ABC News, in a rare …

ABC News, in a rare jab at a Democrat, has found video showing that Vietnam vet John Kerry made statements about throwing away his medals that presidential candidate John Kerry later contradicted by saying he only threw away his corresponding ribbons.

“I gave back, I can’t remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals,” Kerry said in an interview on a Washington, D.C., news program on WRC-TV called Viewpoints on Nov. 6, 1971, according to a tape obtained by ABCNEWS.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Kerry has denied that he threw away any of his medals during an anti-war protest in April 1971.

So the stage is set. Kerry is on tape saying one thing in 1971, and has been saying something else during this campaign. Let’s see how this guy handles the situation; does he come clean, or dissemble?

Calling it a “phony controversy” instigated by the Republican party, Kerry said on Good Morning America today that he has always accurately said what took place. “I threw my ribbons. I didn’t have my medals. It is very simple.”

There’s your answer. Rule #1 when you find yourself in a hole is “stop digging”, but Mr. Kerry continues to shovel.

He also said he – and the military – didn’t make a distinction between medals and ribbons. “We threw away the symbols of what our country gave us for what we had gone through,” he said.

You see, it all depends on the meaning of the word “medal”. Now where have we heard this before?

But in 1984, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, Kerry revealed he still had his medals. According to a Boston Globe report on April 15, 1984, union officials had expressed uneasiness with Kerry’s candidacy because he had thrown his medals away. Kerry acknowledged the medals he threw away were, in fact, another soldier’s medals. He reportedly invited a union official home to personally inspect his Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, awarded for his combat duty as a Navy lieutenant.

In the 1971 Viewpoints interview, he made no mention of the ribbons or the medals belonging to another veteran.

Finally, when it became politically expedient to change his story, he did.

Frankly whether he threw his medals away or the ribbons is, to me, immaterial. What is material in this whole thing is how Kerry handles himself in these kinds of situations. If you want to be lied to like Bill Clinton did to your face, Kerry’s your man. If you want a guy who’ll blame Republicans in any controversy, even when it’s generated by his own words, Kerry’s your man. If you want a man who say that he’s both proud of his military service, yet disgusted by it, Kerry’s your man. If you want another President who’s driven by the shifting winds of political expedience and focus groups, Kerry’s your man.

That’s not the kind of city councilman I want, let alone President.

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