This page was last updated on August 30, 2004.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“During the infamous McCarthy hearings, one of the victims of the vile senator’s witch hunt said what many Americans were already thinking.  ‘Have you no decency, senator?’

“The same could be said for the men who are villifying John Kerry and impugning his war record.  ‘Have they no decency?’

“The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune recently have exposed their lies and their connection to President Bush’s family and political career.  Yet our president, who once claimed Jesus Christ as his favorite ‘philosopher,’ refuses to stand in the light of the truth and repudiate this malicious attack and slanderous campaign.”

[RWC] Sorry, Mr. Gebhard, neither The New York Times nor the Chicago Tribune “exposed their lies.”  Mr. Gebhard seems to ignore the fact that it is the Kerry campaign that keeps changing their story, not the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT).  Remember “Christmas in Cambodia?”  What about the flip-flop in which the campaign originally claimed all boats except Kerry’s left the scene of a mine explosion, only to admit later the reverse was true?  There are more of these examples and Mr. Gebhard knows it.  When one side changes its story in the face of challenge and the other doesn’t, who is the liar?

John Edwards said, “If you have any question about what John Kerry’s made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him.”  Now that “men who served with” John Kerry are speaking up and providing documentation, folks like Mr. Gebhard want them to shut up.

Mr. Gebhard, please provide proof the SBVT are lying.  If you cannot, you are the one participating in a “malicious attack and slanderous campaign.”

“Has he no decency?  As a god-fearing man, our president must say ‘No’ to these veterans and claim the moral high ground on which his authority rests.”

[RWC] Mr. Gebhard appears to have a double standard.  I don’t recall any letters from him demanding Kerry recant lies by the likes of Michael Moore, Terry McAuliffe, et cetera.

© 2004 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.