Joe Conason has the skinny on Kerry antagonist O'Neill

[CatWoman]

April 23, 2004 | Houston attorney John E. O'Neill, the Navy veteran who has emerged recently as a harsh and ubiquitous critic of John Kerry's military service, tells reporters that he has never really been interested in politics and isn't motivated by partisan interests. In the media, O'Neill is often described simply as a Vietnam vet still enraged by the antiwar speeches Kerry delivered more than 30 years ago. That was when O'Neill first came to public attention as a clean-cut, pro-war protégé of the Nixon White House's highest-ranking dirty trickster (aside from the late president himself), Charles Colson.

Colson, who went to prison for Watergate crimes, saw O'Neill as a perfect foil to Kerry, whom Nixon and his aides feared as a decorated, articulate and reasonable opponent of the war and their regime. Indeed, O'Neill was perfect -- a crewcut officer who had served on the same Navy swift boat that Kerry had commanded, although their stints in the Mekong Delta didn't overlap. In June 1971, Colson brought O'Neill up to Washington for an Oval Office audience with Nixon. His impressions live on in a memo filed later:


"O'Neill went out charging like a tiger, has agreed that he will appear anytime, anywhere that we program him and was last seen walking up West Executive Avenue mumbling to himself that he had just been with the most magnificent man he had ever met in his life."

Now O'Neill has emerged from those decades of silence, roaring denunciations of the man who will become the Democratic nominee for president this summer. "I saw some war heroes," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "John Kerry is not a war hero."

To establish his nonpartisan credentials, O'Neill assured the CNN anchor that he was "never contacted" by the Bush-Cheney campaign. What he didn't mention, however, is that his law firm boasts long-standing and powerful connections with the Bush White House.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/04/23/o_neill/index.html

[hatrack]

1. Once a company suck, always a company suck

By the way, Catwoman, your kitties are BLINKING AT ME!!

SCAAAAAAAAAAAAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CatWoman]

2. Matcom and MoPaul joined forces

to "spruce" up my cats.

:D

[juajen]

9. Wow, those cats are great!!

N/T

[Elidor]

3. lol - a Nixon retread!

Were they hoping nobody would remember?

And how lame that even the incredibly credulous Blitzer failed to check him out. Wolf is as pathetic an excuse for a "journalist" as I've ever seen, and that's saying something, given the in-house competition at CNN.

[dae]

11. You're dead-on about Blitzer. BTW, Condi's gonna think you have those

WMD's by the look of that "mushroom cloud", which I think is very cool.
:kick::)

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Saw the O'Neill vs. Kerry debate on "Dick Cavett Show."

Ultimately, history proved to be rather unkind to John O'Neill's Nixonian assertions regarding the "successes" of the Vietnam War.

Seeing as we are repeating history, why not march this partisan hack out again for another slice of humble pie.

[Bozita]

17. saw it on C-SPAN in the last few weeks -- Kerry by a knockout

definitely worth a look.

[blm]

5. Heh...they've been trying to take Kerry down for over 30 years.

Some posters at other boards were propping up O'Neill's story as if it were the almighty truth. They never picked up on the fact that he was a Nixon operative and a full-fledged part of the BFEE. Didn't matter, as long as he was saying bad things about Kerry to validate their own narrow hatreds.

Wonder how they feel now.

[seabeyond]

6. good ole wolfie does his homework, again

NOT.........what a moron. no no bush didnt ask me to speak out. all on my own. no i am not repug,. not a partisan person. right wolfie, are you still a believer

[GainesT1958]

7. Why didn't they get a dirty-tricks type a lot more famous...

Like, say, Gordon Liddy? Why go through the trouble to dredge up O'Neill and bring back memories of Chuck Colson saying he'd "Walk over my grandmother to get President Nixon re-elected"?:eyes:

They didn't call his re-election committee "C.R.E.E.P." for nothing!:D

Proving once again...Karl "Chip" Rove has learned his dirty tricks lessons well, at the hands of the Dark Side masters.

B-)

[Tellurian]

8. Like water off a duck's back...

no worries here..

more like sour grapes, if this is the best they can do!

[napi21]

10. Be careful with that kind of thinking.

I've been fighting the battle over "Clinton let Bin Laden slip through his hand when he turned down the offer they made to hand him over" thing for a couple of years now, and am still not successful with some.

You gota take these media coverd announcements very seriously. Sometimes that's the one clip people hear that day, and it sticks! It's very, very hard to destroy them once they're out ther.

[Imalittleteapot]

12. When I watched the Kerry/O'Neill Dick Cavette exchange

I suggested that O'Neill was a spokesman for the Nixon agenda, one who had been trained with GOP talking points and with that nerve rattling "in your face" Republican demeanor. When I recently saw him on C-Span I had the same impression. Your Salon link cements my opinion.

I was impressed with John Kerry's composure against O'Neill in '72, just as I am impressed with him now. I don't believe there will ever be a Bush/Kerry debate.

Now, when do you suppose that the media will share O'Neill's history with the nation?

[Old and In the Way]

13. I could never understand the logic of these people.

Obviously, there was criminal activity in the conduct of the war. I am not sure you can expect a war to be run by rational rules to begin with.

What I find bizarre is that they seem to hate Kerry for being a catalyst in getting the war ended. What did they want...another 50,000 to die? 100,000? 500,000? At what point would they say enough? At what point would they join Hanoi Jane and Jonhn Kerry in denouncing the war?

I guess they think the 57,000 AMericans died for something in VietNam....but I am clueless as to what it was. Fighting Godless communism? OK, so now it's replaced by Godless capitalism.

So O'Neil and the Republican stooges are condemning Kerry's efforts to stop that senseless war and support an AWOL coward's senseless war in Iraq. Is there something wrong with this picture?

[robbedvoter]

14. Kick!

[mitchum]

15. How did O'Neill ever avoid being fragged?

That weasel seems to have been a perfect candidate.

[SayitAintSo]

18. There's still hope.....

That others can set the story straight on him.... :)

Shouldn't be too hard ...

[newsguyatl]

16. catwoman, check your box

[newsguyatl]

19. can someone PLEASE PLEASE email me the entire article?

don't currently have salon subscription...

pm me please!!

[CatWoman]

20. calm down

just sent it

:hi: