So let me get this straight — Michael Moore can produce and distribure a full-length feature film that charges President Bush with a number of serious offenses pertaining to the war on terrorism, and critics call it compelling, thought-provoking, and important. Regardless of that fact that numerous factual errors have been discovered in the film, few in the media establishment have spoken out against the film. But when a group of veterans that served with John Kerry in Vietnam publish a book critical of his service, the NY Times and the rest of the media elite jump all over them. And THIS is fair and balanced?

Senator John Kerry shot back yesterday, calling those statements categorically false and branding the people behind them tools of the Bush campaign.

His decision to take on the group directly was a measure of how the group that calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has catapulted itself to the forefront of the presidential campaign. It has advanced its cause in a book, in a television advertisement and on cable news and talk radio shows, all in an attempt to discredit Mr. Kerry’s war record, a pillar of his campaign.

How the group came into existence is a story of how veterans with longstanding anger about Mr. Kerry’s antiwar statements in the early 1970’s allied themselves with Texas Republicans.