Max Cleland to take Swift Boat fight directly to the President

CNN is reporting that Max Cleland and Jim Rassmann are taking the Kerry response to the Swift Boat ads right to the President -- on his ranch doorstep.

"Vietnam veteran and former Sen. Max Cleland Wednesday plans to deliver a letter to President Bush for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, asking Bush to publicly condemn attack ads that dispute Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's combat record in Vietnam, according to a Kerry campaign adviser.

Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in the war, will be joined at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, by Lt. Jim Rassmann, a former Green Beret who recommended Kerry for the Bronze Star for risking his life to save Rassmann.

Kerry's campaign adviser said Cleland and Rassmann "will likely get turned away at the ranch.""

I thought it would be good to address this issue a bit from the political operative perspective. There have been some grumblings that the Kerry people didn't respond to the Swift Boat attacks quickly or voraciously enough. Here's likely why they responded the way that they did.

Campaigns are all about staying on message. Attacks come and attacks go. If the candidate were to respond directly to every attack made, they would spend all of their time talking about something other than why they are running for office.

In this particular case, the attack was obviously erroneous. It is likely that the Kerry folks saw it for what it was -- a meaningless distraction. That it was, until the media sunk its teeth into the story. (Someone else who knows media better than I can address why they spent so much time talking about this.)

Once the media frenzy kicks up, the campaign must respond. What better way to respond then by sending Max Cleland, a veteran who left three limbs in Vietnam, down to Texas. Why? Cleland was also attacked in a particularly obscene way in his 2002 race with Saxby Chambliss.

Read this USA Today piece from 2002. Sound familiar? And who backed Saxby Chambliss up in his obscene attacks? President George Bush.

Kerry's people were right to not respond initially to the attack, just as they are right today to send a Vietnam vet in a wheelchair down to Texas to get turned away by a man who never spent a day in combat. It's a perfect visual and it tells the public everything they need to know about both Bush and Kerry.

A man is judged by the company he keeps. Kerry went to Vietnam -- TWICE -- and his fellow veterans still stand by him today. Neither Bush nor Cheney did. That's something all Americans can understand.