Ditto That

I'll join with Kos - some of whose remarks appear below - and others in being sick to death of hearing Bush and Company try to smear Kerry's military record when the Bush Administration - save for Colin Powell and a few others - is replete with people who used every advantage possible to avoid service.

Funny how the GOP attack machine is going after Kerry's military record attempting to pull another Max Cleland. They are not only chickenhawks, but dammit, they will do what they must to smear those who actually did make real sacrifices for their country.
But if the GOP wants a comparison, then a comparison they'll get. The comparison below is culled from a DNC report about to be released on their site comparing the Bush and Kerry service records:

While at Yale

Kerry
Enlisted in the US Naval Reserves. Feb. 18, 1966
Bush
Bush received student deferments until June 1968; that year marked the height of the Vietnam draft. [Washington Post, 7/28/99]

Applied for spot in Texas Air National Guard in January of 1968, before graduation. Before he graduated, Bush personally visited Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt -- the commander of the Texas Air National Guard -- to talk about the Guard.

After Bush met with Staudt, he applied and was quickly accepted -- despite a waiting list of over 150 applicants.

Contrary to Bush's denials of special treatment, it was later disclosed that a personal friend of Bush's father had secured the spot in the Guard for Bush.

Bush later acknowledges he entered Guard to avoid going to Vietnam: "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." [Houston Chronicle, 5/8/94]