Democratic senator - and certain presidential nominee - John F. Kerry gave the middle finger to a Vietnam veteran at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on Memorial Day morning, NewsMax.com has learned.
Ted Sampley, a former Green Beret who served two full tours in Vietnam, spotted Kerry and his Secret Service detail at about 9:00 a.m. Monday morning at the Wall. Sampley walked up to Kerry, extended his hand and said, "Senator, I am Ted Sampley, the head of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and I am here to escort you away from the Wall because you do not belong here."
At that point a Secret Service officer told Sampley to back away from Kerry. Sampley moved about 6 feet away and opened his jacket to reveal a HANOI JOHN T-shirt.
Kerry then began talking to a group of schoolchildren. Sampley then showed the T-shirt to the children and said, "Kerry does not belong at the Wall because he betrayed the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam."
Just then Kerry - in front of the school children, other visitors and Secret Service agents - brazenly 'flashed the bird' at Sampley and then yelled out to everyone, "Sampley is a felon!"
Kerry was referring to an incident 12 years ago when Sampley confronted Sen. John McCain's chief aide, Mark Salter, in a Senate stairwell after McCain repeatedly offended POW families at a Senate POW hearing. Sampley, whose father-in-law at that time was MIA in Laos, followed Salter into the stairwell and, when they emerged, Salter had a bloody lip and a broken nose.
Sampley's group, Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, has garnered huge national attention and has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country." Tens of thousands of Vietnam vets have registered their opposition to Kerry through Sampley's group.
Clearly Sampley has gotten under Kerry's skin once again.
There are nearly 400 comments, with much discussion centering on the character of the heckler (Sampley), as well as the reliability of Newsmax.com. Here's a comment typifying such skepticism:
They may have made it up, they have gotten it from a dubious source, or they could actually be telling the truth. NewsMax is not, in and of itself, a credible source regardless of how in character you believe the reported incident to be. If it appears elsewhere or we get a picture of the incident, then I might believe it. Until then, I would consider this story to be unsubstantiated BS.
While I understand skepticism about Newsmax, it should be remembered that if a similar story was reported about Bush by a left-wing news site, it would not remain ignored for long. Bush would be asked about it, and given the chance to confirm it or deny it.
Has anyone asked the Kerry campaign? I see no mention at his campaign blog, even though it does mention his visit to the wall. Whether or not Newsmax is liked by its critics, merely asserting that the story comes from Newsmax should not end the inquiry.
Nor is Sampley's credibility particularly relevant. Assuming he is as bad as John McCain has said (even Bob Smith once condemned him), what matters is whether Kerry gave the guy the finger in public. If he did, then it's news worth reporting.
If George W. Bush gave the finger to someone like Ted Rall, I don't think the reports would be limited to, say, Indymedia. We'd be hearing more about it.
The funny thing is, I can find no one saying the incident didn't happen; only attacks on Sampley and Newsmax.
That's not enough to give Kerry a pass.
posted by Eric on 06.01.04 at 05:40 PM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/1057
Comments
Please god let their be footage of this.
lindenen · June 1, 2004 09:39 PM
If Kerry wants to win this election his best strategy would be to stay home in bed and let his wife and daughters do all the campaigning for him.
"Finger-gate"? Must be a slow day. I defended Bush when he was attacked for calling some obnoxious reported an asshole during the 2000 campaign, and I'll not apply a different standard to Kerry. President Truman was well known to let fly on occasion, as was Senator Goldwater. Politics is for adults. It's not Sunday school.
Seems like expressions of anger are now taboo in American politics. Howard Dean was attacked for his anger, as was John McCain earlier. Back in 1972, Edmund Muskie was seen as discredited when he publically wept after a newspaper (William Loeb's "Manchester Union-Leader") had attacked his wife. Today, it's acceptable to weep and be tearful or sentimental, e.g., Clinton's "I feel your pain", but it's not acceptable to show anger. "Civility" is the order of the day, which usually means turning the other cheek. We are becoming a culture which is afraid of strong emotion, of strong conviction.
I was not trying to suggest that Kerry has any strong convictions. If he did, I'd be more likely to consider voting for him. Depending, of course, on what those convictions were.
Also, I do recognize that the finger gesture, the "razz", etc., would be out of place at a Presidential State dinner, especially if there were royalty present (HAIL TO THE QUEEN....!). Perhaps an appearance of dignified composure would be preferable. Chesterton noted that the Lord Chief Justice does not feel compelled to put out his tongue at the little boy who puts out his tongue at the Lord Chief Justice.
Speaking of Chief Justices, some thoughts occured to me:
In my lifetime, I've experienced 10 Presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II. But I've experienced only 3 Chief Justices: Earl Warren, Warren Earl Burger, William Rhenquist. All 3 Chief Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents: Warren by Eisenhower, Burger by Nixon, Rhenquist also by Nixon and became Chief Justice under Reagan. The Warren Court, the Burger Court, the Rhenquist Court. Each one has produced some crucial decisions....
The burden of proof lies with NewsMax for substantiating the story. If they supply enough information for it to be independently verified, fine, but until then, we must account for NewsMax's unreliability. Also, I resent that you use this as an opportunity to complain that the "liberal media" picks on Bush, but not on Kerry. You really need to prove this instead of parotting the Right Wing Attack Machine (you didn't really cite G. Gordon Liddy, convicted felon, as a source, did you?). It seems to me that Bush has done some pretty damn bad stuff. Kerry's flipping the bird or getting botox or changing his mind (or whatever) is a miniscule story compared to the security of the US. Further, these accusations about the liberal media ring completely hollow after the Reagan/Republican love fest for the past eight days (and counting!) on every news channel and on the front of every paper every day. Stick a fork in it.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
Please god let their be footage of this.