Kennedy's remarks about war motivations hit a new low

suntimes.com ^ | October 18, 2003 | THOMAS ROESER

[jmstein7]

Is Sen. Edward Kennedy the Joe McCarthy of today? Yes, but -- But in my estimation, the comparison does a disservice to McCarthy. McCarthy insisted more communists than Alger Hiss had infiltrated the government but couldn't effectively prove it. We now know in retrospect that there was the basic undercurrent of truth in the Wisconsin senator's charges.

But last month, by ignoring the written and spoken record, Kennedy trashed the truth in attacking President Bush on the issue of Iraq. On Sept. 18, the senator said: ''There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. The whole thing was a fraud.'' Later he said, ''The tragedy is that our troops are paying with their lives because their commander in chief let them down.''

Only one member of Congress called Kennedy's statement what it was. ''Ted Kennedy has accused the president of treason,'' said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), ''and no Democratic leader has had the guts to speak their mind about the accusation.''

When McCarthy said communist infiltrators had permeated the FDR and Truman administrations, his charge was regarded as dirty pool, but subsequent disclosures of the Venona documents -- secret USSR cables dating back to the 1940s that our government intercepted -- show beyond a shadow of doubt the existence of a network of spies.

McCarthy was assailed and later censured because his enemies declared he embroidered the truth. But while the essence of what he maintained was later justified by Venona, ''he added little to our knowledge'' but ''did force public discussion of the issue -- something that the left did not appreciate,'' wrote two espionage experts, Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel in The Venona Secrets.

McCarthy was pilloried; not so Kennedy. The fact that no major Democratic candidate for president, including Howard Dean, Bush's most caustic critic, endorses the Kennedy statement, tells how far off-base Kennedy is. The fact that liberals fear to question him tells much about their lack of courage. And that no Republican senator has lashed back at him is an outrage.

Kennedy ignored the written record. Bush said clearly there was no imminent threat but made his case despite it. ''Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent,'' he said Jan. 28. ''Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late.''

In 50 years of writing about, and participating in, politics, I have not seen the equal of what Kennedy said about Bush.

One can disagree with the pretext of the war in Iraq; I questioned it but now that we're involved, support victory there and believe this president has shown courage and has taken great risks with his own popularity to achieve what is right. Kennedy, by insisting that Bush manufactured a crisis and pursued it for partisan ends, has trespassed even the minimum standards of public debate. If he has evidence that Bush invented the war, he should produce it. If he has not -- and clearly he has not -- Kennedy should be the subject of a Senate investigation and should be censured, if not expelled.

Censure all but ended McCarthy's career. No probe or censure is likely for Kennedy -- but his derogatory statement stands in contrast to the example of his brother.

''Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,'' I heard JFK say on a cold inaugural afternoon. How sad that by implying the president is a traitor, Edward Kennedy has allowed his torch to fall.

[jmstein7]

Don't forget to look at the campaign to censure Ted Kennedy:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002647/posts

It takes 30 seconds to do, but will be extremely effective!

[MarkT]

Aw, c'mon, cut the guy some slack - he was probably still drunk...his perfect defense is diminished capacity...the amazing this is not that Kennedy says or does what he does, but rather that the dim-witted people of Massachusetts keep sending him to Washington...tis an insult that they export their problems to us.

[Brilliant]

I wonder how Kennedy thinks he's helping the country by spouting Islamacist propaganda.

[veronica]

New low? How do you get lower than leaving a girl to drown in a car, for hours on end, while you search (beer in hand) for someone to take the rap? Au Bar, anyone?

[buffyt]

SINator Blubber the Swimmer is obviously suffering from years of alcohol abuse plus the after effects of his time under water when he drowned poor Mary Jo! HOW the H*LL does he keep getting re-elected? Voter fraud? Buys votes?

[buffyt]

You are so RIGHT!!!!

[MizSterious]

What can be lower than allowing his mistress to drown and then lying about it? The media forgets what kind of scoundrel this man really is--simply because he is, after all is said and done (and plenty is said and done), he's a Kennedy.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Someone said this was Ted's last term..

[MizSterious]

GMTA! I wish some of the media would ask the same question both of us just did!

[Byron_the_Aussie]

With a title like "Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets," obviously as many extramarital affairs as possible are going to be gone over again. Joseph Kennedy's affairs start it off, and Bly happily retells JFK's affairs with Monroe, Inga Arvad, Angie Dickinson, Gene Tierney, and Judith Campbell Exner. While Ted Kennedy is usually a side-player in such books, he's roasted without mercy, with plenty about his conquests as well -- including one humiliating anecdote where he takes a drunken prostitute to a party, where she wets an antique sofa.

[ClaireSolt]

This guy belongs in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta! Get him a suit with gold braid on the shoulders and a sash with a bunch of medals from the thrift store to stretch across his paunch. When Chris Matthews leads with his overheated rhetoric and then brings in other eager Dems to pile on, I think of when the clowns come out at the circus to provide comic relief. Remember how they come out with bells clanging and sirens wailing. Then they set up a burning house so they can put out the fire they just set? Kennedy is the ringmaster and he sends in the clowns. Makes me laugh!

[randog]

How do you get lower than leaving a girl to drown in a car, for hours on end, while you search (beer in hand) for someone to take the rap?

It's difficult, but you have to admit he gives it a good shot (pun intended).

[greydog]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002647/posts

[Ditto]

I wonder how Kennedy thinks he's helping the country by spouting Islamacist propaganda.

Where did you get the silly notion that Teddy is even remotely concerned with the good of the country?

[trebb]

I just got back from a vacation at Martha's Vineyard - had to take a ferry over to Chappaquiddick to see where Teddy committed his crime. Even the locals (I had to question a few just to stir things up) are quick to say that he hasn't been back since the "incident". No love there - at least not in public.

It's great to see how many of the Dims lies (and other vile qualities) are getting out into the public with FOX News, Free Republic, and most of all, the real patriots that drive the whole shebang.

Here's to taking our Country back from the commies and other turpitude-ites that would destroy us.

[mylife]

The Dems in general have this notion that dissent is patriotism regardless of what they are dissenting.
They're nuts.

[OldFriend]

Hard to see how a man could leave the scene of an accident that left a young campaign worker dead as reaching a new low.

Anything he does in the realm of politics is hardly lower than that fatal flaw in judgement.

[OldFriend]

You're right, Kennedy just practicing General Clark's version of patriotism.

[asqws]

The Dems in general have this notion that dissent is patriotism regardless of what they are dissenting. They're nuts.

Let's test you then :-) How do you feel about Bush turning education over to Teddy K?

[ChemistCat]

He voted to give the President war powers.

Isn't it amazing how the principles of non-contradiction do not apply to them, but they can apply them to others so readily?