Kerry asserts he's proud of service — and activism

By The Associated Press

LAURA RAUCH / AP Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., addresses supporters at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia yesterday.

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Kerry, speaking at a fund-raiser that raised $1.7 million for the Democratic Party, said criticism of his decorated service in Vietnam has "become so petty it's almost pathetic."

Kerry defended his anti-war activism as "an act of conscience."

"You can judge my character, incidentally, by that," Kerry said. "Because when the time for moral crisis existed in this country, I wasn't taking care of myself, I was taking care of public policy. I was taking care of things that made a difference to the life of this nation. You may not have agreed with me, but I stood up and was counted and that's the kind of president I'm going to be."

Kerry said he earned his three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star under the process set up by the Navy "and I'm proud of them and I'm proud of my service and I'm proud that I stood up against the war when I came home because it was the right thing to do."

Kerry also struck back at people who criticize him for trying to glorify only four months of service in Vietnam.

"I was there longer than that, number one," he said. "Number two, I served two tours. Number three, they thought enough of my service to make me aide to an admiral."

Kerry served six months aboard the USS Gridley, which supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin, before a four-month tour in the Mekong Delta that repeatedly brought him close to gunfire. After Kerry got three Purple Hearts for injuries from enemy fire, he was reassigned out of the combat zone and got his requested assignment to be a personal aide to an admiral in New York.

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, introducing Kerry at the fund-raiser, said: "If you want this election to be decided on the Vietnam War, then I ask you one question: Who served this country better during the Vietnam War, John Kerry or George Bush?"

Bush served stateside in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war, and did not see combat. Democrats have questioned whether he always showed up for duty.

During a speech earlier yesterday at Cooper Union in New York, Kerry sought to turn the campaign debate to other issues.
 
"The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances," Kerry told 850 invited supporters in the city where Republicans will nominate Bush for re-election next week.

He also tried to paint Bush as dishonest.

"My duty, as I understand it, is to be a president and commander in chief who finds the truth and tells the truth instead of misleading the American people," Kerry said. "My duty is to be a president who tells the truth instead of hiding behind front groups, saying anything and doing anything to avoid the real issues that matter, like jobs, health care and the war in Iraq."

Kerry spoke a day after Bush criticized attack ads run by outside groups — known as 527s because of an IRS code provision — including the commercials being aired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Kerry has said the veterans group is a front for the president's re-election campaign.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Ginsberg, a lawyer for Bush's re-election campaign disclosed yesterday that he has been providing legal advice to the anti-Kerry veterans group.

On Saturday, retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier resigned as a member of the Bush campaign's veterans' steering committee after it was learned that he appeared in the Swift Boat Veterans' television ad.

Both the Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination.

Ginsberg said the group "came to me and said, 'We have a point of view we want to get into the First Amendment debate right now. There's a new law. It's very complicated. We want to comply with the law; will you keep us in the bounds of the law?'

"I said yes, absolutely, as I would do for anyone."

Ginsberg said he never told the Bush campaign what he discussed with the group, or vice versa, and doesn't advise the group on ad strategies. He said he had not yet decided whether to charge the Swift Boat Veterans a fee for his work.

"It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said of Ginsberg's admission. "The longer President Bush waits to specifically condemn this smear, the more it looks like his campaign is behind it."

Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "There has been no coordination at any time."