The Note sides with our rightwing foes

News Source: ABCNews.com
Authors: ABC News political unit
Title: It Was a Dark and Stormy Day
Rolling Thunder

Posted below is an email I sent to The Note . Also included is their response to my email:

Lisa- (Lisa is Lisa.M.Todorovich@abc.com)

I’m sorry to badger you again, but you are the only Noter to ever write me back. I plan to stop bugging you after this and will post all my grievances on http://kerrywatch.org

But I must take issue with the headline items on today edition of The Note: (my responses are in bold)

But four things are clear:

1. Proving that the transition from nomination-campaign-to-general-election-campaign is still underway for both candidate and staff, Team Kerry was totally unprepared for something that should have been researched and ready to take off the shelf a year ago.

(If this costs Kerry the election, we'll dissect what happened at the Institute of Politics post-November, and we bet the candidate gets his share of the blame.)

Response:Team Kerry, as you more affectionately called it in the past, responded by releasing all the records on the campaign website within two days. Bush-Cheney didn’t for a week and even then it failed to answer the basic question about where he was a year while he was supposed to be serving in the Alabama National Guard.

2. The WhiteHouseBC04RNC machine is awesome at seizing on an issue in the news, getting their talking points and marching orders disseminated and putting Kerry on the defensive and looking Clinton-Goreish. They are organized, relentless, and savvy.

Response: This is a low blow. Clinton ran a superb rapid reaction team, and it wasn’t his fault the Republicans chose to simply lie through their teeth and hurl one tabloid attack after another his way. Why praise BC04RnC for pushing a phony line of attack since there is no there, there?

3. The Kerry campaign’s rolling release of the military records (We loved the Aaron Brown-Kelly Wallace play-by-play on the process last night!!) suggests that they are doing the kind of purge-it-all-out move that such contretemps demand. But what of the Washington Post report that Mrs. Heinz Kerry’s tax returns could be next?

Response: So you are looking forward to a Heinz Kerry tax flap? Perhaps The Note can run a column in the NY Post on what they think the next “scandal” will be.

4. It’s clear that it’s NOT clear if the military records will yield a darn thing. So far, the only clear area of possible controversy (beyond the non-release) involves the terms of the first Kerry Purple Heart, and we are old enough to know that it didn’t take much to get one, and there is at least some documentation of an injury.

Response: “It didn’t take much to get one”???!!!!!!! Are you implying purple hearts aren’t that hard to get? Are you insane. I guess you all went to ‘Nam and thought getting wounded in Vietnam was no big deal? I doubt many on your staff were even born yet. Give me a break.

“Some documentation”…in fact there is a medical report detailing the injury. Is that not enough?

It’s clear the records don’t yield a thing except to serve as further reminders of Kerry’s heroism in Vietnam.

More Note: Republicans will continue to try to raise questions, and here are ours at this writing:

-Included are my responses

a. Is the campaign withholding any records?

-What, like more proof beyond certificates from the Navy that the medals are for real?

b. Has the military got any records that the Kerry campaign doesn't have?

-Would that be a fault of Kerry’s?

c. What, if any, documents are missing?

-Why are you the only ones that care?

Look, the problem is it was never clear what was being contested? Was anyone seriously claiming Kerry’s medals weren’t for real beyond your average right-wing smear mongers? The ONLY reason Kerry had to release these is that he said he would on MTP. If it was for more than that you ought to explain to readers, what exactly was contested and not simply leave an impression that Kerry was seeking to hide something by not having put these records out there months ago. Your actions are a disgrace to fair journalism. The Note happily joins Rush Limbaugh’s John F. Kerry Stack of Stuff.

Congratulations.

-A no longer loyal reader.

The Note's response:

Thanks again for writing, and again, I appreciate your thorough responses and the fact that your messages are thoughtful rather than just a big flame. People so easily jump to that with e-mail and specific feedback is so much more helpful to us.

I'm afraid there's not much I could say to change your mind, so I may just be stuck with an inadequate "we agree to disagree." But looking again at the questions and dynamics we raised today, it won't surprise you to find that I think they're legitimate. That said, I do respect your opinion and appreciate your sending it our way.