Talk Radio's Latest Low: Military Duty As "Resume Padding"

by Steve Young

"He volunteered for Viet Nam duty knowing he would one day be running for president."
-- John O'Neill, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Well, that clears that up.

John Kerry is not only a flip-flopping liberal, he's also a plotting clairvoyant. Going to war to pad your resume? Wow. That take colossal heaps of foresight, guts...and a heap o'stupidity.

Or perhaps the stupidity comes in the accepting that line of argument.

Next week a new book from the Drudge Report of publishing houses, Regenery, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry will be hitting the RNC's must-read list. The same Regenery, who by their own admission, "hopes to contribute something meaningful to the public debate on the great issues of our time" with such meaningful tomes as At Any Cost: How Gore Tried to Steal the Election, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Year Of The Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash,A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vince Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department, and the medical "meaningful to the public debate," The Myth of Heterosexual Aids.

But even now, Unfit Command's author John O'Neill, founder of the anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, has become the newest darling of the AM Radio's meaningful public debate d'jourÊtour.

Syndicated talk show host, Sean Hannity, spoke with O'Neill on his show, supporting O'Neill's assertion that Kerry volunteered for Viet Nam to get it on his resume. Hannity agreed that volunteering to go into the Viet Nam war would be a good for later job hunting.

O'Neill also contends that "Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes where he would portray the hero, catching it all on film."

No doubt planning to edit it into your pre-presidential nomination speech, or so said Matt Drudge.

On his own syndicated show, talk host Larry Elder wondering if it were true that Kerry actually enlisted for war duty and recorded it, wondered, "what does that say about a person's character?" Then Larry wondered aloud why only Washington Times and Drudge would print the charge by John O'Neill, founder of the anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that John Kerry had recreated his heroic Viet Nam battle scenes to shoot film use in his campaign and would be used at the Democratic Convention. Hmm. Only the Washington Times. What an enigma.

Wonder if Larry misplaced all the articles from years ago that had debunked the same charges.

Perhaps he should have asked James Moll, Academy Award winning director of the Holocaust documentary, "The Last Days." He put together the Kerry film O'Neill intimated would use the re-enactments. Moll said that even if there was such faux film, he hadn't used it.

Perhaps Larry never checked with the million of children of war veterans who have flipped through scrapbooks of pictures of their dads in battle areas. Wonder what percentage of young soldiers took those pictures reasoning a future political campaign.

Elder also stated that O'Neill has kept quiet until Kerry decided to run for President.

Perhaps Larry didn't read former presidential confidant Chuck Colson's admission that the Nixon administration sought out O'Neill and propped up his organization to debate Kerry way back in the early 70's. Even though he was building his own resume with his Viet Nam tour, I don't think he had yet to announce that he would be running for president in 30-some years.

But what if there's no war to risk your life for America; no war that brings home over fifty thousand flag-draped coffins to advance one's eventual career, how do today's young men and women enhance their opportunities as they prepare for that job three or decades into the future. My guess is that they might want to consider some other imperiling experience. Say like driving drunk.

That ought to be good for some political office.