If you think the Swiftvets are mad at Kerry.....

.....read how the Vietnamese-Americans feel about him.

On the street in Little Saigon, people take a blunter view, and refer to Kerry as a communist sympathizer.

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

Why are Vietnamese-Americans so angry with John Kerry?

AS FOR KERRY'S HANDLING of the 2001 Vietnam Human Rights Act, Nguyen says it further emboldened the communist government. "We accept democratic debate. We won almost unanimously in the House. When Kerry used his influence to squash the bill in the Senate, it was like he was thumbing his nose at us and making a mockery of the process." He says that the communist government has used Senator Kerry to make a point at home. "They make fun of America and its 'process.' They know that all they need to do is get one Senator to get what they want."

Nguyen says that the government has used the bill's defeat to enact a new crackdown on religious freedom in Vietnam. On the street in Little Saigon, people take a blunter view, and refer to Kerry as a communist sympathizer. To make it even more interesting, the community doesn't hold all its ire for Kerry. Although John McCain wasn't technically linked to Kerry or the legislation, locals suspect that he had a role in its fate, and want him to fess up.

When Tran says "almost unanimously", he is referring to the 410-1 vote in favor in the House.

The anger toward Senator McCain is interesting. He served with Kerry on the POW/MIA committee, and some of the stain from Kerry seems to have rubbed off. I'm sure his recent stand for his friend hasn't helped his popularity with this group either.

The synergy between angry American veterans and angry, first generation Vietnamese-Americans is interesting. I don't see how Kerry can get out of this mess. To suppress the Swiftvets' message he has to either directly address the charges (which my readers would know he cannot possibly succeed doing) or he has to smear the vets sufficiently to discredit them (which cannot help but anger fence-sitting vets enough to join the anti-Kerry vote), and all the while he has to try and suppress the discussion of his anti-war days, which both groups have to be salivating to bring to the fore.

This is not at all an enviable position to be in, but Kerry has no one but himself to blame. Had he been honest and stood on his anti-war record and minimized his service in Vietnam, he probably would have had an excellent chance of defeating Bush. He certainly would have energized the base of the Democratic party, and anyone he alienated wouldn't have voted for him to begin with. In typical Kerry fashion, however, he tried to be all things to all men, selling his "nuance" as wisdom.

In the end, he may be nothing but the retired husband of a wealthy socialite.