Kerry grills nominee who backed swiftboat vets

Kerry grills nominee who backed swiftboat vets
At hearing questions whether supporter of group fit to serve as ambassador

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., turned a Senate hearing on an ambassadorship to Belgium into an opportunity to grill a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that challenged his Vietnam war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Kerry pressed nominee Sam Fox on why he donated $50,000 to the group, beginning with the question, "Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?"

According to the Washington Post, Fox, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, said he was "very concerned" that politics have become too "mean and destructive," especially with the participation of so-called 527 groups that are not subject to conventional campaign finance rules.

The 77-year-old Missouri businessman said he couldn't remember who asked him to make the donation and told Kerry, "Senator, you're a hero," adding no 527 group "can take that away from you."

Kerry asked why then, would he give to such a group?

Fox explained he and his wife often give to Republican causes when asked and felt they should contribute to a 527 working on behalf of the GOP since a 527 "on the other side" was comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

"So is that your judgment that you would bring to the ambassadorship, that two wrongs make a right?" Kerry asked, according to the Associated Press.

"I did it because politically it's necessary if the other side's doing it," Fox said.

Fox said he didn't have a part in shaping the Swift Boat Veterans' message and called on Congress to ban or more carefully regulate 527s, the AP reported.

Kerry said, however, Fox's support of the group raised questions about his fitness to serve as an ambassador.

Kerry's volley with Fox included pointed questions, the Post reported, such as "Why would you give away $50,000 to a group that you have no sense of accountability for?" and "You believe that anything goes in a political campaign?" And, finally, "Is truth important or isn't it?"

The Post recorded part of the conversation as follows:

KERRY: And you don't know who asked you.

FOX: No, sir, I really don't. I do not know who asked me. If you were to take our 1,000 contributions and go right down the list, I bet you I couldn't give you 5 percent of them, of who asked me.

KERRY: Do you recall whether it was somebody in Missouri or was it in person? Was it is by telephone?

FOX: I have no recollection.

KERRY: No recollection of how that came about.

FOX: No, sir.

KERRY: Do you recall thinking about it at all?

FOX: No more than that somebody must have asked and I gave.

KERRY: Boy, no wonder so many people are here to embrace your – what about now? How do you feel about it now, knowing what you know today?

FOX: Mr. Senator, let me say this. Be it 527 or anything else, if I thought what they were printing was not true, I would not contribute to it.

The Associated Press report of Kerry's questioning during the hearing called the claims of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "unsubstantiated." But the group maintains none of its many charges were debunked, pointing out Kerry himself never responded, other than to call them liars; and his campaign simply ignored most of the accusations presented in the group's No. 1 New York Times best-seller "Unfit for Command."

When the campaign did respond to specific claims, it was to backtrack, such as in the case of Kerry's long-held assertion he was in Cambodia illegally Christmas Eve 1968.

Kerry had claimed his swiftboat was ordered to Cambodia by President Nixon while the president denied to the world that any U.S. military forces were engaged in the country. The event was "seared, seared" into his memory, Kerry said on many occasions, including from the Senate floor. It was an experience that helped him conclude the war was immoral and worthy of protest. But Nixon did not become president until Jan. 20, 1969, and none of Kerry's former crew members, including those who campaigned for him, back his story.

Instead of addressing the Swift Boat Veterans' specific claims, the Kerry campaign threatened lawsuits against the television stations that aired the group's ads, demanded publisher Regnery pull "Unfit for Command," accused the group of being run by the Republican Party and attacked the character of co-authors John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi.

Mainstream media also repeated the assertion that the claims against Kerry were debunked, without providing evidence. Those who offered evidence contended the military's records supported Kerry's version of events, without mentioning the group's vets' assertion that it was Kerry himself who wrote the "official record" in many instances, in after-action reports.