It seems that Sen. John Kerry (D-North Vietnam) wants to reopen the Swift Boat Veterans charges leveled against him during the 2004 election season. Of course, the New York Times will help him any way they can, just in case he runs in 2008.

I really don’t care much about the claims of the Swifties. Its not that I don’t think they are telling the story as they see it, it’s just that the Purple Hearts and Silver/Bronze Stars don’t persuade me that he is a “war hero” that was “reporting for duty”. The claim that he gamed the system to get an early transfer out of Vietnam is not really surprising, wouldn’t you do the same?

No, these things just don’t matter much to me. What does matter is his actions after returning home.

Here is his testimony to the Senate in 1971. This performance should have kept him from any kind of career in politics. Lucky for him he was a Taxachusetts boy. It should be more than enough to disqualify him from being the Commander in Chief.

Then again we shouldn’t question his patriotism.

His campaign in 2004 was just another reason that he should never have been considered for the job. He ran a campaign based on his “war hero” status and the fact that his name wasn’t “George Bush”. It takes a special kind of chutzpah for him to make his “war hero” status the centerpiece of his campaign when he was only in the war zone for 4 months.

Real war heroes have open chest wounds longer than that.