When your own biogra…

When your own biographer calls you on your claims and says you’re not fully disclosing everything, maybe you ought to listen to him.

John Kerry’s biographer today called on the presidential candidate to release his military records and warned a Navy investigation into his medals could prove to be the “death knell” of his campaign.

In the past, Kerry has said he could not release some documents because of contractual obligations to Douglas Brinkley, author of “Tour of Duty.” Brinkley said he has no contractual claims to any of the papers.

Somebody here is either lying or misinformed. That doesn’t bode well for the candidate-biographer relationship. What else is Kerry saying that isn’t quite right?

“Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press,” he said on Steve Malzberg’s WABC New York radio show today.

Hmm, that word “clearly” doesn’t sound nuanced enough for a shades-of-gray guy like Kerry. But the real question here is, why just “some” records?

Brinkley also said that if the Navy investigation reveals deception in connection with Kerry’s medals, it could be the “death knell” for Kerry’s campaign. Professing uncertainty about what to make about the Swift Boat Vets’ claims, Brinkley said: “Right now it’s unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to.”

Just an FYI for those of you who are quick to handwave away the charges of the SBVT guys; Brinkley’s at least on the fence and not just ignoring them. This alone speaks volumes.

“Is it sloppiness, is it purposeful intent, is there an easy explanation for it?” Brinkley wondered.

If it’s sloppiness, it’s a long record of it. If it’s purposeful intent, that’s not a quality I’d like to see in my President. (Well, I wouldn’t like that kind of sloppiness, either.) If there’s an easy explanation, you would think it would have already been easily explained. This doesn’t leave Kerry with much wiggle room.

(I wonder if, when John Kerry said, “Bring it on” with respect to his Vietnam record, he thought his own biographer would do just that.)

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