Unfit for Command, or for Publication?

More Vietnamania: Today's Washington Times boasts the first of three excerpts from the anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command. A snippet:

Franke and about 200 others, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, came forth in May to question Kerry's deception. These veterans from Kerry's unit signed a petition calling on him to execute Standard Form 180 and allow the public complete access to his service record.

Swiftees have remarked that if Kerry faked even one of these awards, he owed the Navy 243 additional days in Vietnam before running for anything.

Whole thing here.

The charges are pretty incendiary. I've got no idea of whether they're true or not (Kerry's shifting story on his holiday in Cambodia suggests that past accounting of his service days leave something to be desired), or even if true, voters will care about them (or should care about them, for that matter, any more than Bush's actions during the Vietnam era).

But what seems indisputable is that we remain in a weird age where an anti-war Democrat boasts of his service in a war he protested and pro-war Republicans accuse Democrat vets of being wussies and cowards. And where Dems fret over budget deficits while GOPpers say not to worry, etc., etc., etc.