Posted on 02/24/2004 8:59:45 PM PST by demlosers
Senator John Kerry blamed the Bush administration today for helping foster the political instability in Haiti that has given rise to the armed insurgency that now controls nearly half of the country and threatens to overthrow the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"I think the administration has missed a lot of opportunities, in fact, has exacerbated the situation over the last two years with its cutoff of humanitarian assistance and its attitude towards the Aristide administration," Mr. Kerry said. "So they sort of created the environment within which the insurgency could grow and take root, and now they're trying to manage it, I think."
Senator Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, made his comments during a wide-ranging discussion today with editors and reporters of The New York Times in advance of next Tuesday's New York presidential primary.
He said that if he were president, he would be pressing Haitian rebels to back off their goal of toppling Mr. Aristide, perhaps by threatening the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
"I think you've got to be real and threatening," he said. His message to the rebels, he said, would be: "You're not going to take over, you're not kicking him out, this democracy is going to be sustained, we're willing to put in a new government, new prime minister, we're willing to work with you, but you're not going to succeed in your goal of exiling" Mr. Aristide. "And unless that's clear, you can't necessarily stop it in its tracks."
On Monday, political opposition leaders in Port-au-Prince requested 24 hours to mull over a peace plan presented by the Bush administration and its allies.
Though Mr. Kerry acknowledged that he did not fully know the diplomatic strategy of the Bush administration to deal with Haiti's crisis, he speculated that a purposefully timid approach on the part of the Bush administration — "because they hate Aristide" — could be allowing the rebels to move forward with their uprising.
"They could be encouraging, not really putting the hammer down on these people to stop what they're doing," he said.
In the hourlong conversation at The New York Times, Mr. Kerry also said he opposed the decision by the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in what opponents hold is defiance of California state law.
"I think he's made a mistake," Mr. Kerry said of Mr. Newsom. "I think what he's doing is not the law." The candidate argued that the venue for challenging California law against same-sex marriages is in the courts.
While reaffirming his opposition to gay marriages, Mr. Kerry also reiterated his support of civil unions between same-sex partners.
"I think marriage gets in the way of what you are really fighting for, which is rights," he said, saying that he thought same-sex couples should be entitled to the same spousal and civil rights accorded partners in a heterosexual marriage.
Mr. Kerry made his comments before President Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. This afternoon, the Kerry campaign issued a statement in which the senator criticized the president's announcement and said he would vote against such an amendment.
"The best way to protect gays and lesbians is through civil unions," Mr. Kerry said in the statement. "The issue of marriage should be left to the states, and that the president of the United States should be addressing the central challenges where he has failed: jobs, health care and our leadership in the world, rather than once again seeking to drive a wedge by toying with the United States Constitution for political purposes."
During the discussion with the Times reporters and editors this morning, Mr. Kerry, who has won 15 of the 17 Democratic primaries and caucuses this year, occasionally spoke of facing President Bush in November, yet hardly mentioned his most-immediate rival for the nomination, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Hawaii, Idaho and Utah hold their nominating contests in the Democratic presidential race today, though the candidates have largely ignored those states: Mr. Kerry planned to spend most of today campaigning in Ohio, while Mr. Edwards was in Georgia and Texas.
Mr. Kerry said he and Mr. Edwards were "friends" and had "a very good relationship," but he said little of substance about his closest Democratic rival and instead hammered President Bush's policies on trade, foreign affairs, the economy and other issues.
Mr. Kerry argued that his long career in Congress, and particularly his foreign-policy experience, made him the best candidate to contest Mr. Bush in the fall. Although much of Mr. Kerry's campaign has been surrounded by discussions of his and Mr. Bush's roles during the Vietnam War, the focus of the conversation today dealt with more contemporary issues.
"The president has made it clear he wants to run on national security, and that makes sense," Mr. Kerry said. "He can't run on jobs, he can't run on education, he can't run on the environment."
"I think you're going to have a fear and security campaign, if they can,' he added. "And I think I'm the candidate who is perfectly situated to challenge them and take them on."
And, as he has done repeatedly during this race, Mr. Kerry dismissed the notion that his privileged upbringing in the Northeast would be a disadvantage in a head-to-head race against President Bush in the South.
Pointing out that Mr. Bush also was from a family of privilege and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and two Ivy League universities, he said, "I think people are looking for leadership, not labels, and I think they're looking for answers, not characterizations." Voters, he said, "want to know what you're made out of, not where you're from."
Mr. Kerry also pointed out that being a champion and practitioner of a cherished sport in the South, hunting, would help him talk his way into the heart of the Southern electorate.
"I think I can talk the language of guns," he said. "I think I can go down there and talk the language," which, he said, was "common sense."
Mr. Kerry also cautioned President Bush, the former governor of Texas, not to take his own turf for granted. "If I was George Bush, I would worry about going down to the South," he said. "Not me."
Mr. Kerry said his early lag in the opinion polls last summer only made him a tougher candidate.
"Running for president is a good humility builder and going through those desolate months of the summer has made me stronger," he said. "It's made me a much better candidate. I would hope it's made me a better person."
The senator attributed some of his resurgence to a change in his approach to voters on the campaign trail, mainly by replacing wonky policy talk with more ordinary phrasings. "I think I'm talking a different language," he said. "There's no Washingtonese," he said. "It's a very straightforward and simple kind of language, and I think that's what Americans want to hear. They don't want all this razzle-dazzle from Washington, D.C."
"I think I carry more energy in my public speaking than George Bush," Senator Kerry said, adding that he did not think he would have won 14 of 16 contests "if he didn't know how to connect to people."
Drawing a contrast with Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, whom Mr. Kerry once served as lieutenant governor, Senator Kerry said he would fight back against all attacks.
"Michael Dukakis will tell you today, he didn't fight back," Mr. Kerry said. "He lost because there was a sense that if he wasn't willing to fight for himself, he wasn't willing to fight for me. I'm a fighter and that's what I proved in Iowa, New Hampshire, and that's what I'm going to prove in this race."
What's the worst Haiti could ever do to the US? Put a voodoo hex on us? It's not like they are a credible threat to the rest of the hemisphere. They've been having coups for 200 years.
What the title should have been.
Kerry writes off South!
Since he is wrong on that point, everything else that follows is wrong.
Oh but they do have a democracy which is tyrrany of the majority. That's what our founding fathers wanted to avoid whent they wrote the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin once said that democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
It was a little overboard, wasn't it? But Kerry's known to have a soft spot for Commies. Especially those that speak Romance languages...
Then Senator Kennedy should help them. He's a fair swimmer.
Don't forget the $2 billlion+ Heiz Foundation that Teresa Heinz-Kerry administers.
"Our refusal to invade Haiti at my say so is another example of our invasion of Iraq as something I was for and then against supporting. And if you try to attack me I'll throu somebody else's medals at you. That's my war record and I'll stand on it!"
...which I'm sure would cause the rebels to quake in their sandels. Isn't Haiti testimony to the futility of UN nationbuilding? Not to mention one of Clinton's foreign policy "success" stories?
It uses nanotechnology appearently.
I can hear their response right now... "Ooooh..please don't send your international peacekeeping force after us...we're shaking in our boots!
Dems like Kerry sure know how to get the job done.</ sarcasm>
It's when he licks his pointer finger, sticks it in the wind and yells "pickew - pickew"
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