Table-Pounding Phoniness In The Times

John Kerry has a long chat with Times reporters about his health, presumably to finesse the question of why he won't release his medical records.  They spend a lot of time reassuring us about his prostate cancer and describing his recent shoulder surgery.  And you know the Times honed in on questions about sleep disorders, didn't they?  What - they didn't?  Of course not, although we get this little whisper - "Mr. Kerry takes no medications on a regular basis".  Sure, he doesn't now!  How about in the past? 

Is there any hint as to why he had the $9,000 of medical expenses unreimbursed by the health care plan he is touting for the rest of us?  Any Botox queries?  C'mon, this is a Timesman asking the questions. 

But the real table-pounding phoniness is here, just past the standard-fare table-pounding phoniness:

Mr. Kerry's injuries as a young man, however, seem to have given him more trouble - political trouble, that is - than his shoulder surgery.

A group of veterans has challenged the validity of the three Purple Hearts that Mr. Kerry received for wounds he suffered while serving on Swift boats in the Vietnam war. These critics suggested that the shrapnel that hit him in one mission was rice, not metal.

However, CT scan X-rays taken at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston document that two pieces of metal shrapnel are embedded deep in Mr. Kerry's left thigh, next to the femur, said Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, Mr. Kerry's personal physician in Boston who reviewed the X-rays at the request of this reporter, who is a physician. Doctors treating the wound in 1969 decided to leave the shrapnel in place. "One piece of shrapnel is about the size of a bullet, the other a bit smaller," Dr. Doyle said.

Mr. Kerry said, "I can't tell you I really feel it," but "it's back in here somewhere," as he slapped his thigh.

And well he might slap his thigh - that is pretty funny.  Kerry got three Purple Hearts; the first and third have been questioned, but I don't think there is serious doubt that he deserved his second (someone please check "Unfit for Command" and tell me if I am wrong).  The shrapnel he has today came with his second Purple Heart; the "rice in buttocks" came on his March 13 Purple Heart, and is well documented.  Skeptics might try his website, at the March after-action reports.  (I will try too, but a computer glich is freezing Acrobat right now).

It might be worth mentioning to the Times that when they reveal such ignorance about the charges made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, they appear to be flacking for Kerry.  Imagine that.

The Times Public Editor is Daniel Okrent - public@nytimes.com

UPDATE:  This gets weirder.  From the Times story:

The author Douglas Brinkley wrote in "Tour of Duty," his account of Mr. Kerry's Navy service, that the young officer injured his arm and suffered "a slight concussion" when he was thrown against the bulkhead of a Swift boat.

What we see on p. 317 of Brinkley's "Tour of Duty" as he describes the aftermath of the March 13 incident, is this:

"Kerry and the other wounded men received medical attention aboard a Coast Guard cutter... In addition to getting his arm patched up, Kerry, who had suffered a slight concussion, also had bits of shrapnel and rice extracted from his backside".

OK, how did Mr. Altman get the "concussion" detail and overlook the rice?

Beldar has more.

Comments

[TM]

Hmm, the after-action reports mentions shrapnel in the buttocks, but no rice. Still, that points to a different wound than Kerry's thigh-slapping.

The WaPo quotes Rassman himself as saying Kerry took some rice:

In an interview last week, Rassmann recalled that they climbed on top of the huge pile and dug a hole in the rice. On the count of three, they tossed their grenades into the hole and ran.

Evidently, Kerry did not run fast enough. "He got some frags and pieces of rice in his rear end," Rassmann said with a laugh. "It was more embarrassing than painful." At the time, the incident did not seem significant, and Kerry did not mention it to anyone when he got back on the boat. An unsigned "personnel casualty report," however, erroneously implies that Kerry suffered "shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks" later in the day, following the mine explosion incident, when he also received "contusions to his right forearm."

Anti-Kerry veterans have accused Kerry of conflating the two injuries to strengthen his case for a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Kerry's Bronze Star citation, however, refers only to his arm injury.

[TM]

Rassman says something similar to the Globe.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/08/06/veteran_retracts_criticism_of_kerry?pg=3

[BumperStickerist]

Question: How does one get a bullet sized piece of metal. let alonemore, into your thigh without the bleeding, screaming, "oh my god a bullet sized piece of metal just went into my thigh muscle!" part?

Just curious.

[daniel]

see the astute blogger for more on Kerry's health.

ALSO:

CNN is doing a special tonight linked to a cnn.com story about the GRUELING demands of being the president - all the MORE reason Kerry MUST release his COMPLETE medical records.

WHY WON'T HE?

[John Van Laer]

Bumperstickerist:

I don't know about the screaming part, but Kerry has written about this wound that the deck was running blood. What amazes me is the man's rapid recovery. I seem to remember he was returned to duty two days after the February 20th incident.

Daniel: Yeah, why won't he?