The Letter

Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane,
I ain't got time to take a fast train.
Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home,
'Cause my baby wrote me a letter.

- The Box Tops

John Kerry has written a letter but he seems to be having trouble getting it delivered. First he tried to have it delivered directly to President Bush in Texas and now he tried to get it delivered via Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Both attempts to deliver a simple letter have been failures.

First he wanted decorated veteran and triple amputee Max Cleland to deliver it directly to President Bush at Bush's Texas ranch. That attempt may have backfired on the campaign when the stunt made people recall Kerry's 1971 words about using "crippled veterans" to get media coverage. And the attempt was also a failure in that the Kerry campaign did not foresee a return letter from Bush to Kerry - which Cleland refused to take.

Some of the words from Bush's response letter seem to also cover the letter controversy as well:

You can't have it both ways. You can't build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You can't send us a letter without taking one back in return.

Now there are more antics in Massachusetts.

On Friday 10 members of Veterans for Kerry tried to hand deliver the same letter Max Cleland was unsuccessful at delivering. This time the Kerry campaign wanted the letter delivered to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney - so that Romney could hand deliver it to Bush at this week's Republican National Convention.

The Veterans for Kerry's first problem arose when they were met by Veterans for Working Senators who are protesting Kerry's less than stellar attendance record on his day job. The Veterans for Kerry were upset because this, of course, was supposed to be THEIR publicity stunt.

The Veterans for Kerry then ran into a problem because Romney wasn't at the State House (they should have called first). Darrell Crate, the state Republican Party chairman offered to accept the letter from the Veterans for Kerry but he asked that they take in return a letter from the Veterans for Working Senators which simply asked that Kerry attend more Senate sessions and you know - earn his Senate paycheck. The Veterans for Kerry failed to deliver their letter and also refused to take a letter back in exchange.

In the end - the Veterans for Kerry dropped their letter off at the State House Office for External Affairs which is about the equivalent of just dropping the letter into the nearest mailbox.

First there were the Keystone Cops and now the Kerry Postmen.

John Kerry seems to be having an awful lot of trouble delivering a letter. Good thing he's not running for Postmaster General.