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Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) Monday said a deal to cut the federal deficit fell apart because Republicans refused to raise taxes, and said the issue would be the defining debate for Congress as the country heads toward the 2012 elections. "America is stuck with the absolute rigidity of people who wanted to protect the wealthiest people in the country instead of providing $1.2 trillion of deficit reduction," Kerry said in impassioned remarks hours after the congressional panel announced it had failed to reach a deal. "That's the fight we have to take out to the country over the course...

<p>May 6, 2004 -- IT was bizarre yesterday to hear John Kerry criticize President Bush over the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal, considering Kerry publicly confessed to committing war "atrocities" when he served in Vietnam. "Yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers," Kerry told "Meet the Press" in 1971, ticking off "free-fire zones" and burning villages in violation of the Geneva Convention.</p>

I don't care if John F. Kerry threw his medals -- or ribbons -- or ribbons and medals -- over a fence in Washington to protest the Vietnam War 33 years ago. What matters more to me is Kerry's response now to questions about what he did back then. I am not impressed. I watched ABC newsman Charlie Gibson interview Kerry on "Good Morning America" this morning. Ignoring the subject matter -- whether Kerry tossed his ribbons or his medals at a 1971 anti-war protest -- I gathered the following: -- Kerry is a man who speaks before he listens....

Let's see if I can kick this off. During the promo at the beginning of the show, where he was standing by live in West Virginia, and throughout the interview itself, Kerry tried hard to keep this huge "what me worry?" smile plastered on his face. He coupled it with numerous condescending head shakes that seemed to imply "these poor benighted fools who so miserably misunderstand the greatness that is John Kerry."

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John Forbes Kerry The Most Peculiar Man in the Senate (excerpts) John Forbes Kerry, the new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has accused America's soldiers of rape, torture, and genocide: he has worked openly with Communist dictators, and, he sought $200 billion in defense cuts. Boston Herald columnist Don Feder reported that before the 1984 election, John Kerry had been a stalwart apologist for the North Vietnamese and advocated policies guaranteed to assure a Communist victory. He slandered his country and all Americans who fought in Vietnam. While charging that U.S. soldiers were war criminals, he had nothing...