Oct 31 2006
Kerry’s remarks
Republicans are:
A) Incredibly stupid
B) Desperate to latch onto any remark and try to distort and spin it to their advantage
C) Both A and B
The correct answer is, of course, C.
John Kerry was in California yesterday. The New York Times reports:
The senator, who was campaigning for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides, opened with several one-liners, joking at one point that President Bush had lived in Texas but now “lives in a state of denial.â€
Then, Mr. Kerry said: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, 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.â€
Any person of average intelligence reading those remarks would know that Senator Kerry was referring to George W. Bush and not to our troops now serving in Iraq. I know the people who heard them live understood their meaning.
The Republicans, however, desperate as they are to grab any straw as their ship goes down, decided they would get all huffy, puffy and indignant and claim that Kerry was attacking the troops. Think about that for a moment. How stupid would Kerry have to be to say what the Republicans are saying he said, eight days before an election?
The Senator responded today:
But if anyone should apologize, Mr. Kerry said, it is President Bush and his administration officials who started the ill-conceived war. He said his remarks had been distorted and called the criticism directed at him the work of “assorted right-wing nut jobs and right-wing talk show hosts.â€
“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy,†Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.â€
“I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq,†Mr. Kerry went on. “It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.â€
At a televised news conference today in Seattle, Mr. Kerry said he was “disgusted†by the Republican attacks, which he noted were coming at the end of a bloody month in Iraq. “Sadly, this is the best this administration can do,†he said.
I am not a huge fan of John F. Kerry. He was my last choice to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004. I supported him because he was the Democratic presidential nominee. If, by some fluke, he is nominated in 2008, I will support him for the same reason. I am not posting about this little war of words so much to come to the defense of Mr. Kerry as I am in astonishment at the stupidity, ignorance and desperation being displayed here by some people very high up in the Republican Party. Is it any wonder they have shown themselves to be such utter failures at governing?
James Joyner sums it up rather nicely:
It’s almost axiomatic that people who spend a lot of time trying to convince you of how clever they are aren’t very clever.
Update: The rightie blogosphere is passing around this video. It’s ten seconds long. Ten seconds! Someone call Guinness. This has to be the shortest political speech on record. I guess when you’re desperate you’ll grab at any straw, no matter how ridiculous.
Update #2: Now even the Idiot in Chief is getting involved…
Bush, campaigning later in Georgia, said Kerry’s statement was “insulting and it is shameful.”
“The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology,” Bush said during an appearance for a former GOP congressman, Mac Collins, who is trying to oust Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall. (link)
Yes, Mr. Bush, the members of the U.S. military are plenty smart and plenty brave. They are certainly smarter and braver than you. They, like John Kerry and unlike you, are fulfilling the military obligation for which they signed up.
You would think that the one person who would recognize the insult for what it was would the person for whom it was intended. Nope. He’s either too stupid or, like others in his doomed political party, is grasping for straws. My guess is about 50/50.
4 Responses to “Kerry’s remarks”
When I first saw the video it was not immediately clear to me that he was talking about Bush. In fact, Bush is not “stuck in Iraq,” the troops are, as your party has been so quick to point out for the last 4 years. So why all of a sudden is it not the troops stuck, but Bush?
You add this to Kerry’s previous comments about our troops in Iraq terrorizing women and children, troops in Vietnam being baby killers and whatnot…and you have an anti-military viewpoint that can be seen by all. Look, he said it, he meant it, and now he is trying to cover it up. I know you want to defend him because he has a (D) next to his name but come on, at some point you have to be honest at least to yourself.
And I know you want to condemn him because he has a (D) next to his name, but c’mon… apply just a little common sense. The man has been a United States Senator for how many years? He has been his party’s presidential candidate. And he’s going to make a speech in which he says only uneducated people join the military?
I was around while Vietnam was happening. I watched it on the news every night. I know what our troops did there. A lot is going to come out about what is happening in Iraq right now. That’s war. It isn’t pretty. You don’t send a bunch of 19 and 20 year old kids into situations like that and expect them to act like choir boys. It just isn’t going to happen.
Truthfully, yes… Bush is “stuck in Iraq.” He got us there, and now he’s stuck. So are we. It’s going to take a long time for this country to recover from his presidency. And it’s not going to happen until a lot of people, like yourself, start facing up to some reality and stop throwing your partisan arrows at every opportunity. Sorry to be so rough, Kevin, but that’s just the way it is.
Thanks for dropping by, and for your comment.
This is not the first time Kerry has gotten his words mixed up. In any event, in reading what he was actually suppose to say it is clear how he got his words mixed up. I do not think this will have much impact on the upcoming election but I’m sure the Republicans will spin this one to death. Anyways, hopefully both sides can move on.
[...] Related Blog Posts: Fly At Night » Blog Archive » Education or Iraq? Senator Kerry Tells Us What He Thinks Of The Troops! Web page unavailable while offline Stop The ACLU » Blog Archive » John Kerry On America’s Military Uneducated and Lazy California Conservative » John Kerry Was For the Botched Joke Before He Was Againt It Thoughts By Seawitch » John Forbes Kerry - Shameless esoterically.net/weblog » Blog Archive » Kerry’s remarks Lone Star Times » John Kerry Swift Boats himself Texas Rainmaker Freedom Defended » Blog Archive » John Kerry - Unbelievable at The Premise Tail over Tea Kettle netwmd.com - The War to Mobilize Democracy » Blog Archive » John Kerry’s Bigotry Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » The New York Times And An Outright Lie Viva La Blog » John Kerry’s Non-Apology Apology Kerry Insults Troops, Refuses to Apologize, Flip-flops at DPRK Studies Mark Levin Fan » Blog Archive » At the NY Times, it is all about the ‘E’ FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » John Kerry Watch: Kerry WARNS Students - Educate Yourselves or You’ll Get Stuck in Iraq Talk Radio-Radio Talk Show-ZTLK Radio » White House Spokesman Slams Kerry Remark Web page unavailable while offline20 Y.A.C.R.W.B - Yet Another Conservative, Right Wing Blog » John Kerry: Supports Our Troops? » John Kerry, clueless. » The Redhawk Review Minnesota Democrats Exposed John Kerry Is *WAY* Smarter Than You at ArtLindsey.com Toys in the Attic » Blog Archive » At some point it becomes a pattern, doesn’t it? John Kerry Thinks You’re Stupid… | chez Diva » John Kerry suffers foot and mouth disease » Leaning Straight Up def Sparse(Matrix): » Blog Archive » Turning Point? Webloggin - Blog Archive » Deciphering John Kerry Sister Toldjah » And this man could have been president, part 2: How John Kerry “supports the troops†Gun Toting Liberal » Blog Archive » Both barrels blazing: Senator John Kerry blasts President Bush, Tony Snow, Senator McCain, Rush Limbaugh; makes no apologies for remarks Annie Mayhem dangerousmeta! » Blog Archive » Washington Post Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » My Plea To John Kerry: Please, Please Run (In 2008, 2012, 2016)… John Kerry: Get An Education or Get Stuck in Iraq » Outside The Beltway | OTB By Brian, November 2, 2006, 3:14 pm o’clock [...]