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.

[Travis McGee]

"Ted The Swimmer, the Hero of Chapaquiddick" Ping.

[driftless]

Certainly Kennedy is the worst poltroon in the senate, but how do you separate his scurrilous accusations from those of the other Dem scoundrels? Just when you thought that Dem pols couldn't slither any lower, along comes Chappaquidick Ted to dig deeper ruts to slither through.

[driftless]

Dissent is one thing, but Kennedy is indirectly accusing Bush of murdering American troops for political and mercenary reasons. Obviously you agree with Kennedy by the tenor of your remarks. And, even after a mountain of evidence which I assume (maybe incorrectly) that you've read and discarded as false, you maintain that Hussein was no threat to our country. Now even the current Dem hypocrites (who concurred with Slick Willy that Hussein was a major threat but now deny they said it) along with all the conservative pols and pundits, independent intel sources, and allies like the Brits and other allies agreed that Saddam was a major threat to the U.S. and regional stability.

So my question to you is where do you get your info to prove that he wasn't a major threat? Simply saying that you choose not believe means should have your own info proving otherwise. Whom and what do you draw your info from?

[JesseHousman]

This bloated, toadlike insult to the imbecilic voters of Taxachusetts, got away with leaving an innocent girl to die.

Consider:

On July 18, 1969, the only child of Gwen and Joe Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Their daughter, Mary Jo, who at one time wanted to be a nun, instead, had taken an interest in politics.

The party was for former Robert Kennedy campaign workers, held at the home of a Kennedy cousin. At around 11 in the evening, Mary Jo got into an Oldsmobile with Edward Kennedy and left the party. Kennedy, who at 37, was a senator from Massachusetts, was also a likely candidate for the United States presidency in 1972.

Apparently enroute to the ferry landing for a return trip to Martha's Vineyard, the Oldsmobile turned sharply right and off the paved roadway onto a dirt side road. Moments later the Oldsmobile plunged off the narrow Dike Bridge into the ten foot deep Poucha Pond.

Mary Jo Kopechne suffocated in the car while Senator Kennedy swam ashore. Strangely, it was ten hours before Kennedy reported the accident to the police.

Family and friends concocted a plan to protect Kennedy from any criminal ramifications and initially wanted to claim that Mary Jo was alone.

There were rumors that the married Senator was perhaps acting inappropriately with the single Ms. Kopechne. Kennedy went on national television to provide his side of the story claiming emphatically (ala Klinton):

"There is no truth, no truth whatever, to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct...I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Kopechne."

Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident, received a two-month suspended sentence and his license was revoked for a year.

The Kopechne's have said that they never received a personal apology from the Senator. However, his insurance company did pay them $140,923 for the loss of their only child.

The moral of the story is: never party with(what's left of)the Kennedys. It can be injurious to your health.

[KEVLAR]

Just out of curiosity, how many times do the same questions need to be answered before the questioning stops?
Lets be realistic, the dissent is not an atempt at getting answers, or debating the motive for war, or our actions after. It is a transparent effort to call into question the administrations actions, even when the dissenters have supported them.
The means of quashing dissent is as simple as presenting the facts. This isn't dissent at this point, it is partisian rhetoric.

[armymarinemom]

DoD Identifies Army Casualties
 The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on Oct. 16 in Karbala, Iraq. The soldiers were attempting to negotiate with armed men who were congregating on a road near a mosque after curfew. The Iraqis opened fire killing three soldiers and wounding seven others..
Killed were:

Lt. Col. Kim S. Orlando, 43, of Tennessee.
Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia, 28, of Wakefield, Mass.
Cpl. Sean R. Grilley, 24, of San Bernardino, Calif.

  The soldiers were assigned to the 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based in Fort Campbell, Ky. Orlando was the commanding officer of the 716th Military Police Battalion.
  The incident is under investigation

 Notice the timing between attacks and politions negative grandstanding in D.C. Our enemies watch CNN and Kennedy, Byrd and the rest of the Rats give inspiration to our enemies. I hold Kennedy and his fellow rats responsible for these soldiers deaths.

[niteowl77]

Just out of curiosity, if a president leads the nation to war, is it the responsibility of everyone to not question the means, motivation, and relevance of that action?

Just out of curiosity, would that be as in Bosnia?

Is the means of quashing dissent as simple as putting people in harm's way?

Like in Haiti?

The motive for thumping Iraq has morphed from a flimsy link to 9/11, to "they have WMD, and they are coming after us," to a form of nation building.

So you say.

According to Rush, when Dems use the military for nation building, they are wrong. Is it also wrong when Pubbies do it, or is that patriotism?

According to Al Franken, when Pubbies do anything they are wrong; is it also wrong when 'Rats do the same things, or is that concern for the common man? You like the term "nation building." Can you define it (in non-partisan terms, of course).

The stock market is up. Mission accomplished.

That would be a fitting epitaph for Bill Clinton. You might suggest that to him.

[cwb]

Pitchfork and Torch:

Oct 18, 2003

[arasina]

It is reprehensible that DeLay is the only one to speak out against this. I would think at least the REPUBLICANS would defend our president against accusations of TREASON!

I strongly agree with the author's last statements:
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.

[cwb]

Oh...I don't know. Just that in your first few posts you've said you're not voting for Bush and are now defending what call the "dissent" of T. Kennedy. I have no problem with dissent; what Kennedy did was not dissent...period!

[CaptainK]

The moral of the story is: never party with(what's left of)the Kennedys. It can be injurious to your health

Never get in a motorized vehicle with a Kennedy, be it a plane, train or automobile, At last count: 3 women dead, 1 paralyzed

[cwb]

It;s rhetoric like this as to why I question your motives:

"I want a consistant policy of why we are in Iraq, and why, using the same criteria, have we not killed every man, woman, and child in Saudi Arabia?"

We haven't killed every man, woman, and child in Iraq, now have we?

[BlackElk]

The reason why you are being lumped in with Ted the Swimmer, other than the inane crack about "George Clinton Bush" is that you are spouting the "paleo-Neville Chamberlain" line of the eccentric pre-Pearl Harbor, pre-9/11 feather, counting house "conservative" crowd, whose foreign policy is that of George McGovern and Teddy the K.

A lot of us got a permanent bellyful of "antiwar" (actually anti-American) peace creeps in the 1970s. We are not likely to abide such a despicable attack on our nation again as was perpetrated by the Ted Kennedies then. Further, the United States having an improved value of its stock holdings is nice but hardly the most important much less the only reason for the use of a robust military prepared to kill those who need killing and to break their things.

Go off to some college coffee house and nitpick your concerns over whether Bush is being "consistent" or whether he is "even-handed" or whether our entire universe is a molecule in the thumbnail of a giant (Animal House) or whatever but do not, whatever you do, refer to proposals to interfere with interventionism in favor of the discredited and utterly obsolete foreign policy of isolationism as any form of conservatism. If you lie down with dogs (no offense to our actual canine friends), you cannot complain of getting up with fleas.

[BlackElk]

Unless you have your isolationist way, interventionism will have dealt with the Chicoms long before they arrive here.

[armymarinemom]

Do you really think Iraqis time their attacks based upon partisan bickering in Washington? Seek help. We are an occupying force in a foreign land. This is routine and part of what happens when you have foreign military occupying a nation

You seek help. Try reading this postUS foes seen as buoyed by critics of war
The Iraqi people themselves have commented that attacks often happen followed well televised grandstanding in DC by opponents to Iraq. If you talk to our returning troops you will notice that they too have noticed the same thing.
Yes occupation is always followed by insurgencies but certain people are adding fuel to the fire.