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Senator John Kerry has been comparing the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and indicating that they are very similar; his conclusion is its time to get out. Not for the first time, Kerry is dead wrong. There are indeed similarities, but — not withstanding what we read and see in the media — there are important differences as well. Let me offer a blunt appraisal. It is not regarded as polite to mention it — almost no one does — but most of the grunts in Vietnam were draftees; in Iraq, they all volunteered. On the Vietnam Memorial in Washington...

Why is it so hard to believe John Kerry? The Massachusetts senator is finally taking the anti-war position that people who know him well expected him to embrace long ago. The position is welcome, if long overdue; unfortunately, it doesn't dispel doubts about the thinking that got him to this place. Kerry now labels his 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq invasion a mistake and is calling for U.S. troop withdrawal by the end of the year. His position -- for now -- is as crisp today as it was meandering during the last presidential campaign. Had he taken such...

"This Lieberman-Lamont race is becoming exceptionally important, because it's the most high-profile of a series of clashes between two different ways of doing politics. The bear ad, and the ad man named Carter Eskew who is the consultant behind it, unwittingly reveals a lot about what's going on in both DC and in Connecticut. Looking into how Carter Eskew does business will illustrate the stakes of the Lamont-Lieberman fight. Eskew isn't just your every day ad man; he's a partner at the Glover Park Group, a high profile lobbying and communications shop in DC that includes him and ex-Clintonites such...

It was a memorable moment in modern American foreign policy. The smoke had hardly cleared from the 500-pound bombs that made a martyr of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. and Iraqi forces were arresting or killing hundreds of al Qaeda terrorists. President Bush was in Baghdad meeting with Iraq's first constitutionally elected prime minister and his coalition cabinet of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. A glimmer of light was finally beginning to shine from the other end of a long, dark Iraq tunnel. Meanwhile, back in the United States leading Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and John Kerry (Mass.), squinting into that...

snip... But in today’s Democratic Party it’s the mainstream that gets marginalized. Forty years ago, George Aiken recommended that in Vietnam America “declare victory and go home.” Today, the likes of Jack Murtha, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have come up with their own ingenious improvement: declare defeat and go home. Having voted for the war before he voted against it, Senator Kerry has now effortlessly re-twisted his pretzel of a spine: Last week, he voted to lose Iraq even though we’re winning it. Even if there’s no civil war, even if the insurgency’s leader is dead and his network...

President Bush has put forward a comprehensive vision for immigration reform that will secure our borders, strengthen interior enforcement and create a temporary worker program that is not amnesty but will provide a legal,regulated path for those seeking work in the United States. A key part of this strategy is effective worksite enforcement. Simply put, we need to give employers better tools to verify the legal status of their employees.Under the president's plan,we will provide new tools—including a tamper-proof identification card for legal foreign workers and an expanded electronic verification system that will allow employers to quickly and accurately confirm...

JOHN Kerry has joined John Murtha and other Democrats in saying he erred in voting for the liberation of Iraq. "It is essential to acknowledge that the war itself was a mistake. . . . It was wrong, and I was wrong to vote for that Iraqi war resolution," Kerry told a Democratic Party gathering in Washington this week. If the junior senator from Massachusetts truly believes that his judgment was so clouded that he sent thousands of American men and women to their deaths needlessly, then he should do the honorable thing and resign from Congress. Senators and congressmen...

Here is how we could convince our various Senators and Reps that they they are absolutely isolated from the majority of American peoples' experiences and opinions, especially regarding illegal aliens... Remember that old movie, "The Super", with Joe Pesci,... "The judge sentenced slumlord Louie Kritski to six months in his own building. He would have been better off in jail"..."Louie is a New York slum landlord who is given 120 days to repair one of his apartment blocks. The problem for Louie is that he must live in the rundown block until the repairs are complete." We could challenge our...

A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER HE LOST the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry can't get enough of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. No matter the occasion, he doesn't miss an opportunity to parade his campaign wounds, however incoherently and obsessively. Supporting an Iraqi war vet running as a Democrat for Henry Hyde's congressional seat? "I know something firsthand about the Swift Boat-style Republican attack ads of the last election -- but you don't have to take my word for it," Senator Kerry wrote in a March fundraising e-mail, on behalf of Tammy Duckworth, an amputee whom no one...

By Howie Carr Boston Herald Columnist John F. Kerry - how can we miss him when he won’t go away? A lot of people in both parties are hoping that America’s Gigolo will run for president again in 2008 rather than seek re-election to the Senate. Kerry would inevitably lose and be forced to retire to private life, after which Mama T would soon boot him out of all six of her first husband’s trust fund’s mansions. The next time we would see Kerry he’d be back to sleeping in his old Bob Brest Buick. That would be a happy...

Majority in polls puts at least as much faith in Democrats to protect the country. by James Rosen -- Bee Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, national security is no longer President Bush's trump card. With violence grinding on in Iraq, a majority of Americans have been telling pollsters in recent weeks that they trust Democrats as much or more than Bush or his Republican allies in Congress to protect the country, combat terrorism and run a sound foreign policy. "The advantage the president has had on national security is either much...

While Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John Kerry (D-MA) attempt to push a bill through the Senate that would restore voting rights for felons -- including killers, rapists and child predators -- such a law would receive a cold reception by most Americans, according to a just-released poll. And some believe Clinton and Kerry -- with the help of some news organizations -- are trying to sneak their bill under the public radar. A new poll conducted by Zogby Interactive for Associated Television News and The O'Leary Report shows that a clear majority of Americans, including blacks and Hispanics, are...

Carla Souza, 37, and son Caique, 11, were found beaten in their Framingham apartment. Frantic 911 call preceded beating deaths FRAMINGHAM -- Carla Souza dialed 911 just after 11 p.m. Saturday, asking police to rush to her Framingham apartment because of a problem with her husband, according to police. But an attacker allegedly got to her before officers did one minute later. About 90 minutes later, Souza's husband, Jeremias Bins, 30, arrived by taxi with the couple's 5-month-old boy at the police department, where Bins was arrested without resistance. The baby was given to the Department of Social Services. Yesterday,...

Sen. John Kerry on the fence . . . By Boston Herald editorial staff Saturday, May 20, 2006 Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), fresh from the ongoing Senate debate over an immigration bill, offered the following explanation of his vote in favor of 370 miles of fence at the U.S.-Mexican border (estimated cost $3 million a mile) at yesterday’s New England Council breakfast: “I voted for it because, first of all, a lot of it is the repair of the existing fence. A lot of it is just in the Arizona area, where we have the worst problem, the most numbers...

For the Senators of Massachusetts, something they can ride without causing global warming or killing anybody (else)...

EN ROUTE TO IRAQ. As I make my way to Iraq, once again, to cover the progress U.S. troops have made in rebuilding that country, I have mixed emotions. Of course, I'm pleased and honored to spend time with some of the finest young Americans our country has produced. Relating the stories of brave soldiers and Marines as they protect innocent Iraqis who will go to the polls for their third election in a year is a job a I look forward to doing. These young men and women have worked tirelessly to remove a brutal dictator from power --...

BENNINGTON, Vt. --The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled "inappropriate" and "irresponsible" an English teacher's use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz. "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin. The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed...

The senator's dynamic speech yesterday cut a sharp contrast to the image that dogged him during the 2004 presidential race. MANCHESTER - At times fiery and impassioned, always at ease, Sen. John Kerry attacked Republican leaders yesterday for not practicing the religion they preach. Appearing at a rally for Manchester Mayor Bob Baines, Kerry cut a sharp contrast to the image that dogged him during his failed 2004 bid for the presidency. He made timely jokes about the Patriots and Red Sox - this time, he got Manny Ramirez's name right - and his 15-minute speech was direct, not long-winded....

snip....." The four constitutional amendments on Tuesday's ballot in Republican-dominated Ohio would expand voting by mail, limit campaign contributions and create bipartisan boards to draw districts and oversee elections -- jobs now done by politicians. The amendments were proposed by Democratic-leaning groups. Reform Ohio Now, a coalition of union and citizens groups that backs the amendments, has raised $2 million overall in donations and services, including nearly 3,300 contributions of $500 or less from all 50 states. A third of its money, $629,750, came from People for the American Way in Washington. Many of the donations poured in after a...

PHILADELPHIA - A lawsuit filed by Teresa Heinz Kerry after her first husband, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, died in a midair collision in 1991 was settled for $15 million, according to newly unsealed court records. Last year, attorneys for The Philadelphia Inquirer sought to unseal the settlement papers when U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., ran for president; Kerry married Heinz's widow in 1995. At first, attorneys for the Heinz estate tried to prevent the Montgomery County Court records from being unsealed, citing the family's need for security and privacy. In October 2004, Montgomery County Judge Paul Tressler unsealed portions of...