Pete McCloskey: "If you're a true Republican, you'll vote for Kerry."

Pete McCloskey wrote a thought-provoking piece for the San Jose Mercury News yesterday (Friday).

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Don't know who McCloskey is? The Merc says of him, "Pete McCloskey represented the San Francisco Peninsula in Congress from 1967 to 1983. He earned a Navy Cross, Silver Star and two Purple Hearts as a Marine rifle platoon leader during the Korean War."

McCloskey's column starts

Although I'm a lifelong Republican, I will vote for John Kerry on Nov. 2. The choice seems simple under traditional principles of the Republican Party.

I first met John Kerry in the spring of 1971. Each of us was just back from Vietnam -- he as a Navy officer and I as a member of Congress -- and were appalled by what we had seen there. I found Kerry to be idealistic, courageous and, above all else, truthful to a fault. He demonstrated courage in Vietnam, but as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said, the courage to speak against prevailing opinion in civil strife is often greater than that demanded on the battlefield.

[continues]

Update: Turns out the Merc links are morphing and dropping readers onto the Merc front page.

Once you're there and logged in, use http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/9627228.htm

Unfortunately, the free read expires a week after the column was published. I'll see what I can do.