update: Captain Ed has more, much more!

update: as the crushkerry.com link below predicted, the brown books are out and being utilized by the lamestream media sympathetic to Kerry to smear the swiftboat vets. Regular WaPo readers must wonder what all the fuss is about, since the Post never saw fit to cover the charges brought by the vets, but is now publishing this. Kind of funny that the public has a "need to know" the dirt on these guys, but the paper doesn't think there is any reason to cover the charges against the man actually running for office.

John Kerry has offered no plan for America and the War on Terror (except for his secret plan), while making his 4 months of service the centerpiece of his campaign and talking very little about his nearly 30 years in public office. Why? Maybe he believed phony Vietnam stories couldn't hurt him while his public record couldn't help him.

I don't know how he could have so badly miscalculated. He came home from Vietnam, accused his "band of brothers" of widespread war crimes and atrocities, He threw someone's medals away. His words and actions hurt active duty troops and POWs that didn't come home after 4 months, as he did. How could he have believed that some of these people hurt by his actions wouldn't come forward to set the record straight?

Kerry's response has been to threaten legal action against stations broadcasting the swiftboat vets ad, look for ways to smear the vets yet again, and to attack the messenger. He has also been quick to point out that none of those attacking him served on his boat. Well, now it turns out that neither did one of those supporting him. Between this, the Cambodia lies, and the attacks on his service record, Kerry is sinking fast.

Kerry could put an end to all this quite easily. All he has to do is sign from 180 to have his military records released. It was demanded that George W. Bush do so to help clear up the scandalous charge that he was AWOL, or worse yet, a deserter.

Why isn't the same pressure brought against Kerry? I think we all know. Better question, what is in those records that Kerry is so afraid of? Those records are one of three things: confirmation of the attacks on him, more damaging than the attacks on him, or proof that claims are lies. If they were the latter, you know they would have been released already.