You will be! You will be . . .
Posted on 03/11/2004 1:07:13 PM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Thursday rejected demands that he apologize for calling his critics in the Republican Party "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."As Republican congressional leaders criticized Kerry's proposals and called for him to stop name-calling and negative campaigning, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said they see Kerry as "Ted Kennedy on a South Beach diet."
Kerry, just a handful of delegates shy of the number needed to win the Democratic nomination, returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet privately with House and Senate Democrats, including one-time rival John Edwards. Drawing more attention, however, was reaction to his offhand remark while campaigning Wednesday in Chicago. Republicans quickly demanded he apologize for a remark they said was unbecoming for a presidential candidate.
"I have no intention whatsoever of apologizing for my remarks," Kerry said during a news conference on the Senate side of the Capitol. "I think the Republicans need to start talking about the real issues before the country."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., meeting with other GOP leaders in his House office, said the remark offended him. "If you ask me, he's getting off on the wrong foot in this campaign by name-calling," Hastert said. "We're not lying when we start saying that Senator Kerry is the old-time Democrat of tax and spend."
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Kerry's remark gave Americans "a little glimpse of the real John Kerry, and he's not even tired yet." Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Kerry should apologize for a comment "outside the bounds of where people who want to hold the highest office in this country should be making."
Kerry rejected those arguments, saying he was referring to Republican critics who distort his record.
"There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative," he said. "I haven't said anything that's incorrect about them. They've said a lot of things that are incorrect."
In addition, Kerry said, the Bush campaign launched new ads attacking him even as they complained about his remarks.
The Republicans rejected Kerry's call for returning to Clinton-era tax rates for people earning $200,000 a year, contended he would raise taxes on the middle class by $900 billion, and doubted Kerry's ability to adequately fund defense.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Kerry was "not in synch with the American people." Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, "This concerted effort to convince the American economy is in the tank is simply not accurate."
DeLay said Democrats "haven't produced anything but hate and that's what is disturbing."
Kerry dismissed their criticism of his remark as an effort to take attention away from Bush administration policies. "They can't talk about those things because George Bush doesn't have a record to run on, he has a record to run away from. And that's what they're trying to do," Kerry said.
In Chicago, Kerry told a supporter who had urged him to take on Bush: "Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."
After meeting with Kerry, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said caucus members expect to confer regularly with Kerry and help plan campaign strategy and involve minorities in his campaign.
In a series of private meetings with congressional Democrats, Kerry said he will focus his campaign on "common sense mainstream values" on issues ranging from jobs and health care to national security, what he called "core issues" that move voters, officials attending the meetings said.
Kerry and Edwards spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday night and spoke privately Thursday at the Capitol.
After a session Wednesday with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, officials said they had agreed to campaign together March 25.
Yeah, and if we had swipedat him...that'd be "going negative", right?
God save America if this clown reaches the White House.
Oh YES he IS!
You will be! You will be . . .
Kerry should be flattered that you think this highly of him :-)
Yeah the DCpress TM DNC has to delete the expletive- and pretend it didn't.
They remind me of Dracula's Renfield:
"...a character in Bram Stoker's classic, _Dracula_, who is somehow psychically linked with the vampire. R. M. Renfield, aged 59 years, is a patient in Dr. Jack Seward's sanitarium when first mentioned in the novel. He is obsessed with his own mortality, and is trying to prolong his life by ingesting the lives of other creatures. He cultivates flies, some of which he eats and the rest he feeds to spiders. The spiders are also cultivated, some being consumed directly and the rest fed to sparrows. Renfield desperately begs for a cat or kitten, but when his request is refused, he eats the sparrows (whole and raw) himself. Renfield is not a vampire, and was formerly a solid member of the privileged class. Though not an aristocrat himself, he moved in the social circles of the minor nobility, and must have been of sufficient financial means to handle the expenses that would entail.
Renfield passes through periods of complete sanity, and is remarkably erudite, well-mannered and logical when in full control of himself. When the madness is upon him however, he can be incredibly devious. His tie with the vampire is not one of master and servant. Rather, he is a disciple who longs for the immortality the vampire seems to offer. Dracula is not truly interested in Renfield though, and merely uses him. "
http://www.vampyres.com/content/iwav/content/faq10.html
The birthplace of crooks and liars....very fitting!
... or having Toricelli as one of his fund-raisers?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.