THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Kerry Allies Take Shots at Bush, Cheney on Vietnam
The decorated veteran, angered at the campaign to discredit his service, lets his surrogates do the disparaging of his rivals' records on this day.
By Matea Gold and Nick Anderson, Times Staff Writers
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — After being targeted for weeks by criticisms of his service in Vietnam and his later protests of the war, Sen. John F. Kerry looked on Saturday as a series of his supporters lambasted President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for avoiding combat service during those years.
Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) made the strongest attack at an evening rally here on the banks of the Ohio River, saying that Kerry "was carrying a gun through the jungles of Vietnam while George Bush was neglecting his military service and carrying out his responsibility as a cheerleader at Yale University."
That prompted both laughter and boos from a crowd of several hundred.
After graduating from Yale, Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard and on temporary assignment in Alabama during the Vietnam War. He received an honorable discharge, leaving the Guard early to attend Harvard Business School. But records have never clearly detailed how he completed his service during his time in Alabama.
The sharp commentary by Strickland and three other Kerry supporters during a long day of campaigning appeared to be part of a Democratic strategy to have surrogates try to tar Bush's status as commander in chief, while freeing Kerry to focus on job creation and other domestic issues....
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-security5sep05,1,3918622.story?coll=la-home-politics