Well, well. Those of us who wondered whether the unanswered questions about Kerry's Vietnam service would be kicked around again during his 2008 run or simply left to distant historians received some help from Tim Russert of Meet The Press:
MR. RUSSERT: Many people who've been criticizing you have said: Senator, if you would just do one thing and that is sign Form 180, which would allow historians and journalists complete access to all your military records. Thus far, you have gotten the records, released them through your campaign. They say you should not be the filter. Sign Form 180 and let the historians...
SEN. KERRY: I'd be happy to put the records out. We put all the records out that I had been sent by the military. Then at the last moment, they sent some more stuff, which had some things that weren't even relevant to the record. So when we get--I'm going to sit down with them and make sure that they are clear and I am clear as to what is in the record and what isn't in the record and we'll put it out. I have no problem with that.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?
SEN. KERRY: But everything, Tim...
MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?
SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will...
Good. First, we like his admission that not everything had been released ("at the last moment, they sent some more stuff"), although we were already quite clear on that point.
Second, it is worth remembering that it was Tim Russert who beat some records out of Kerry in April of 2004. However, as the Boston Globe documented, getting Kerry to fulfill his promise became oral surgery - we have backpedaling on the morning after, grudging compliance in response to criticism, and then a release shot through with errors.
So, will Kerry keep his promise this time, or will he do a 180 on the 180? Time will tell, but who will pressure him to perform? Kerry himself would be the biggest beneficiary of an early (and little-noticed) resolution to this - if he lets these questions linger, he is pre-damaged goods for a 2008 campaign, which probably suits his prospective rivals. For myself, I would love to see a resolution to the mystery of his first Purple Heart.
MORE: Ann Althouse wraps up Russert and Kerry.
LAST LAUGH: Down in the discussion on Social Security we find this gem from Tim Russert - "Specifically, Senator, do you still agree with yourself?"
And (do you believe it), Kerry does not - "Precisely what I said in 1996 is "We should consider" a number of these things. We did consider them. I considered them. Others did. I rejected them."
Boy, I miss him.
At this stage, if Kerry pulls a 180 and signs the 180, it can only hurt him. Either it has something damning, or it doesn't, and if it doesn't, it makes him look like an idiot for not signing it the minute the Swift Vets came on the scene.
Posted by: Xrlq | January 30, 2005 at 11:09 PM
Good point. Unless there is something awkward but forgettable by 2008, his refusal to sign last fall will look stupid.
Posted by: TM | January 31, 2005 at 02:09 AM
He won't sign it. If he does, he's toast.
Posted by: AllenS | January 31, 2005 at 05:53 AM
Yeah, I will believe it when I see it.
I have no idea why he would run for Prez again in 2008. I doubt the primary voters will be so stupid a second time. And who would be giving him money? I bet even Teresa would be cutting him off at that point.
Posted by: Meep | January 31, 2005 at 06:15 AM
TM:
Kerry's 2004 campaign already looks stupid. If he is truly going to run in 2008, he should admit myriad campaign errors, graciously blame his aides, then dispose of this issue, particularly now that he has promised to do so.
Posted by: Appalled Moderate | January 31, 2005 at 09:09 AM
If he signs the 180, we'll know the answer to the mystery of his 12 year stint in the navy. So, I doubt he'll do it. What a fool.
He's also still trying to save face over Christmas in Cambodia, by claiming Steve Gardner didn't know that they were "right on the border". But, if he'd read his own diary entries for Dec. 24-25, 1968--which the Boston Globe has published--he'd see that he was 50 miles from the border, around Sa Dec
Not to mention his stupidity in recycling his "plan" for Iraq on the very day Bush, Condi, and Rumsfeld are vindicated.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | January 31, 2005 at 10:21 AM
"SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia."
That would a second treasonous act--giving aid and comfort to the enemy in war time--to be added to his collaborating with the North Vietnamese Communists in Paris in 1970.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | January 31, 2005 at 10:36 AM
Re Tim Russert and the 180: I'm not a reporter, talk- or news-show host, anchor or "infotainer" (e.g., Katie Couric), so I clearly don't know anything about "journalistic standards". But I am a career prosecutor, and do know something about smoking out false statements and getting to the truth, as Mr. Russert claims from time to have some expertise in. And I want to ask him, "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU JUST PLOP A 180 DOWN IN FRONT OF KERRY?". I suspect because of the unspoken credo that gentlemen and -women of the press don't embarrass gentlemen of the left; they save that for righties.
Posted by: Jumbo | January 31, 2005 at 10:40 AM
He might as well sign it. It's not like the Democrats are going to run his patrician ass out there in 2008.
Posted by: Geek, Esq. | January 31, 2005 at 10:48 AM
Let me guess ..
Kerry will sign the Form 180 .. then tear it up.
Posted by: Neo | January 31, 2005 at 09:08 PM
The 180 will reveal that his original discharge was other than honorable. Just read his current discharge. Look at the date and look at the "subject to a board of officers" language.
Posted by: Harry Arthur | January 31, 2005 at 09:30 PM
Who cares if he signs it? It is already toast!
Posted by: Just Don | February 02, 2005 at 05:12 PM
One conspiracy at a time, please. We know Bush missed a medical which left him suspended. Have you gotten to the bottom of that yet? I mean, he IS the president. Surely the medical records of the president are MORE important than those of a senator?
Besides. Kerry looks healthier. He looks like he could eat a whole pretzel.
Posted by: Dave | February 08, 2005 at 01:22 AM
"Surely the medical records of the president are MORE important than those of a senator?"
The issue is military records, not medical ones. (BTW, Occam's Razor suggests Bush neglected to take the physical because he wasn't flying, rather than the converse.)
"Besides. Kerry looks healthier. He looks like he could eat a whole pretzel."
Afterward he could sign himself up for another bronze star. (With a PH, if he managed to injure himself in the process.)
Posted by: Cecil Turner | February 08, 2005 at 03:19 PM
"We put all the records out that I had been sent by the military. Then at the last moment, they sent some more stuff, which had some things that weren't even relevant to the record."
I've thought about this line for a while now and the "Then at the last moment" phrase keeps jumping out at me.
I bet somewhere down the line, especially if Kerry really tries to run again, that Kerry will point to this phrase and say that that last batch of documents were fakes.
I won't go as far as to say he will claim Karl Rove wrote them, but he will claim surprise as to why some of the documents came "at the last moment".
This will then be used to cast doubt on all the documents in his military record.
Posted by: Neo | March 06, 2005 at 08:49 PM