I already went through this one, somewhat naseously, but Mike Gravel’s 1968 Senate campaign was a lie.  So, here’s a transcript of an NPR “All Things Considered” profile on Gravel and 1968.

Mr. GRAVEL (in 1968): The proposal that the United States leave

Vietnam unilaterally is an unsound one and I think a very immature

one.   

KASTE (NPR): The thing is, even as he was making these ads, Gravel

privately shared Gruening's dovish position on Vietnam. He was 

simply telling Alaska voters what they wanted to hear.   

Mr. GRAVEL: I said what I said back in 1968 because it was 

to advance my career.   

KASTE: It worked. Gravel beat Ernest Gruening in the primary

and won the Senate seat in the fall. Since then, he's been 

quite frank about how he passed Gruening on the right. But 

what's important, he says, is what he did with the Senate 

seat after he won.   

Mr. GRAVEL: I now become opposed to the war, as vigorously as 

Ernest Gruening was. I released the Pentagon Papers in my efforts. 

So, there you go.  The Mike Gravel campaign worker who posted a comment here more than half a year ago was correct.  It is indeed outrageous to say he would have been voting to fund the Vietnam War right up to 1968.  That statement was based on his campaign, and it the fabled Oscam’s Razor has always suggested simply that he was lying — or that would be one Hell of an epiphany.  This is the first time I have encountered Mike Gravel acknowledge this fraud in his little presidential campaign, but I guess that this may be have been the first time a news outlet had it under their purview to cover it.

Oh well.  Progress in politcs sometimes works off of duplicity.

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