Kerry's approach to defense and self-defense

Democratic partisans, who are chomping at the bit to see John Kerry mix it up with Bush, are eager to see him respond to the Bush campaign's attacks on his national-security record.

A column by Kerry adviser Joe Wilson in Salon.com probably represents part of the Kerry counterattack, and gives an indication of the lines of response we can expect from the Kerry campaign: The Pinocchio presidency 03/16/04. Wilson was the chief US diplomat in Iraq during the lead-up to the Gulf War in 1991. He was one of the chief debunkers of the "Niger yellowcake" scam, and the husband of Valerie Plame.

In these perilous times the president should be held accountable for his stewardship. He should run on his record. But what do we see from him and his campaign? First, a political ad that desecrates the memories of our dead at the World Trade Center, using flag-draped bodies as political props. Now we see an ad that racially profiles olive-skinned men as terrorists while mendaciously suggesting that the Democratic candidate and war hero John Kerry is soft on terrorism. Some have rightly made the connection between that ad and the infamous Willie Horton ad of the Bush/Dukakis campaign of 1988, an ad that exploited racial fear, but a better comparison might be with the negative ad run against triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, Max Cleland. In that one Cleland was made to appear as part of a trio whose other members were Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. When not running nasty ads, Bush's attack dogs are busy launching vicious attacks on the characters of those who would dare to point out where this administration has failed the American people. Who will soon forget Ann Coulter's two articles defaming Max Cleland? It's worth noting that not a single supporter of Bush had the decency to defend Cleland and criticize that smear. Instead Coulter's libel was widely circulated by conservatives. And just the other day, Max Boot, a neoconservative publicist who coined the "jodhpur and pith helmet" term to promote his imperialistic view of America's future, decided to smear former Air Force officer Karen Kwiatkowski, as well as retired CIA officer Ray McGovern and myself. These smears must be understood as part of the Bush campaign strategy of "slime and defend."