How about the rotted corpse of one of the Viet Cong Kerry killed, T. Boone? You want that, too? How about a cup of hot fat and the head of Alfredo Garcia? Will that be enough?

What an egotistical blowhard. But while I'm glad to see Kerry taking this on and I hope he shoves his military record right up Pickens' purulent oilman ass, I have one question:

Senator, where were your balls on this issue in 2004? And why did it take you three years to find them? Were they in storage? I respect Kerry as a man, but as campaigner and presidential candidate, he's a punchline.

Kerry will point out, in his reasoned lawyerly way, that Pickens is changing the terms. Pickens will bluster and blather and play the good ol' boy, and Kerry, in disgust, will give up. The headlines will be something along the lines of "Kerry backs down from Pickens challenge" -- if the MSM deigns to notice the story at all.

Kerry had a chance to do something about these people back in 2004. Now it's far too late. Move on, John.

And he can keep the challenge going.

There's been a meme running around the internets for a few years now -- I got no clue when / where / by whom it was originated, but I keep seeing Orcinus' David Neiwert referred to in connection with it -- that if you want to know what the Rethugs are up to, look at what they accuse Democrats and liberals of doing, because the Rethugs are masters of the art of projection.

This is just another textbook case of their changing the rules in mid-game, moving the goalposts, etcetc. -- another "the surge is working;" Florida recount; Gov Davis recall; the current push to apportion Cali's electoral college votes, instead of winner-take-all; etcetcetc

Sure would be nice if we could actually rely on the MSM to report the truth about this -- or, for that matter, to publicize it at all.

Would also be nice to see Kerry deal strongly with it, instead of knucking under, as I fear he might. I know a lot of people would disagree with me on this, but on this at least, I think too little too late is still better than nothing at all.

The "T" in T. Boone Pickens must stand for "Typical Swift Boat Liars coward".

He and the rest of them would never be willing to sit still for an impartially overseen review of their lies. How could they?

(I especially relish my memories of Kerry carving up John O'Neill on Cavett - the source of his particular animus regarding Kerry...)

If only Kerry hadn't gone quite so "Senator" on us. As in long-winded and monotonic.

Pickens is a weasel, a liar, and a coward. As is O'Neill, as are the rest of them.

...in order to prove Pickens wrong. Kerry won't do it, so you decide who's moving the goal post. Christmas in Cambodia!

pubpundits,

Before posting, why not check your facts or is that too difficult?

Kerry has already released his records.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/07/kerry_allows_navy_release_of_military_medical_records/

But you know, if you keep repeating a lie long enough, it becomes the truth, right?

All it took was a simple response. Too bad he didn't do this during the actual election, when it mattered.

He certainly should have responded to the Swift Boat controversy much, much stronger than he did, but it ended up taking on a life of its own. Pretty early on it was clear that the accusations had no merit, but the media kept the story alive regardless. There was really very little Kerry could have done, to be honest. Look at the photoshopped picture of Kerry and Jane Fonda. That was revealed as a fraud almost instantly, however we saw that picture on every cable news show over and over and over. They always prefaced its appearance by saying it was a fake, but they presented it to the public none-the-less. By comparison, how many time did the media show the very realy photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Sadaam's hand when he brokered the deal for those weapons?

The media didn't give a shit whether there was merit to the Swift Boat accusations. They were hell-bent on tarring Kerry with it regardless. Honestly, at the time there was not much Kerry could have done. If he had fought it harder it would have been more relentlessly covered. He was fucked by the media on that one.

Can anyone tell me why Kerry hasn't sued everyone of those swiftboat liars for libel? If I was Kerry, and had his resources, I promise you, I'd have a vicious legal team whose sole purpose would seperating those liars from every one of their earthly possessions. Seriously, why wouldn't he do that? Doing so, would give pause to the next Paula Jones, swiftboat liars, or whoever else the GOP dredged up to besmirch a democratic candidate. But, of course, showing some spine would be . . . unDemocratic.

This would include "Jaws," "Animal House," "The Bad News Bears," I guess. Is this the Catch-22 here? Is this how T-Bone Chickens intends to get out of this?

My, my...there should be no shock that Pickens plucked a page right out of the GOP playbook, "Bait and Switch" when losing.

George W. Bush has been playing this game since he stole the election in 2000, and most recently, defending the miserable adventure in Iraq by changing the definition of "success."

Now Pickens wants to change his tune. Who asked him anyway about the Swiftboaters? And who cares? We already know they were the liars.

Kerry should just tell him to "put up or shut up...better yet, shut up."

As expected, a number of respondents criticized Senator Kerry for not doing this in 2004. So now there's no point.

Sure - just as there was "no point" in going after Bill Clinton for the failed Whitewater real estate deal way back in the 1980s. That there was "no point" in having Paula Jones pursue him for what she said was an affair that took place in the 1970s or 80s. That there will be "no point" in savaging Senator Clinton over Vince Foster - the man is still dead, right?

The mainstream - who are always wrong, by the way; see Tom Englehart's article on draught - have concluded that there is "no point" in Dan Rather suing for being fired about publicizing the George Bush AWOL story. And obviously, there will be "no point" in Kerry going after his slanderers. The election is over; America lost; big deal.

Funny how there's never any reason for the left to "hold the right accountable" (a phrase meaning "to punish", in case you were wondering) for things they've done in the past. However, it's always appropriate for the right to dredge up/make up some irrelevancy that happened decades ago in order to prosecute or merely smear someone on the left.

As they said back in the old days, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. It's "accountability." It's "a matter of character." All those rightwing phrases that really need to come back to haunt the evil, sleazy people that are dominating our politics, government, and media.

Bring it to the courts. Bring it to the nightly news. Keep bringing out facts (as opposed to allegations.) Do whatever it takes to contradict the old common wisdom (established by the GOP) with what actually occurred.

Americans are sick of the current situation and ready for change. Give them more reasons to do something about it. You go, John Kerry. You go, Dan Rather. Hit them in the only place they care about - their bank accounts.