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WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kerry, who approved the use of force against Saddam Hussein by the Bush administration, but now, as a presidential candidate, claims he cast that vote only because he was deceived, was ready for war on Iraq in November 1997, according to statements he made on a CNN debate show.

Kerry sparred with CNN "Crossfire" co-host John Sununu Nov. 12, 1997, using language that sounded remarkably similar to the rhetoric of the Bush administration six years later – criticizing the United Nations and allies France and Russia for not standing tougher against Iraq.

"Well, John, you're correct that this resolution is less than we would have liked," said Kerry. "I don't think anybody can deny that we would have liked it to have threatened force and we would have liked it to carry the term 'serious consequences will flow.' On the other hand, the coalition is together. I mean the fact is there is a unanimous statement by the Security Council and the United Nations that there has to be immediate, unrestricted, unconditional access to the sites. That's very strong language. And it also references the underlying resolution on which the use of force is based. So clearly the allies may not like it, and I think that's our great concern – where's the backbone of Russia, where's the backbone of France, where are they in expressing their condemnation of such clearly illegal activity? But in a sense, they're now climbing into a box and they will have enormous difficulty not following up on this if there is not compliance by Iraq."

Audio tapes of the remarkable debate will be played today on Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated daily radio program broadcast live from the nation's capital. They were obtained from Monica Crowley, host of a radio show on WABC in New York.

Kerry, who now blames Bush for not achieving a broader international alliance in the war, said in 1997 nothing other nations had to say would stop the U.S. and Clinton from acting in defense of America's security interests.

"There's absolutely no statement that they have made or that they will make that will prevent the United States of America and this president or any president from acting in what they believe are the best interests of our country," said Kerry. "And obviously it's disappointing. It was disappointing a month ago not to have the French and the Russians understanding that they shouldn't give any signals of weakening on the sanctions and I think those signals would have helped bring about this crisis because they permitted Saddam Hussein to interpret that maybe the moment was right for him to make this challenge."

Kerry said it was clear the U.S. did not need allies nor the U.N. to force its will on Iraq.

"The administration is leading." said Kerry. "The administration is making it clear that they don't believe that they even need the U.N. Security Council to sign off on a material breach because the finding of material breach was made by Mr. (Richard) Butler. So furthermore, I think the United States has always reserved the right and will reserve the right to act in its best interests. And clearly it is not just our best interests, it is in the best interests of the world to make it clear to Saddam Hussein that he's not going to get away with a breach of the '91 agreement that he's got to live up to, which is allowing inspections and dismantling his weapons and allowing us to know that he has dismantled his weapons. That's the price he pays for invading Kuwait and starting a war."

Kerry blamed France's objections to force against Iraq on monetary interests.

"The fact is that over a period of time France and Russia have indicated a monetary interest," he said. "They on their own have indicated the desire to do business. That's what's driving this. I mean, as (The New York Times') Tom Friedman said in a great article the other day, France Inc. wants to do business with oil and they are moving in the exact sort of opposite direction on their own from the very cause of the initial conflict, which was oil."

Kerry made clear that the move against Iraq was about more than weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's efforts to back out of its agreements. He also left no doubt he was talking about war.

"This is not just a minor confrontation," said Kerry. "This is a very significant issue about the balance of power, about the future stability of the Middle East, about all of what we have thus far invested in the prior war and what may happen in the future."

Kerry, who now boasts about the support he has from other nations around the world, was particularly tough on France in his comments urging force in Iraq. He said the Clinton administration did all it could behind the scenes to pull France into agreement.

"It's not the first time France has been very difficult. ... " he said. "I think a lot of us are very disappointed that the French haven't joined us in a number of other efforts with respect to China, with respect to other issues in Asia and elsewhere and also in Europe. These are, this is a disappointment. But the fact is this. The president has, in effect, put military action on the table. Secretary (Richard) Cohen canceled his trip, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff canceled a trip, troops are deployed, the aircraft carriers are being brandished. There's no misunderstanding here about where the United States is prepared to go and I think that people need to just sort of back off. It's funny how in Washington inevitably there are always distinctions to be found, even if they're only at the margins here, and I would suggest that if all we're doing is suggesting that the president needs to be doing some diplomacy behind-the-scenes, that's not a bad criticism because he's obviously doing that behind the scenes."

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A Republican business owner here in this November battleground state and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had the same questions Sunday for Senator John Kerry: Which foreign leaders told you they support your campaign, and when did you meet with them?

The questions, in a volatile exchange at a forum here and in an interview on Fox News Sunday, stemmed from a comment that Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made last Monday at a Florida fund-raiser. It was the second time in recent days that stray comments by Mr. Kerry diverted attention from his themes of creating jobs and providing health insurance.

"I just want an honest answer," Cedric Brown, 52, who owns a small sign company, told Mr. Kerry.

"Were they people like Blair or were they people like the president of North Korea?" he asked, referring to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. "Why not tell us who it was? Senator, you're making yourself sound like a liar."

Mr. Brown's repeated questions came hours after Mr. Powell said on television that Mr. Kerry's vague claim to have the backing of unnamed foreign leaders was "an easy charge."

"If he feels it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names," Mr. Powell said. "If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about."

Mr. Powell also challenged Mr. Kerry's recent assertions that Mr. Powell had been undermined in foreign policy debates in the Bush administration.

"Name a specific issue where it looks like I have been marginalized," Mr. Powell said.

As his aides have all week, Mr. Kerry refused Sunday to cite any names of foreign officials or describe their rank, telling reporters, "I can't violate any conversation because no one would share something with me again."

Instead, Mr. Kerry disputed the wording of his comment, and tried to change the subject from individual leaders' specific support of his efforts to oust President Bush to a broader deterioration of the United States' international reputation.

"I think the quote, the quote in the comment I made publicly, I believe, was that I `heard from,' that's the direct quote," Mr. Kerry said. "I've likewise had meetings. I've also had conversations. I said I've heard from, that was what I believe I said."

The remark came at a breakfast with about 50 fund-raisers in Florida, after one observed that Europeans were "counting on us" to "get rid of Mr. Bush."

"I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, `You gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy,' things like that," Mr. Kerry said, according to a transcript from a reporter who attended the session.

On Sunday, Mr. Kerry said that he had not been abroad since he announced his presidential ambitions in December 2002. In Bethlehem, he told voters he had "had conversations with a number of leaders in the course of the last two years, up until the present moment," and that he had "also had friends of mine who have met with leaders, as recently as the past week I've heard from a couple."

Speaking afterward with reporters, he said the who, when and where was not the point.

"The point is that all across the world Americans and America is meeting with a new level of hostility," Mr. Kerry said, "and that there are relationships that have been broken, and everybody who follows the foreign policy of the United States understands that."

Mr. Brown said he came to the forum to confront Mr. Kerry, in part because of lingering bitterness from the Vietnam era, when as a West Point cadet he was spat on, he said, by antiwar protesters.

As many in the crowd shouted at Mr. Brown to "shut up," Mr. Kerry, a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the protests against it, calmly promised to answer all queries, no matter the tone. Then he turned the tables.

"Are you a Democrat or a Republican — what are you?" he asked. "You answer the question."

After Mr. Brown said he voted for Mr. Bush in 2000, Mr. Kerry added: "See? Democracy works both ways."

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John Kerry is campaigning for president with a very effective tool. We could call it the new American mascot—the U.S. military uniform. Sure, others have worn it before in political campaigns, General George Washington for starters. The military uniform nearly always stands for discipline, courage, and bravery, just like American Indian mascots do. Schools, colleges, and universities use Indian mascots and logos for that very reason. But it isn’t likely that American schools and colleges will ever use the image of a modern American military man as a mascot. There is too much political controversy over what he might represent, thanks to politicians. The fact of the matter is they are threatening to discredit the sacrificial, unselfish use of the military uniform.

Indian mascots never stood for confusion, uncertainty, or treachery. John Kerry has come to represent all three. Although he’s banking on his personal service in Vietnam, the fact is clear: the mere fact that a man once wore the uniform in no way proves he is above criticism. In fact, some genuine traitors have worn the uniform.

Sergeant Asan Akbar (Mark Fidel Kools), the American black Muslim convert, rolled a grenade into an officers tent over in Kuwait last Spring (2003), killing one officer and wounding 15 others. Now there’s a real patriot.

Remember John “Muhammad” Allen , another American black Muslim convert. Allen is also a Gulf War veteran, and was honorably discharged in 1994. He later decided he didn’t like America at all, and simply started shooting people on the street. Is there higher disgrace that could be rendered to the American military uniform?

Then there’s James Yee , the Chinese American-turned Muslim , a West Point graduate who served as an Army chaplain in Guantanamo Bay. He was arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason in September 2003. His trial has yet to commence, and the accusations are multiplying. Of course, the mighty patriots of Harvard have rallied to his defense. “Pluralism,” they call it. That means they want to erase the historical concept of what it means to be an American. Why, Yee is the perfect patriot for them.

The trend was recently renewed by Ken Nichols O’Keefe , the “former Marine, former American” who joined the peace movement , which tried to use human shields to block the U.S. military entry into Iraq. O’Keefe is a Gulf War veteran no less. He’s apparently declined heroics in Baghdad the second time around.

Of course, we here in Oklahoma City already had that kind of surprise. Timothy McVeigh , the man executed for the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building on April 15, 1995, was an outstanding soldier in the U.S. Army. He won the Bronze Star in the Gulf War, 1991. He returned to America and blew up 168 civilians. A “fine” military man, that McVeigh.

Indeed, wearing the American military uniform doesn’t guarantee the person wearing it loves America, understands America, or is even interested in defending America. That should be quite clear by now.

That people like John Kerry should think to conjure up images of genuine American patriotism by publicizing a very dubious military record and subsequent political activism is a sign of leftist delusion. The Left always presumes the public is ignorant and treats the public as such. John Kerry won’t make it with such tactics.

Wesley Clark didn’t get too far with his uniform, either. Everyone knew he played the international bully for NATO when he bombed the daylights out of Yugoslavia, slaughtering thousands of Serbian civilians. Well, that was all Clinton’s draconian approach to the Balkans.

Using the military uniform to validate their personal political views is the most divisive thing politicians can do. It confuses everyone, and does the worst service to the military itself, and to all the men and women actively laying their lives on the line for America: it trades personal service to the military in return for personal vindication.

Perhaps politicians who want to brandish their bravery ought to simply put on an Indian war bonnet when they speak. Indeed, the Indian warrior image has never been understood to mean anything but raw courage.

It’s worked well for lots of colleges and universities. But, if the Left is determined to remove the Indian image from schools, then American politicians should never be allowed to sport their military uniform. Why, this is potentially harmful and demeaning to real military personnel. It is psychologically crippling to their morale and unity.

The American military uniform doesn’t make a good mascot for politicians anymore. The Left has trashed it.

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Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., sparked outrage last week when he said that if Sen. John Kerry defeats President Bush in November it will be a victory for Osama bin Laden.

But a new poll shows that more than two out of three Americans think pretty much the same thing.

The Andreas McKenna Research group asked 800 registered voters last week which candidate they thought global terrorists would back in this year's election - and 60 percent said John Kerry.

Only 25 percent of those surveyed said they thought terrorists wanted to see Bush win another term.

In a bit of life imitating polling, officials in terrorist-friendly North Korea are stalling negotiations on dismantling their nuclear program, hinting that they hope to get a better deal from the U.S. if a Democrat wins in November.

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John Kerry betrayed our Prisoners of War and Missing In Action. (POW/MIAs). He betrayed our husbands, our sons, our brothers, our fathers and extended family members.

As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, he and his staff advised Hanoi's communists government how to close POW/MIA cases, with little or no regard for the truth.

In November 1992, members of the Committee, led by Senator John Kerry, traveled to Hanoi. During that visit, Sr. Col. Pham Duc Dai turned over his wartime journal supposedly detailing the ambush, death and burial of four men, from the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. Dai described how he participated in the death and burial of the four Americans.

John Kerry was exuberant in his praise of Vietnamese cooperation. Using the revelations contained in the diary, Kerry called for further U.S. trade concessions to the Vietnamese and he announced that he had gotten an accounting of four men. The problem.... Dai lied. But Kerry never retracted his praise for Vietnamese "cooperation."

On October 26, 1993, Pulitzer Prize winning author Sydney H. Schanberg wrote" "Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, in his haste to carry out his agenda of getting the While House to remove the embargo against Vietnam, has done some extraordinary things. One of his recurring feats has been to try to turn fiction into truth....."

John Kerry had one goal, to close the POW/MIA issue, and open trade with Vietnam.

Our opposition to John Kerry is not based on political motivation. We are the wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters and extended family members whose loved ones are the victims of John Kerry's rush to normalization relations with Vietnam.

The John Kerry we know, signs a report stating servicemen were left behind at the end of the Vietnam War, doesn't ask what happened to them, and rewards Vietnam for withholding the truth

John Kerry clearly demonstrated his priorities, placing trade with Vietnam over the truth about servicemen listed as Prisoner or Missing in Action. This is not a trait we want in a Commander-in-Chief.

John Kerry brought the Vietnam War into this campaign. So we say "Bring it On."

All we want is the truth and John Kerry, by his actions, has made this goal far more difficult to reach.

Therefore, it is our intent to make it far more difficult if not impossible for John Kerry to reach his goal.

Dedicated to the defeat of John F. Kerry, we are the families of American Servicemen listed as Prisoner of War or Missing in Action, left behind at the end of America's wars.

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John Kerry needs a week off. Maybe two. His voice is shot. His temper is short. And, after running an almost flawless primary campaign, he has started making beginner's mistakes.

His first gaffe came on Super Tuesday. Flush with victory, Kerry confided to a reporter for the American Urban Radio Network that he'd like to be known as the second black President (Bill Clinton being the first). Say what? The senator from Skull and Bones is a brother? Count on the GOP to have some fun with this at the expense of J-Ker.

Then on Monday, Kerry did it again. He bragged to a Fort Lauderdale audience that he is the favorite son of the international community. "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly but, boy, they look at you and say,

'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy.'"

Kerry's probably telling the truth. Anybody who has ever run for student council knows that people tend to say they're for you even if they aren't. And, of course, a lot of foreign leaders are rooting for Kerry. The question is: Why?

On Monday night, Richard Holbrooke, a Democratic foreign-policy spokesman, was challenged on CNN's Paula Zahn show to name Kerry's foreign supporters. He came up with one example: Turkey.

"When Bill Clinton left office, 65% of the Turkish people considered America their best friend," Holbrooke said. "Here is the strategic front-line state on Iraq's northern border. Today, the figure according to the latest polls is 15% or lower. There is an example of a place where our support has eroded when it is absolutely necessary."

The erosion came, of course, as a result of Bush's Iraq policy. For years, Clinton dithered about Saddam Hussein's regime but did nothing to end it. Such passivity suited the Turks, who didn't much like Saddam but did like the status quo.

Then President Bush overthrew Saddam, demonstrating that Turkey's support was not "absolutely necessary" or, in fact, necessary at all.

The war exposed Turkey's phony "strategic" importance. It also angered local Islamic fascists who hate the American Satan, opened the painful topic of Turkey's oppressed Kurdish minority and deprived Turkey of the money it was making for helping Saddam evade economic sanctions. No wonder the Turks don't like Bush. No wonder they prefer Kerry.

There are other foreign leaders who also are hoping for a Democratic victory. President Jacques Chirac of France, obviously. Perhaps Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany (although he recently crawled to the White House for a presidential photo op). Certainly the dictators of the Islamic world are rooting for Kerry. So is Haiti's ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. And, embarrassingly enough, the government of North Korea has made its preference clear.

On the other hand, Bush has his foreign friends. Tony Blair of Great Britain. The leaders of Australia, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Israel, India, Poland and Georgia. Canada's new prime minister, Paul Martin, has been courting the President. Mexico's President Vicente Fox is back on the ranch.

In fact, Kerry's Fort Lauderdale boast underlines a very uncomfortable political fact. Many of his secret admirers regard themselves as rivals or adversaries of the U.S., a point the Bush campaign has been trying to make for months.

The GOP also argues that Kerry wouldn't pursue and defend American interests without permission from the UN, the Arab League, Turkish public opinion and the editorial board of Le Monde. True or not, these perceptions are politically disastrous for the Democrats.

A rested Kerry would have known not to brag about his popularity with unnamed foreign leaders, just as he would have avoided nominating himself Soul Brother No. 2. He needs to take some time off and get a grip.

November is still eight months away.

Originally published on March 10, 2004

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Just when it looked like Senator John Kerry’s so-called Band of Brothers were unified in vouching for his leadership in Vietnam there is suddenly a lone ripple of dissent in the ranks. “What can I say?” Kerry said when told that a former crewmate had unpleasant memories of him as his commanding officer. “I’ll take nine out of ten testimonies anytime.”

Every sailor who served under Lieutenant John Kerry on Swift boats PCF-44 and PCF-94 have gushed about his poise under enemy fire. They tell stories of his rescuing a Green Beret from drowning, killing a Viet Cong sniper, and saving 42 Vietnamese civilians from starvation. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway they claim that in combat Kerry exemplified “grace under pressure.” But PCF-44 Gunner’s Mate Stephen M. Gardner—in a long telephone interview from his home in Clover, South Carolina—has a starkly different memory. “Kerry was chickensh*t,” he insists. “Whenever a firefight started he always pulled up stakes and got the hell out of Dodge.”

When writing my book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (William Morrow & Company) I interviewed all of Kerry’s crewmates—all that is, except Gardner. They came from mid-size towns scattered across America including Kankakee, Illinois, and Ames, Iowa and Columbia, South Carolina. When first approached for interviews in late 2002 these Navy veterans told me they would enthusiastically campaign for their old skipper if he ever decided to run for president; they’ve lived up to their promise. Whether it’s PCF-94’s Chief Petty Officer Del Sandusky talking about Kerry’s undaunted courage on TV campaign commercials or PCF-44’s William Zaladonis explaining how Kerry never backed down, they’ve been a united front. Nobody has campaigned harder for Kerry than his crewmates. Kerry’s surprise victories in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary were, in part, a tribute to their unshakable conviction that Kerry was a born leader.

When researching Tour of Duty some of these veterans proved extremely difficult to track down. Stephen W. Hatch, a boatswain’s mate who served under Kerry on PCF-44, proved particularly elusive. Eventually I located him in Niagara Falls, New York and he told me about his admiration for Chuck Berry guitar licks, rose tattoos and John Kerry. As my book went to press the only Swift crewmate I couldn’t locate was Gardner. A quick count in the index of Tour of Duty shows that Gardner’s name appears on a dozen different pages throughout my narrative. He also periodically appeared in Kerry’s war diaries. Still, my various inquiries to the U.S. Naval Historical Center, the Swift Boat Crew Directory and other outstanding reference outlets proved futile.

So it was with a sense of genuine relief when PCF-44’s Jim Wasser telephoned me last week with the news that Gardner had “rung him up out-of-the-blue” to discuss their shared days together in Vietnam. “It was great” Wasser told me. “You know he fought bravely in Vietnam. He is still a brother. I miss him. I would like to see him.” He then hesitated and went on. “But he has developed a strange, negative assessment of Lieutenant Kerry. It shocked me. His memory is dead wrong. He remembers things so differently.… He has some kind of weird grudge against Lieutenant Kerry.”

This was unexpected news. In Tour of Duty I portrayed the crew of PCF-44 as a true Band of Brothers—it turns out they were a Band of Brothers minus one. A disappointed Wasser gave me Gardner’s telephone numbers, reminding me that PCF-44 gunner’s mate was nicknamed “The Wild Man” by his crewmates for his hair-trigger penchant for firing M-60s into the mangrove thicket. “Let me know what you find out,” Wasser told me. “I’m having trouble understanding where he’s coming from.”

After interviewing Gardner for over an hour it essentially boils down to one word: politics. A strong supporter of President George W. Bush, Gardner is sickened by the idea of Kerry as president. “Anybody but Kerry,” he says. “I know what a disaster he’d be.” So what brought Gardner out in the open? The answer turns out to be Rush Limbaugh’s talk show.

Around the time of the South Carolina primary, Gardner heard Limbaugh say there was something fishy about Kerry’s Vietnam service but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “I was driving down the road, and I hit that [radio] button and Rush was talking about Kerry and his campaign and how something just didn’t feel right to him,” Gardner recalled, his voice full of conviction. “Something about what John Kerry did or was doing, just really didn’t set right with him. And you know I served with this guy, and the bottom line to it is; harsh as this may sound or as good as it sounds to any Democrat, out there, John Kerry is another ‘Slick Willy.’ He’s another Bill Clinton and that’s exactly what he is. And I’m telling you right now, that if John Kerry gets to be president of these United States, it’ll be a sorry day in this world for us. We can’t stand another Democrat like that in there again. We’ll get our asses in such a sling this time; we won’t be able to get out of it. And the bottom line to it is, I don’t care how much John Kerry’s changed after he moved off my boat, his initial patterns of behavior when I met him and served under him was somebody who ran from the enemy, rather than engaged it. If I’d had Rush’s 800 number, or known how to reach him, I would have called in.”

Gardner was born on January 3, 1948 in Portsmouth, Ohio. His family moved to the Lake Erie shore town of Port Clinton, Ohio when he was seven or eight years old. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. “My dad was in the navy, so I wasn’t gonna be an army ‘ground pounder,’” he recalled. “I really liked boats and hunting. Shooting things.” He attended gunnery school at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Illinois and was then sent to Swift boat school at Coronado, California, the same place where Kerry trained in August-October 1968. From there—in late 1965—Gardner was sent off to Subic Bay in the Philippines where he helped load Swift boats onto an LST and headed to Vietnam.

Over the next three years Gardner served as gunner on four different Swift boats, each with a different commanding officer. His least favorite was his last: Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kerry of PCF-44. When describing Kerry he unloads choice adjectives, “opportunist” being his favorite. His most colorful phrase is claiming that all Kerry wanted to do was “save his lily-white ass.” Up until now he has kept his resentment mostly to himself. “I’ve told a few of my friends that he was an *******,” Gardner says. “But I’m not looking to make news.”

No two men remember combat exactly the same way so Kerry has been extremely lucky that 9 out of his 10 crewmen have almost identical stories about his valor during various firefights and skirmishes. But memories can vary from person to person; Gardner insists that the Kerry he knew in Vietnam was a singularly un-heroic figure. He dismisses the glowing eyewitness accounts of his crewmates Jim Wasser (Radarman), Bill Zaladonis (Petty Officer), Drew Whitlow (Boatswain’s Mate) and Stephen Hatch (Boatswain’s Mate) as bunk. “Kerry sat some of them down and convinced them to buy into his side of what happened over there,” he explains in bizarrely conspiratorial fashion with no evidence to back him up. “When you’re as persuasive as Kerry it’s not hard to make a guy change something that he saw.”

Gardner’s first bone of contention involves an incident that took place on the morning of December 29, 1968. PCF-44 was in a small canal just off the Co Chien River. They had been probing the waterway with another Swift boat on a minor Operation SEALORDS raid and on their way back had come under enemy fire. “We went into a dangerous area that had numerous hooches and sampans,” Wasser recalled. “The enemy was thick. Once we got in the canal we took a lot of small arms fire, followed by mortar. Our adrenaline was racing; we went right back at them with all the firepower we could muster. That’s when Gardner got hit.”

As recounted in Tour of Duty by Kerry, Gardner had shouted: “There’s somebody running over there…He’s got a gun…on the port side, on the port side!” PCF-44’s crew had been firing at thatched huts on their way out of the canal, and the reports of their own guns had muffled those of the shots being fired at them. Suddenly, Gardner shrieked, “I’m hit,” and stopped firing for a moment. Before Kerry could ask his condition, Gardner shouted from his post: “I’ll be okay,” and went back to firing his two .50s.

There is a dispute between Kerry and Gardner about what happened next. Kerry insists that the engagement was over when the boats pulled out. “We didn’t leave until the mission was over and all the boats headed out together,” says Kerry. He claims that only after the firefight was over—and enemy fire had been suppressed—did he order PCF-44 to head back to a primitive base at Dong Tam so Gardner could receive medical attention from the U.S. Army’s Third Surgical Division, based in a makeshift hospital there. But Gardner asserts that Kerry was simply fleeing the firefight. “He wanted to get out of the river to save his own ass,” Gardner maintains. “I was ready to keep going.”

When told of Gardner’s criticism of Kerry’s order, all of PCF-44’s other crewmen disagreed with the tough talking South Carolinian’s assessment. “Kerry made the right command decision,” Wasser, second in command of PCF-44, maintains. “We went into a 30 or 40 yard wide canal, suppressed enemy fire and got out of there before we were killed. You just don’t hang around to get shot at. Gardner doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

Then there is Gardner’s bold claim that Kerry use to take PCF-44 four or five miles from shore every night so not to get shot at. When pressed how this could be so, since oftentimes they were 25 miles upriver, he backed down. “Okay, when we were in the rivers we didn’t go to sea,” he averred. “But he always tried to park it away from the action and hide.” The other members of PCF-44 were incredulous when they heard Gardner’s claim. To Wasser it was “erroneous to his memory,” to Zaladonis “just not true,” to Whitlow “false” and to Hatch “a falsehood.”

Which brought the interview to the crux of Gardner’s beef against Kerry. Gardner—who remembers no important dates or times or locales—claims that Kerry once threatened him with a court martial. The incident happened when Gardner, who told me he had “no trouble shooting gooks,” saw a Viet Cong guerilla with an AK-47 in a boat and started firing. “I lay the hammer down on him,” Gardner explains. “I just put a finger on the gun: boom, boom, boom, boom. He’s done. He got flipped out of the boat, he went straight down. That’s when Kerry came running out of the guntub screaming ‘ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire.’ Then he turned to me and said, ‘I ought to have you court-martialed for shooting.’ I said, ‘Hmmph…sorry big boy. When somebody brings a gun up on me I’m gonna shoot and I’ll ask questions later ‘cause I ain’t goin’ back in a body bag.’”

The hardnosed Gardner returned from Vietnam in February 1969; Kerry came home a month later. The two men haven’t spoken in nearly 35 years. Kerry has no recollection of any of Gardner’s accusations, including the threatening of a court martial. None of PCF-44’s crew trusts Gardner’s memory. Today Gardner claims he works at Millennium Services (an insurance inspection company) and is bitter about Kerry’s national prominence. At various times in our interview he complained about Kerry “running around with Hanoi Jane” after the war and having a “rich wife.” And—like Limbaugh—he is determined to convince people that Kerry is Slick Willy incarnate.

When informed of Gardner’s accusations Kerry, campaigning in Texas, simply stated they weren’t true. “He deserves respect because he served our country well,” Kerry says of Gardner. “I left the country thinking well of Gardner and even tried to find him several times. But his stories are made up. It’s sad, but that’s the way it goes in war, and especially in politics.” And then he added: “But don’t ask me. I know the guys, my other crewmates, and they’ll set the record straight.”

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Photo ops are the saving grace of many political campaigns, but Bay State Sen. John F. Kerry gaffed one recent opportunity - flouting Catholic doctrine by taking communion at a non-Catholic church.

The Democratic presidential candidate invited the press to services at the AME Charles Street Church in Roxbury Sunday. But the photos showed Kerry taking communion.

That, Catholics say, is a catechism no-no.

``Catholics should not receive communion in a Protestant church,'' said Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. ``It's standard church teaching.''

Deal Hudson, publisher of the conservative Crisis Magazine, said, ``Kerry's attempts to woo the Catholic voter with such photo ops will ultimately turn off Catholics who value sincerity and honesty above superficial and vacuous symbolism.''

Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said Kerry was merely participating in an ``ecumenical'' Christian service. ``He came at the invitation of the pastor, who invited all Christians to celebrate,'' Meehan said. ``Sen. Kerry is a Christian. He celebrated.''

Stephen Pope, a Boston College theology professor, said, ``As a matter of church law, Kerry broke the law of the church,'' but added that Kerry was in a ``no-win situation'' since taking or refusing communion would have offended someone.

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DENVER - The brother of Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards pleaded innocent Monday to a 10-year-old charge of driving under the influence and was released on $5,000 bail pending trial.

Wesley Blake Edwards was allowed to return to his home in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., said Mike Knight, spokesman for the Arapahoe County district attorney's office.

A motions hearing was scheduled for Nov. 4 and a trial for Nov. 29. As a condition of his release, Edwards was ordered not to drink alcohol or drive without a license.

Edwards, 39, an electrician, was arrested in suburban Arapahoe County on Nov. 4, 1993, on suspicion of driving under the influence, careless driving and driving without insurance. A warrant was issued Jan. 6, 1994, after he failed to appear in court.

Harvey Steinberg, a lawyer who represents Edwards, contacted the district attorney's office after North Carolina newspapers reported details of the warrant. Arrangements had been made for Blake Edwards to turn himself in.

Edwards had three misdemeanor drunken-driving convictions in 1985, 1987 and 1990 in North Carolina, and his license was permanently revoked in 1990. He spent a week in jail on one of the convictions, records show.

Edwards has been charged twice with driving without a license, most recently in August. He pleaded guilty and paid a $100 fine.

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Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic nominee John Kerry, told a reporter to 'shove it' on Sunday evening -- immediately after giving a speech calling for a more civil tone in politics.

Speaking to the Pennsylvanian delegation at the statehouse in Boston, Heinz Kerry delivered an impassioned plea against hate politics:

"We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian (WTF is un-Pennsylvanian?!?! ) and sometimes un-American (I hope she isn’t questioning peoples’ patriotism!!) traits that are coming into some of our politics."

"I remember a time when people in political parties in Pennsylvania (She does realize that she is in Boston doesn’t she?) talked to one another and actually got things done. We have to go back to those days when we can do things properly, for the (little) people need it."

"My prayers for you, for me, for the country, for the world, are that we keep this at a high level, with dignity, with respect and with a great idealism and courage that took our forefathers to build this great nation."

According to multiple sources who attended the event, Heinz Kerry upon finishing the speech pushed her way through the Secret Service to get to Pittsburgh Tribune Review reporter, Colin McNickle. Upon getting to McNickle, Heinz Kerry asks, 'Are you from the Tribune Review' McNickle says, 'Yes, I am.'

At this point and in an irritated fashion Heinz Kerry says, 'Of course, understandable. (You lowly little serf!) You said something I didn’t say. Now Shove it!'

Tape of the incident is being edited to air on Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV, and, according to a media source, ABC NEWS is set to run with it thereafter.

A witness of the incident said reporters were "stunned" by Heinz Kerry's outburst, especially in light of the speech she had just given.

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And the best part is that there is “must see” video of the entire incident!!

You can find a link to the video here . Just click on the link at the top, left of the article that says “Watch Scott Baker's Report About The Exchange.”

I’m wondering how long before she ends up going “on vacation” because the “stress of the campaign is too much”…