Perhaps no recent political episode openly displayed the blatant dishonesty of political campaigns that the Swiftboat Veterans campaign to expose John Kerry's Vietnam shenanigans and CBS News abortive attempt to declare George W. Bush AWOL from the National Guard.

CBS News was caught collaborating with the Kerry campaign and perpetrating a fraud on the American public. The evidence was so overwhelming, it ended Dan Rather's career. In spite of this, many of the left still believe unquestionably that Bush was indeed AWOL--such is the nature of quasi-religious faith.

On the other hand, the Swiftboat Veterans built a compelling case, both on the internet and with the publication "Unfit for Command", that Kerry had seriously misrepresented his service in Vietnam. I was blogging at the time and read everything on their website, and then read the book. It was a devastating indictment, ironically, considering the Killian memo fiasco, because it was so well-documented and witnessed.

The Kerry-cheering section in the media was at a complete loss--unable to refute the charges, they blamed the campaign for not giving them anything to work with. I recall an especially lame attempt by Chris Wallace to discredit a Swiftboat veteran he was interviewing. His eagerness and the pathetic quality of his refutation were disturbing.

Its unknown what effect the Killian memo scandal and the Swiftboat vets had on the outcome of the election, but the left always resents Republicans for actually fighting the election instead of just rolling over and playing dead. Old-line Democrats had long come to expect a sympathetic media culture to cover for them, to bury the inconvenient and ugly truths and to help in creating felicitous public images (i.e. Hillary Clinton is so-o-o-o experienced....).

Unable to deal with the substance of the Swiftboat veteran's accusations, the media in particular has taken to foisting a logical fallacy on the public--equivocating between the exposure of John Kerry as a fraud, and the kind of character assassination attempted by CBS news.

As usual, the left accuses the right of its own crimes and sins, that what should have been "Rathering" has become "Swift-boating" instead.

As an epilogue to this sad tale, Beldarblog has noted that John Kerry has not sought legal redress to clear his name, as is his right.

When I first brought it to his attention in September 2005, I reminded Sen. John F. Kerry that — based on the publication date on or about August 25, 2004, of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry by John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi — Sen. Kerry had already allowed the one-year statutes of limitations for defamation to expire in Texas (where Mr. O'Neill resides), New Jersey (where Dr. Corsi resides), and the District of Columbia (where their publisher Regnery Publishing, Inc. has its principal place of business and Sen. Kerry has his own regular place of business).

But as I noted then, Sen. Kerry's home state of Massachusetts has a very unusual, extremely generous and pro-plaintiff three-year limitations period for defamation claims. Massachusetts' three-year statute of limitations for defamation claims made it the very last feasible venue in which Sen. Kerry conceivably could file suit and gain his public vindication, if the SwiftVets' allegations about him were false. Those claims were certainly, indeed deliberately, injurious to his reputation; his damages arguably include the loss of the 2004 presidential election, however that might be valued in dollars and cents; and if John Kerry could hope to find a home-town advantage anywhere, surely it would be there. But now he's let the incredibly generous Massachusetts statute of limitations run out, too.

I am not surprised. A trial would have brought out the facts and forever established the Swiftboat Veteran's credibility--better to let that sleeping dog lie and let media Ad Hominem work to characterize John Kerry as a victim of the right-wing noise machine.