Brown Books From The Folks In, Hmm, Earth Tones

John Kerry with Tim Russert on Meet The Press, April, 2004:

MR. RUSSERT: You used the word "war criminals."

SEN. KERRY: Well, let me just finish. Let me must finish. It was, I think, a reflection of the kind of times we found ourselves in and I don't like it when I hear it today. I don't like it, but I want you to notice that at the end, I wasn't talking about the soldiers and the soldiers' blame, and my great regret is, I hope no soldier--I mean, I think some soldiers were angry at me for that, and I understand that and I regret that, because I love them.

And this, from a source about which I know nothing:

“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."

Hard to believe. Of course, there is this smear, from Not Serious at the Krugman-endorsed Media Matters. The left may not like McCarthy, but they are not afraid of the tactics.

Comments

[Bruce Moomaw]

What, pray tell, is a smear about it, Tom? Corsi did say those things, and therefore (as even "Capt. Joe" admits) is
"a nasty piece of work". Also a childishly hysterical raver. Obvious question: why did O'Neill decide to work with him?

As for those rumored Brown Books: let's see what -- if anything -- they have to say about the people currently accusing Kerry of being a pathological liar, a coward and a traitor. Sauce for the goose and all that.

[amy]

Are these the "Brown Shirts"..um I mean "Books" Gore was referring to?

Please tell me that "journalists" at big MS pubs are not sitting around playing cards waiting for the "Brown Books" to come in before they weigh in on these questions.

Did I just infer that the so-called warriors of truth do nothing but shill for Democrats, and pass it off as journalism, like it is a new phenomenon???

Shame on me for being so naive. Sorry.

[amy]

Are these the "Brown Shirts"..um I mean "Books" Gore was referring to?

Please tell me that "journalists" at big MS pubs are not sitting around playing cards waiting for the "Brown Books" to come in before they weigh in on these questions.

Did I just infer that the so-called warriors of truth do nothing but shill for Democrats, and pass it off as journalism, like it is a new phenomenon???

Shame on me for being so naive. Sorry.

[Mark Amerman]

On one level I don't think the Media Matters for America piece on
Jerome Corsi is a smear if these are indeed Jerome Corsi words. I think
it's relevant to note all these collected intemperate comments were posted
on a message board and that none of have Jerome Corsi's signature. Although
it seems reasonable to believe they are his words, we can't in fact
with certainty know that, unless he acknowledges them.

My suspicion is though that they are Jerome Corsi's words.

But the real sense in which this is a smear though is that it sidesteps
the real issue, the truth or falsity of the claims in "Unfit for Command:
Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry" and that rather than
address the claims of these 220 men who served in Vietnam a great effort
is being mounted to discredit the men involved.

Given that there are some 220 men and that they are speaking of different
experiences, it's near certain that some will be mistaken in their
memories of what happened in Vietnam and that some will be of a character
less than saintly. We know that before we begin.

My take on this is that reading this and believing these are indeed
Corsi's words I would take his assertions of what he saw with some
care, although not necessarily disregard them.

But actually if you go to:

http://www.swiftvets.com/article.php?story=20040629220813790

which is the basic signed statement by the veterans who did serve
with John Kerry, you'll see that Jerome Corsi's name is not on it,
which means that he was not there.

I find it hard to believe that these 220 men who served with Kerry in
Vietnam are all lying about their experiences with John Kerry.

[Dan]

The Brown Book sounds like a Carville operation. Instead of having The BB operations clearly pre-supposes that there are "safe" Kerry-supporting media outlets. This being the case, Kerry could easily use these outlets to confront the accusations with his side of the story, his interpretaion of the facts, his own explanations and even apologies if necessary.

But this is not the way Carville and team operate. The don't care about rebuttal, only about revenge.

[capt joe]

Bruce, my name in scare quotes again?

As I said in the post for "Kranish is cooked", you have to place my "IF he said that, then" before that.

Maybe turnaround is fair play, but acording to HIPAA statutes, doing that would be a serious federal offense. If the vets get evidence of that happening, then a lot of people (jornalists included) will be cooked and ignorance will not be an excuse.

[Tim]

Why won't Kerry publicly release his full military records?

They should clear a great deal of this up right away.

[capt joe]

Well, the smearing has started

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=145-08062004

[Jeff Fecke]

Uh, Tim? Kerry did release his full military records:

http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/military_records.html

Unlike, you know, other major party Presidential candidate who shall remain nameless...

[John Cole]

Pandagon has a predictably fatuous response to this post.

And Jeff- he has not released all the military records. Fitreps, sitreps, and AAR's are withheld, as well as other information.