| | McCain rebuts Clark with Swift Boat member
Hanoi Hilton roommate of GOP candidate appeared in '04 anti-Kerry attacks
Monday's campaign trail back-and-forth focused on comments from former Gen. Wesley Clark questioning whether Sen. John McCain's experience in Vietnam qualified him to be commander-in-chief.
In an umbrage-taking conference call Monday afternoon, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee unveiled his "truth squad," which featured one of McCain's cellmates during his time as a POW who also was featured in two infamous ads from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacking 2004 Democratic candidate John Kerry.
Col. Bud Day spoke alongside a handful of other McCain supporters Monday, accusing Clark of inappropriately questioning McCain's war service in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation.
Day, though, is no stranger to questioning the patriotism of a Vietnam veteran. In addition to appearing in the Swift Vets ads, which McCain himself condemned in 2004, Day accused Kerry of treason akin to Benedict Arnold, according to an August 2004 Washington Times report (via Nexis):
Col. Day was a Hanoi Hilton cellmate of Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and takes issue with the defense of Mr. Kerry by "my good friend, John."
Mr. Kerry's 1971 U.S. Senate testimony as a returned Vietnam veteran, claiming atrocities and war crimes by fellow U.S. servicemen, was "outright perjury, absolute lies, fabrications, fantasies with no substance [that] gave 'aid and comfort' to our enemies, the Vietnamese communists," Col. Day said in a message to fellow veterans obtained by The Washington Times.
Col. Day said Mr. Kerry "opened up his character as a war hero, reporting for duty to the country with a hand-salute, and his band of brothers, of which he was the chief hero."
"I draw a direct comparison of Gen. Benedict Arnold of the Revolutionary War to Lt. John Kerry," Col. Day said. "Both went off to war, fought, and then turned against their country.
"General Arnold crossed over to the British for money and position. John Kerry crossed over to the Vietnamese with his assistance to the anti-war movement, and his direct liaison with the Vietnamese diplomats in Paris. His reward: Political gain. Senator, United States."
Despite all the outrage expressed by McCain's surrogates about the inappropriateness of Clark's comments, some are pointing out that the former NATO general didn't even attack McCain's record; he simply said it alone didn't make the Arizona senator prepared to be commander in chief.
Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday, Clark "honor[ed]" McCain's sacrifice and called him "a hero to me and to ... millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war." Host Bob Schieffer specifically noted that Obama was not a veteran, "nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down."
"Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," Clark said. It's this line that's caused such a stir; Obama's campaign has said it disagrees with the characterization.
During the McCain call, Day was asked how he reconciles the trumped up outrage he was expressing at Clark's poorly stated sentiment with the campaign he participated in to actively and maliciously undercut Kerry's record.
"The Swift Boat 'attacks' were simply revelation of the truth," said Day, a former prisoner of war and Medal of Honor recipient who served i[n] the Air Force. "The similarity does not exist here."
"What the Swift Boat campaign was about was to lay out John Kerry's record. John Kerry has never produced any evidence to deny that," he said.
In contrast, he said, he and others on the call had produced "evidence pointing out that [Clark's] remarks were completely inaccurate."
"One was about laying out the truth. This one is about attempting ot cast a new shadow on John McCain," he said of the salvos at the two military men.
Kerry strongly refuted that rationale in a statement he released after the call.
"Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," Kerry said. "John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who served on swift boats in Vietnam."
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