Clackamas County prosecutor Alfred French, who called Sen. John Kerry a liar in a political commercial, acknowledged Thursday that he lied to his boss when confronted about an extramarital affair with a colleague.This is the last time I'm going to blog about the not-so-swift boat bullshitters, unless one of them happens to get hit by an MTA bus outside of Madison Square Garden. Every single one of these dipshits involved with the liars flotilla has now been exposed for what they are.
Hours later, the Clackamas County district attorney's office said French had been placed on a 30-day paid leave while it conducts an investigation into his conduct.
French's former boss, James O'Leary, said he asked French about the rumored affair with a secretary about 10 years ago, but French denied it. O'Leary said he would have fired French if he'd admitted the relationship because it violated office policy.
French, who said he served in the same military unit with Kerry for two months in 1969, has come under intense scrutiny in the past week as the anti-Kerry ad has become a central issue in the presidential campaign. Suddenly, the well-respected Oregon prosecutor found himself the target of questions about his own credibility and the truthfulness of his statements against Kerry.
French's affidavit supporting the ad accused Kerry of exaggerating his war record, yet French conceded that he was relying on the account of war buddies, not what he witnessed. Since then, he's faced pickets outside his office and complaints of unethical conduct to the state bar.
I feel very sure that Al French is feeling very stupid for being duped into the smear campaign. Regret is a funny thing. When you have skeletons of your own to hide, you don't try to go rattling someone else's bones. And every one of the liars had their own skeletons.
But in the final analysis, it doesn't matter. Whatever damage that's been done has been done, and the meme has been established.
Maybe what this whole episode has done is simply reset the clock, and Bush gets a "do-over" after his incredibly sloppy spring and summer. We're back to even.
The good new is, TeamBush has shown the propensity over the last six months to screw up even a wet dream. They got lucky once, but I see no reason for the overall trend not to continue.
