First, Dealey reports that Howard Dean is chiding Kerry for "flip-flopping on the importance of serving in Vietnam in presidential politics." Then, Dealey reports Kerry's many boasts about how important a credential his military service is. Then, Dealey disinters statements by Kerry in the 1990s denying the importance of a military credential.
Kerry was defending Bill Clinton, the draft dodger about to win the Democratic presidential nomination. In defense of Clinton, Kerry said things such as this, a rhetorical question to Clinton's opponent, President George H. W. Bush, "If service or non-service in the war is to become a test of qualification for high office, you would not have a vice president." He is referring to the fact that Vice President Dan Quayle only served in the National Guard.
Kerry, the veteran who stresses his military service but does not stress his military service, also disparages service in the National Guard. Though you can be sure he will soon insist that he does not disparage service in the National Guard, especially when a reporter notes the fine service the Guard is now performing in Iraq. That quotation directed against Quayle is ancient history. But then there is this quote from Oct. 6. Asked about reinstating the draft, Kerry gratuitously sneers, "There are some people in high office today who pulled strings to get into the National Guard." That is a canard he and the moron vote fling at the president.
Viewing the charges that the Democrats fling at one another, and the charges they fling at the president who it seems to me is almost certain to be re-elected, I have come to a conclusion. These candidates have an instinctive aversion to the truth. On matters large and small, they are with surprising regularity wrong. Apologists explain that they have to be wrong to appeal to their base, the moron vote. I hate to sound like a moralist, but I just do not think that is a sufficient reason for lying, even about yourself.