Despite the partisan media's claims to the contrary, John Kerry has not successfully refuted "almost all the Swiftees' charges." Though he has attempted to dodge the bullets, he has been deeply wounded by them.

 Instead of responding factually to the charges, Kerry and his defenders have:

  -- personally attacked the Swiftees and reportedly hired private investigators to look for dirt on them;

  -- mischaracterized Swiftee John O'Neill as a Nixon dirty trickster;

  -- reiterated their lies about President Bush's Air National Guard service;

  -- filed complaints with the FEC to muzzle the Swiftees;

  -- pressured media outlets not to run the Swiftees' ads;

  -- whined about coordination between the Swiftees and the Bush campaign because attorney Ben Ginsberg advised both;

  -- gloated when Ginsberg resigned from representing the Bush campaign, saying it proved there had been coordination all along, though Ginsberg denies any coordination;

  -- refused to insist that their similarly situated lawyers or operatives Robert Bauer, Jim Jordan, Joe Sandler and Zack Exley -- sever their ties as well;

  -- theatrically dispatched former Senator Max Cleland to the Bush ranch with a letter imploring the president to urge the Swiftees, over whom the president genuinely has no control, to cease and desist.

  -- called other veterans to pressure them into supporting Kerry;

  -- invoked the only sacred Republican name among Democrats, John McCain. (Bob Dole lost similar status this week when nobly standing up for the Swiftees.)

  -- suppressed John Kerry's shameful, America-trashing book "The New Soldier," refusing to allow it to be reprinted;

  -- said, dishonestly, that the Swiftees keep changing their stories; Continued...