This morning comes word (hat tip: Scared Monkeys) that John Kerry maybe sorta might sign his Form 180, which could make his Navy service record available to the press and public. From columnist Joan Vennochi of the the Boston Globe, in a story dated today (May 24):

“During an interview yesterday with Globe editorial writers and columnists, the former Democratic presidential nominee was asked if had signed Form SF 180, authorizing the Department of Defense to grant access to all his military records.

”I have signed it,” Kerry said. Then, he added that his staff was ‘’still going through it” and ”very, very shortly, you will have a chance to see it.”

The devil is usually in the details. With Kerry, it’s also in the dodges and digressions. After the interview, Kerry’s communications director, David Wade, was asked to clarify when Kerry signed SF 180 and when public access would be granted. Kerry drifted over to join the conversation, immediately raising the confusion level. He did not answer the question of when he signed the form or when the entire record will be made public.

Several e-mails later, Wade conveyed the following information: On Friday, May 20, Kerry obtained a copy of Form 180 and signed it. ”The next step is to send it to the Navy, which will happen in the next few days. The Navy will then send out the records,” e-mailed Wade.”

But what is the problem? Why is his staff “going through it?” Is the Form 180 as complicated as a tax return? It turns out — no. Here is a pdf of the form. It asks for identification information, dates of service, information requested. It might take two minutes to fill out.

Even if Kerry signs the form, that only means that we are on to the next battle — getting him to release the records — all of them. Notice what he told Tim Russert he would do:

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: But everything, Tim…

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will.

Sigh … the next months will be painful. “Senator, did you send the form to the National Personnel Records Center?” “Have you received the records?” “When will you release all the records?” “No, Senator Kerry, ALL the records?” “Senator Kerry ….”

[thanks for the link, Polipundit!]

Technorati Tags: John Kerry, politics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 at 11:22 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Election 2008 Live Team Coverage!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.