By Ray Barrington
News-Chronicle
Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland defended Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry from attacks on Kerry's combat record in Vietnam during a visit to Green Bay on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Parkway on Museum Place.
The event was marked by a few confrontations, some angry, between supporters of Kerry and President Bush. About a dozen Bush supporters gathered along Museum Place, gradually walking along roped off areas on either side of the park. A couple eventually carried their signs into the rally area, leading to verbal confrontations. Some obscenities were thrown back and forth in one case, but the protesters were allowed to stay, although Kerry supporters stood in front of most of them and held their own signs.
Cleland's appearance was part of a four-day tour in Wisconsin to try to combat an advertisement by a group calling itself "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," claiming that Kerry had lied about his war record.
"There are some things that are beyond politics, and one of them is service to your country in time of war," he told about 150 supporters.
"We have a saying in Georgia - if you're throwing dirt, you're losing ground."
Cleland compared the attacks on Kerry to attacks on him when he was defeated for another term in the Senate from Georgia in 2002 and attacks on John McCain in the presidential race in 2000. Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, has also served as head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Cleland noted that Kerry, along with other Republicans and Democrats, had joined him in defending McCain, a Republican, in 2000 from the attacks.
In the 2002 campaign, Cleland said, "When they went after me in their desperate effort to take back the U.S. Senate, and put my image on TV with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden as if somehow my record of 30 years of public service, not to mention my time in the military, somehow favored terrorists, Chuck Hegel and John McCain came to my defense.
"And now as you see this pattern of attack and slimeball politics is going after John Kerry. We are tired of this, we are not going to put up with this any more, we are not going to let them do to John Kerry what they did to me and to John McCain, and we're going to set the record straight Nov. 2."
Cleland cited other Republicans, including Rep. Christopher Shays and Sen. John Warner, who had spoken out against the attack ad. He also said that the Bush campaign's comments that it was an independent group running the ads was wrong.
"These ads are bought and paid for by George Bush's and Karl Rove's cronies in Texas that have funded them for decades. They're the same people who went after John McCain," he said. After his speech, he told reporters that he thought the ads showed desperation on Bush's part.
"It's not going to work this time because America sees it and America is fed up with this kind of politics," he said.
The tour included a veteran who had served in Kerry's unit. Jim Wasser of Kankakee, Ill., spoke of serving with Kerry in Vietnam on PCF-44, one of the two swift boats Kerry commanded.
"He listened to us than and those are the same qualities I see today," he said. "In our time together, John Kerry never made a wrong command decision.
"We know what the bravado of 'Mission Accomplished' is, we swift boat veterans. And it's not landing on an aircraft carrier. We accomplished our mission and we will do that for John Kerry."
He said he had not planned to get involved in the campaign but did so after the advertisement.
"When enough is enough and lies are lies, you have to draw the line," he said. "The gentlemen on the other side, and I respect them for their service, say they're swift boat sailors for the truth. I want you to look right now. You're looking at a swift boat sailor for the truth. You have been listening to swift boat sailors for George Bush. Unless you were physically on PCF-44, his first boat, or PCF-94, his second boat, you did not serve with John Kerry. We were with him 24/7, so I feel we damn well know way more about John Kerry than what's going on to defamate him."
Wasser also took on Bush's National Guard service at the same era, which, he said, included missing a flight physical.
"Wouldn't you think that somewhere between Texas and Alabama, somebody would have come across the 43rd president of the United States and say 'I met him, he's a helluva guy,'" Wasser asked.
Former De Pere Mayor John Nusbaum introduced both men. He said he had voted Republican in the past but could not vote for Bush this year, citing changes in tax laws, environmental laws and the conduct of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"My vote is for the man who has demonstrated courage and integrity," he said.
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