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On Good Morning America today, Kerry responded:
GIBSON: 1984, senator, to the present. you have said a number of times, as brian pointed out as recently as friday with the “”los angeles times,”” have you said a number of times that you did not throw away the vietnam medals themselves. but now this interview from 1971 shows up the in which you say that was the medals themselves that were thrown away.KERRY: no, i don’t.
GIBSON: can you explain?
KERRY: absolutely. that’s absolutely incorrect. ...i stood up in front of the country, reached into my shirt, visibly for the nation to see, and took the ribbons off my chest, said a few words and threw them over the fence.
...GIBSON: senator, i was there 33 years ago and i saw you throw medals over the fence and we didn’t find out until later –
KERRY: no, you didn’t see me throw th. charlie, charlie, you are wrong. that’s not what happened. i threw my ribbons across.
...GIBSON: the military makes no distinction between ribbons and medals but you are the one who made the distinction. in 1984—
KERRY: no . we made no distinction back then, charlie. we made no distinction.
...GIBSON: you called them and you made the distinction and said i didn’t throw my medals away. i just threw the ribbons away. you made the distinction.
KERRY: ...i took my ribbons off my chest just as other veterans did.
...GIBSON: when trying to appeal to the anti-war people in 1971, you said as in that interview, it was the medals and then when the people who supported the war were giving you political problems, you then said i didn’t throw the medals away 13 years later.
KERRY: that’s the most—with all due respect, that’s the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. because i stood up in front of the country, in front of cameras, a reporter of the “”boston globe”” got it correct . he wrote about the medals but knew they were my ribbons.
Okay, so to summarize, he didn’t throw medals, he threw ribbons, which was the same as medals at the time, but is a totally different thing from medals today, such that at the time he could say he was throwing medals, and today, he can deny throwing medals.
It reminds me of Clinton’s statement questioning what the definition of the word “is” is. Kerry is saying that the word “medals” referred to ribbons when he wanted it to refer to ribbons, and that it no longer refers to ribbons now that he doesn’t want it to refer to ribbons.
Read the whole thing. You can see this nonsense is even making Kerry uncomfortable. It reminds of me of the speech made by Peter Lorre in THE MALTESE FALCON about the cover story Sam Spade had given him to tell to the police. I recall the speech as being something along these lines: “I wish you had told them something more reasonable. I felt distinctly ridiculous repeating it all night.”
