Return of the magic hat

Preparing for another grab at the brass ring, John Kerry seeks to engage the claims of the Swift Boat veterans. In today’s New York Times, the “magic hat” — the hat that Kerry claims was tossed to him by the “special forces” (apparently Navy SEALS) he dropped off on his journey to Cambodia (formerly dated to Christmas Eve 1968, now to February 1969) — magically reappears. The story by Kate Zernike is “Kerry pressing Swift Boat case long after loss.”

The “magic hat” made its last appearance in Laura Blumenfeld’s June 2003 Washington Post profile of Kerry. In Blumenfeld’s piece, Kerry stated it was his “good luck hat” and that it had been given to him by “a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission to Cambodia.” Does Kerry save it to impress the lady reporters? I’d like to see him pull it on Tom Lipscomb.

The Times article is accompanied by a graphic on “Kerry’s new evidence” (below).

newevidence.jpg

Zernike doesn’t say it, but the new evidence on the mission to Cambodia almost gets Kerry there! No mention of being shot at by the Khmer Rouge, but what the heck. Over at the Democracy Project, Bruce Kesler takes an initial whack: “New York Times is full of Kerry.” Readers wanting to refresh their memory of the Christmas in Cambodia story and related contortions may usefully consult Joshua Muravchik’s “Kerry’s Cambodia whopper.”

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