Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry said yesterday that “truth is on the line” in his campaign to unseat President Bush, as he proposed a “Contract with the Middle Class” to cut their taxes and restrain government spending.
Also yesterday, Mr. Kerry’s personal doctor said the senator still has a piece of shrapnel in his left thigh from the wound that earned him the second of his three Purple Hearts during his time in the Navy in Vietnam.
Mr. Kerry, speaking at the national convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in downtown Washington, repeated his pledges to create jobs, never to be afraid to commit U.S. military forces when necessary, and to approach the international community to establish better relationships with world leaders.
Mr. Kerry said this election is the most important “of our lifetime.”
“I think truth is on the line in this election: the truth that a president shares with the American people, the truth of how we go to war, the truth of choices about our lives, the truth of how we improve our lives and deal with the issues facing our citizens,” he said. “If you don’t believe that this election is the most important in our lifetime, then all you have to do is look at the stories about the millions of middle-class families in our country who are struggling to get ahead unlike at any time in the recent modern history of our economy.”
Mr. Kerry also repeated his pledge to cut middle-class taxes while increasing levies for the top two income brackets, though he said he will not raise them above the level they were at the end of the Clinton administration.
He promised to cut government spending, though he would not specify the level at which the spending should grow, saying “it would be dangerous to do that” because the future might dictate more spending.
Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign yesterday released a review of 35 pages of medical records from the senator’s time in Vietnam by Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, who has treated Mr. Kerry for the past 18 years.
Facing questions about the circumstances surrounding his three Purple Hearts, his Bronze Star and his Silver Star, earned in four months of combat, Mr. Kerry released his military records earlier this week.
The senator’s campaign said the Navy did not send Mr. Kerry’s medical records with the rest of his service records, so Mr. Kerry had his doctor release the review based on copies of personal records. The 35 pages also were made available yesterday for 30 minutes to reporters who are traveling every day with Mr. Kerry.
But the review doesn’t clear up the discrepancy between Mr. Kerry’s Personnel Casualty Report and the citation for his Bronze Star, based on action from March 13, 1969, in which he earned his third Purple Heart. The Bronze Star citation described “his arm bleeding and in pain,” but the casualty report and Dr. Doyle’s review only list bruises.
“His exam at that time revealed localized bruising of his right medial forearm and of his buttock from the shrapnel with some localized bruising. An x-ray of his forearm did not reveal evidence of fracture,” Dr. Doyle wrote. “He was treated with a tetanus shot, topical dressing and an Ace bandage and advised to apply warm soaks to his right forearm.”
Dr. Doyle said the bruise on Mr. Kerry’s forearm came from being thrown against a bulkhead.
Michael Meehan, senior adviser to the campaign, said Mr. Kerry was treated aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter three hours after the wound and that this could explain why bleeding was not detailed in the report.
“I don’t imagine in three hours of traveling to the medical boat someone wouldn’t have treated any bleeding that would have happened, and by the time he got to the medical boat, he might not have required treatment any longer,” Mr. Meehan said.
In his speech yesterday, Mr. Kerry referred to Vietnam as the time during which he learned “much of what I know about being an American.”
Mr. Kerry also blasted the 1994 Republican “Contract with America” that helped the party win control of the House and Senate that year.
The contract included a pledge to reform some of the rules under which Congress operated, including the use of voting by proxy, and set forth a series of legislation that Republicans pledged to pass, including a child tax credit, a pledge not to allow the United Nations to command U.S. troops, Social Security reforms and term limits.
“This wasn’t a contract ’with’ America, it was a contract against our values and even our way of life as you would describe it, the way that we built the nation,” Mr. Kerry said. “Behind the slogans and behind the rhetoric was an effort to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans.”
He said it led to Republicans shutting down the government “in order to impose their extreme agenda on the nation,” and that he was proud to oppose it.
The comments left Republicans bristling.
“Which parts does he disagree with? Doing away with proxy voting, so he couldn’t take long lunches at the Monocle?” asked Jonathan Grella, spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, referring to a restaurant popular with lawmakers and lobbyists. “Or opposing tax increases, so he can better afford lunches at the Monocle?
“Kerry’s claims are as phony as the tan he sported on ’Meet the Press’ last Sunday,” Mr. Grella said. “He’s free to change his own positions, but not ours.”
Steve Schmidt, spokesman for the Bush re-election campaign, said Mr. Kerry’s speech “was preposterous.”
“His campaign rhetoric is completely disconnected from the reality of his voting record,” Mr. Schmidt said.
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