Steve Gardner of Clover, S.C., who spent more than two months with Kerry as a gunner's mate, said: "I think John Kerry was an opportunist. And he was very ineffectual. He did everything in his own best interest. He was always carrying a little notebook with him. I assume it was his diaries. He was very aloof and disdainful of people under him."

'This Guy Who Betrayed Us'

Bud Day, 79, a major who spent six years in the horrific "Hanoi Hilton" as John McCain's cellmate, noted: "Kerry betrayed us by telling the people we were committing atrocities. A man who does that is not fit to lead. It's impossible to let this man masquerade as a war hero and someone who has leadership. To imagine this guy who betrayed us becoming president and him being the leader of our armed forces is just unthinkable."

At their bittersweet meeting in Washington, which included a dinner Friday attended by Pickens, the war heroes taped their eighth TV commercial exposing Kerry's lack of character. At times tearful, they also broke into choruses of "Row, row, row your boat," the Times reported.

Ironic, considering that these truth tellers, who hope to raise and spend $5 million more by Election Day, are making life anything but a dream for the would-be "next JFK" who betrayed them.

Editor's note: