Daily Archives: November 19, 2004

An incredibly bad idea

Posted on by
Reply

2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry has been accused of having questionable judgment on certain matters. But if the following piece from The New York Post’s Page Six of November 18 is true, this would take the cake in the bad judgment department:

LIBERAL loser John Kerry might be planning to strike back at John O’Neill, the “Unfit for Command” author who claims some of the credit for Kerry’s defeat, sources say.
In the book, published by Regnery not long before the election, O’Neill ? who, like Kerry, commanded swift boats in Vietnam ? attacked Kerry’s war record and branded him a traitor.
O’Neill sold over 800,000 copies and his group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, raised $25 million to battle the Kerry campaign and ran TV ads trashing the candidate. Former Sen. Bob Dole endorsed the group.
O’Neill says he wrote the book because Kerry called his fellow Vietnam vets monsters, terrorists and war criminals, for which he has never apologized. Kerry has called O’Neill’s charges lies, though he made some of the comments in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.
“I will leave it to the professionals to decide whether we played a crucial role in defeating Kerry, but I am very satisfied,” O’Neill crowed to the London Sunday Telegraph days after George W. Bush’s victory.
The paper reported Kerry was “furious” at staffers who advised him not to fight back against O’Neill and noted that the nominee was “enraged” over the book.
Now, “the Kerry camp is thinking about filing a libel lawsuit against Regnery and O’Neill,” a source close to the candidate’s inner circle tells PAGE SIX. “I don’t know if they will actually go forward, but consideration is serious. If Kerry plans on running again in 2008 ? and I’m hearing he will ? it would make sense that he’d file the suit.”
Kerry’s rep, David Wade, said he hadn’t heard about any proposed lawsuit, but promised to look into it.
“It would be a lot smarter of Kerry to just apologize,” O’Neill told PAGE SIX. “No lawsuits are going to change the testimony he gave and the impact it had on POWs.”

This defamation lawsuit idea was actually trotted out during the Presidential campaign. “Noted” legal scholar, John Dean — the convicted felon who somehow crafted his legacy of testifying to Congress against his client (former President Richard M. Nixon) into a job as an expert legal commentator — wrote this article opining that Senator Kerry would have a pretty good defamation claim against Mr. O’Neill, who is a longtime and well-regarded Houston attorney.
An unsolicited piece of advice for Senator Kerry — if you thought that the Swift Boat Vets’ accusations were bad and things could not get any worse, then go ahead and sue John O’Neill. That will likely generate a nightmare of Biblical proportions for you. Mr. O’Neill was reasonably effective as an advocate against you during the campaign even though he was out of his element on the public stage. However, Mr. O’Neill is quite comfortable and completely in his element inside a courtroom. Trust me on that one.

The Old Ball Coach is headed to Augusta National . . . er, I mean, South Carolina

Posted on by
1

This Washington Post article confirms that former University of Florida and Washington Redskins football coach Steve Spurrier is headed to the University of South Carolina to replace Lou Holtz as football coach there. South Carolina apparently sealed the deal with Coach Spurrier — who does not allow his coaching duties to get in the way of playing golf — in the following manner:

Spurrier, 59, agreed to the deal Wednesday, after he and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, met with Holtz and South Carolina alumnus William “Hootie” Johnson at Augusta National Golf Club, where Johnson is chairman . . .
Sources close to Spurrier have said Johnson’s role at Augusta National and Spurrier’s desire to be a member at the exclusive club approximately 70 miles from Columbia, S.C., were a factor in the coach’s decision. Holtz is also a member at the club and Johnson is a former Gamecock fullback. Spurrier received a tour of the club’s facilities Wednesday.

Continental requests employee concessions

Posted on by
Reply

Houston-based Continental Airlines — one of the city’s largest employers — announced Thursday that it is asking employees for reductions in pay and benefits effective Feb. 28 of next year as a part of a plan to reduce its annual costs by half a billion dollars.
Continental expects the savings to be generated from a combination of productivity enhancements, benefits changes and wage reductions with each employee group. The cuts would be in addition to $1.1 billion in annual cost savings and revenue enhancements that Continental announced previously this year.
However, even with the cuts, Continental does not expect to return to profitability unless there is a change in the current economic conditions that are depressing the airline industry. Continental has lost about $160 million through the first three quarters of this year and will likely lose more in the fourth quarter. All airlines have been coping with a glut of seats and high fuel prices over the past year, and traditional hub-and-spoke carriers such as Continental have been facing increased competition from discount airlines such as JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. Although relatively healthy in comparison to the reeling legacy airlines, Continental is the last of the “big six” hub-and-spoke airlines to request such employee concessions after the terrorist attacks of 2001 on New York and Washington.
As a part of the plan, Continental President and Chief Operating Officer Larry Kellner agreed to cut both his base salary and annual and long-term performance compensation by 25% effective Feb. 28. Mr. Kellner will replace Gordon Bethune as chairman and CEO of Continental at the end of this year. Likewise, other top Continental management personnel will take similar reductions in compensation and benefits as a part of the plan.