"IF YOU'RE A TRUE REPUBLICAN, YOU'LL VOTE FOR JOHN KERRY"

Former California Congressman and Republican Pete McCloskey has endorsed John Kerry. Read the whole thing. Then send it to all your Republican friends -- especially the ones who aren't crazy about Bush but worry about Kerry.

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.

During Kerry's public career after his election to the Senate, he has clearly grown and matured. I believe he is incapable of deliberate deceit or dissembling. This alone represents a refreshing hope for a return of public faith in our government.

That Kerry has attained the solid support of former Secretary of Defense William Perry, with whom he has worked for years on issues of nuclear proliferation, confirms his ability to study, listen and reach sound judgments.
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There are many other reasons to support John Kerry.

McCloskey, a decorated veteran of the Korean War, also has a great op-ed here: "It's time for an apology from Bush to the world."