Sometimes curiosity leads to interesting discoveries. My curiosity has recently lead me to find very interesting things about John Kerry.

Based on the way he’s lead his campaign, lugging along with him former veterans who served with him as shiny trophies meant to awe followers and support the image that Kerry is a war hero. While hearing the phrase “band of brothers” over and over again, you’d think John Kerry is one who never forgets friends of the past – particular those he served with.

Well, he has forgotten on friend in particular. A friend he did serve with.

Former Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis.

John Kerry served as Michael Dukakis’s Lieutenant Governor for two years.

But you wouldn’t know that by checking out John Kerry’s campaign website.

A search on Kerry’s website for the term ‘Lieutenant Governor’ and ‘Dukakis’ reveals a deliberate effort by the Kerry campaign to distance himself from the former Governor of Massachusetts and unsuccessful presidential candidate. The only query result I could find was one where the Kerry campaign quotes current Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Kerry Healey, who said in her poorly delivered speech, “John Kerry doesn’t like to talk about serving as Michael Dukakis’s lieutenant. And for good reason. Why would he want to remind voters of Dukakis’ legacy of skyrocketing taxes, high unemployment and a plummeting economy?”

The truth is – and Kerry’s own website confirms this – John Kerry has been careful to not connect himself to Michael Dukakis. Even though over a year ago, while Howard Dean was the candidate-du-jour Michael Dukakis was speaking out on behalf of Kerry, saying even way back then that John Kerry would have the best chance of all the contenders at that point of beating George W. Bush on election day.

So much for gratitude.

Michael Dukakis has also made four contributions to Kerry’s presidential campaign, totaling $2,000 – the legal maximum. The earliest of these contributions was for $750, in early September of 2003. Dukakis also donated $1,000 to Kerry’s Senate campaign back in June of 2003.

So much for gratitude.

John Kerry served with Michael Dukakis for two years as his Lieutenant Governor – that’s a lot longer than the four months he spent in Vietnam.

So much for loyalty.

John Kerry fails to mention Dukakis on his biography page as well, where it is stated “John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1982.” But whose Lieutenant Governor? We know, but John Kerry doesn’t want you to know. To be fair, there was a politician he did serve with and chose to name only a few paragraphs later:

As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, he worked closely with John McCain to learn the truth about American soldiers missing in Vietnam and to normalize relations with that country.

John McCain. You’ve heard that name from John Kerry before.

That’s quite a way to show appreciation isn’t it?

Interestingly enough, John Kerry has brought in someone else connected to Dukakis, John Sasso, Dukakis’s former presidential campaign manager. Sasso, by the way, only donated to John Kerry after Kerry’s victories in the primaries.

But where’s the Duke?

Why is it that Kerry is avoiding Dukakis like the plague? Dukakis only failed miserably to beat George W. Bush’s father George H.W. Bush for President, and no Democrat has been elected as governor of Massachusetts since Dukakis raised taxes during a recession… No big deal right?

There’s more. Plenty more. The two years Kerry served as Dukakis’s Lieutenant Governor will tell you a lot more about Kerry than his four months in Vietnam.

John Kerry won’t touch those two years with a ten-foot pole. But we will… You can count on it.

Looks like John Kerry’s stunt Thursday night did not sit well with John McCain:

John McCain tried Saturday to play peacemaker again. The Republican said Democrat John Kerry was “unfair” when he criticized the GOP ticket as “unfit to lead the nation” and when he suggested that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney avoided serving in Vietnam.

“John Kerry’s characterization that the president is unfit for duty is unfair,” said McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona. “I categorically reject that just as I categorically reject allegations that Senator Kerry didn’t serve honorably.”

Of course, this time the Kerry campaign is going to ignore McCain’s criticisms and continue their attacks:

Stephanie Cutter, a Kerry spokeswoman, stuck by Kerry’s comments. “We agree with Senator McCain that the debate should not be about what happened 35 years ago, it should be about the state of the country today,” she said. “Because of the way George Bush and Dick Cheney misled this nation into war, they are unfit to lead the country for another four years.”

Not only did John Kerry put words into Cheney’s mouth during his midnight rally, but he once again asserted that his own service in Vietnam somehow makes him qualified to be President.

“The Vice-President called me unfit for office last night,” Mr Kerry told the rally in Springfield, Ohio, with his running mate, John Edwards, beside him. “I’m going to leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments [obtained by Mr Cheney over Vietnam] make someone more qualified than two tours of duty.”

Many Democrats were delighted at the counter-offensive, having grown increasingly impatient with Mr Kerry’s passivity in the face of the attacks on his military record, amid the fear that the political initiative was slipping from him. But Republicans claimed that Mr Kerry was playing into their hands, expending time and energy to deal with a peripheral issue.

And that he has. Even though John McCain has said the debate over Vietnam service is “a distraction” from real issues like the war on terror, Kerry is still trying to make this election about the wrong war.

I have made it through a week of blogging at the Republican National Convention. Click here for a complete roundup of my coverage..

One story that I didn’t not get to bite on while I was in New York was the ridiculously taken out of context quote by Bush on the war on terror.