed as a hero for surviving five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, had opposed measures dealing with Agent Orange and gulf war syndrome as well as legislation to help families of soldiers missing in action in Vietnam.
"He came home, forgot us," Mr. Burch said.
In the letter to Mr. Bush, the senators said: "We are writing to express our dismay at the misinformed accusations leveled by your surrogate."
"These allegations are absolutely false," said the letter signed by Senators Max Cleland of Georgia, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Charles S. Robb of Virginia, all Democrats, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican and one of Mr. McCain's few supporters in the Senate.
"Indeed," it went on, "Mr. Burch was a leading critic of President Reagan's and your father's policies on POW/MIA issues, and he vehemently opposed a historic effort led by the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs carried out on a bipartisan basis which resulted in the declassification of millions of documents and the identification and return to the United States of the remains of hundreds of American servicemen who were missing in action."
The senators wrote that Mr. McCain was a leader on veterans issues. "We hope you will publicly disassociate yourself from these efforts, and apologize to Senator McCain."
Senator McCain seemed very appreciative of the support at the time:
Referring to the senators, Mr. McCain said: "Their friendship is all the honor I need in my life, and more than compensates for the temporary irritation of baseless attacks by apparently desperate political campaigns."
But still, he supports Bush. Inexplicable.
How did Bush respond to this?
Aides to Mr. Bush said he never questioned Mr. McCain's status as a war hero and called the McCain campaign's efforts to counter Mr. Burch's criticism desperate.
Exactly,
exactly what Bush is saying now!
Will the media catch on this time? Who knows...
See also this Salon article from Feb. 11, 2000:
Friendly Fire
Then the five Vietnam veterans in the Senate -- Max Cleland, D-Ga., Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., John Kerry, D-Mass., Chuck Robb, D-Va. and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., four Democrats and a McCain supporter -- fired off a letter to Bush calling on him to "publicly disassociate" himself from the "false" allegations.
"We believe it is inappropriate to associate yourself with those who would impugn John McCain's character and so maliciously distort his record on these critical issues," the letter said.
And how did Bush respond?
Bush refused to do so, however, responding that Burch was "entitled to his opinion."
EXACTLY WHAT HE IS SAYING NOW ABOUT THE SWVs!!!
It's exactly the same plan! How can the media not notice this? And how can McCain stand by Bush's side without taking a massive shit on him?