(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Kerry, whose "botched joke" on education and the war in Iraq has sparked a national controversy, approached the families of fallen soldiers at their sons' funerals to seek their help in undermining the war on terror during his 2004 presidential campaign, according to the authors of a new book.

Catherine Moy and Melanie Morgan, authors of "American Mourning" - which examines how the death of two U.S. soldiers in Iraq affected their families - told Cybercast News Service that they consider the Massachusetts Democrat's treatment of American troops "disgusting."

One of the families Moy and Morgan discuss in their book is that of Justin Johnson from Rome, Ga., who was killed during an April 2004 ambush in Sadr City, Iraq.

"A woman - who had also lost her son in the war and who represented the local Kerry campaign - approached the Johnsons at their son's wake," Moy said. "Justin was laid out in his Army uniform as the woman began her speech about hating Bush and helping Kerry.

"She asked the Johnsons to speak out against President Bush," the author said. The family turned down the request.

Morgan said that while doing research for their book, she and Moy discovered that Kerry and liberal activist Michael Moore personally recruited family members within days of their son's deaths - and sometimes even at the funerals - to come and work for the campaign in order to undermine Bush.

"It was shocking and really offensive behavior, and that's exactly what happened to Cindy Sheehan, who we tracked down," Morgan said. "She went on the payroll of John Kerry's campaign within days after her son's death, as well as her daughter, Carly."

As chronicled in "American Mourning," Sheehan later said she was sorry that she had worked for Kerry's campaign. "I will not support a pro-war Democrat. I regret supporting John Kerry in 2004," she said. "The movement gained nothing from his candidacy."

At a campaign stop in California for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, Kerry said Monday: "Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

The following day, Kerry held a news conference in Seattle to state that his comments were a "botched joke" intended to target Bush. He accused Republicans of distorting his comment in a "classic GOP, textbook Republican campaign tactic."

On Wednesday, the authors of "American Mourning" noted in a statement released to Cybercast News Service that "Sen. Kerry's history of calling American troops in Vietnam 'baby-rapers' and murderers, and his current comments ... show that the public was right in rejecting him as unfit for the job of commander-in-chief."

"This is yet another disgusting attempt to politicize soldiers from a man with a long history of disrespecting our troops," Morgan and Moy added.

Kristen Schremp, a publicist for Morgan and Moy, said that the controversy surrounding Kerry's "botched joke" is "especially difficult for those who genuinely support our troops - such as Morgan, who spent Tuesday helping to put together two tons of coffee, Gatorade, beef jerky and cookies in individual packages to send to soldiers serving in Iraq as a 'thank you' for their sacrifices."

Repeated attempts to obtain response for this article from Sen. Kerry's office were unsuccessful at press time.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200611/POL20061101d.html

Jeez.  Can you imagine Kerry coming up to you at your son/daughter's funeral and asking you to go out and talk bad about Bush?  How would that conversation go?

There are absloutely no redeeming qualities to liberalism.

Kerry for President '08

Gore for President '08

Hillary for President '08

They are running out of candidates!!!

I hope this book has as much success as the Swift Boat Veterans' did.

I love when the truth is so bad for the candidate, it gets called a "smear job"...

Quoted: Jeez.  Can you imagine Kerry coming up to you at your son/daughter's funeral and asking you to go out and talk bad about Bush?  How would that conversation go? There are absloutely no redeeming qualities to liberalism.

I probably would have beat the living shit out of him and ended up in jail.  

What a fucking low-life scumbag.

you gotta love a good October surprise