Posted on 08/17/2004 12:26:11 AM PDT by kattracks
With all the criticism of negative political TV ads - and their potential to backfire - you've got to hand it to the candidate who's willing to put his name on a tough attack ad.
That voters hear George W. Bush's personal approval of a new ad about John Kerry's attendance record at Senate Intelligence Committee meetings actually adds to its punch, perhaps because such backing is so rare this election season.
We don't normally get too worked up about an elected official's attendance record at congressional committee meetings. The real work of legislating often gets done elsewhere. But given the weight Kerry himself has given his congressional experience with intelligence oversight and his stated desire to ``reform the intelligence system,'' his record of missing 76 percent of public Senate Intelligence Committee hearings - and every one in the year after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center - is surely fair game.
Kerry's campaign protests that Bush is distorting his record by not accounting for the senator's attendance at the committee's closed-door sessions. Well, if so, there's an easy way to clear up any misperception. Kerry can authorize the committee to release his attendance records at those private meetings, as Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), chair of the committee, suggested Sunday on ``Meet the Press.''
Less attention has been focused on the ad's other charge - that Kerry proposed cutting intelligence spending by $6 billion after the first Trade Center attack, a position criticized at the time even by some leading Democrats. That position can harm Kerry's candidacy far more than any absenteeism charge.
Bush's ad paints a damning portrait of Kerry's intelligence record. But even candidate-sponsored negative ads only work if they are backed up by the facts. Kerry's support of intelligence budget cuts is one such fact. It's up to John Kerry [related, bio] to persuasively defend his thinking there. But disputing the ``Senator No-Show'' charge requires more facts on the table. Putting them there is Kerry's responsibility - and his obligation.
Another reason Senators make poor Presidential candidates.
bttt
>>>Well, if so, there's an easy way to clear up any misperception. Kerry can authorize the committee to release his attendance records at those private meetings, as Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), chair of the committee, suggested Sunday on ``Meet the Press.''
It has been reported Kerry's record of closed-door session attendance is worse than the public session record. Release the records!!!
Holy Smelly Senator Batman...
There's a whole lotta' records Kerry doesn't want to release.
Kerry was a Senator? Who knew?
---But disputing the ``Senator No-Show'' charge requires more facts on the table. Putting them there is Kerry's responsibility - and his obligation. ---
This idea is almost totally foreign to the folks over at DU, the Kerry campaign, and the Democratic party at large.
BOB Kerrey might have been there. Does that count?
>>BOB Kerrey might have been there. Does that count?
Only in Democrat/new math.
That is one powerful ad. I think it's the best one so far from the Bush camp. Play it often.
One thing's for sure. Kerry lies for political gain. When I look at his wife (with her fortune) and I look at that hound dog, I tend to believe that he sold Mama T a bill of goods too! She's no beauty, but with all her money, she could have bought herself a handsome young man. I would have...iF the only choice I had was Kerry. LOL!
Hopefully the rest of the country will pay attention to the fact that this newspaper is from Boston...Kerry's home base. It's a terrific editorial. Death from a thousand cuts. Thanks for posting it!
Did you see the way that Kerry's staff, after poring over his Intel Committee record tried to defend him by saying that he'd actually served as Deputy Intel Committee Chairman for a spell. Then Fox News pointed out that it was the other Kerry, Bob Kerry (who makes 75% of the meetings) that had that honor.
How can John Kerry not catch that immediately and correct such an error? What kind of desperate, incompetent, maybe dishonest??, staff would toss this out. Kerry is responsible for his message and for his staff, but he's blamed his staff for "putting words in his mouth" concerning Benedict Arnold outsourcing corporations, etc. At some point this "blame game" will get real old to the voters.
I knew that. It was the premise that undergirded my Bob Kerrey remark.
Boom! The ad is fair. It soley attacks Senator Kerry's *record*, not the man himself personally.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
This is another example of that. More to come. Sleep easy at night. All's well.
Let's see. It's Tuesday morning. Did I miss Kerry authorizing the release of his attendance records?
Tick-tock.
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