And again and again
Get a clue - those Swift Boats operated in teams. If you're in the boat about 50 yards away from other boats, you get to know something about the other guys even if you're not sharing the same deck.
There's a serious hole in that logic: The five surviving members of Kerry's crew have all endorsed him. The criticisms are coming from people who didn't serve on his boat and were only nearby. What's the difference between those two groups? It's not rocket science to puzzle out that those who served directly with Kerry knew him better than those who only served nearby. The explicit theme of Kerry's pitch about his "Band of Brothers" is loyalty, and clearly Kerry earned the loyalty of those who knew him best.
If these guys are lying, then it will come out soon enough.
The story's still developing, and the new facts coming to light support the contention that "those guys"--the Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" Republican-funded PAC--are indeed lying. One of the latest items to emerge is that the doctor who claims in the ad that he knows that Kerry fudged his Purple Heart in fact isn't the doctor who treated Kerry. Typical campaign tactic: "I'm a doctor, and I know...", and the unwary will fill in the desired blank. Lying by misdirection is still lying.
It's coming out already.
Kerry deserves the opportunity to address the claims. I doubt he will, though.
Oh, he is. Usually campaign lies are crafted carefully enough to skirt the laws on libel and slander, but it seems that this time they were dumb enough to give the DNC and Kerry lawyers enough rope to be talking about injunctions and lawsuits. Maybe it's a bluff, but maybe they're confident that they can disprove the lies with evidence that would stand up in court. This is turning into a real debacle for the Bush campaign.