Pardon the crudity, but: These Enron Lays?
Posted on 09/14/2004 1:40:14 PM PDT by Area Freeper
Democratic Sen. John Edwards compared President Bush to former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth Lay on Tuesday and predicted Bush "is going to be fired" by voters for the way he has run the country.
Lay, a Bush friend and campaign contributor, resigned under pressure after the giant energy company's collapse and has pleaded innocent to charges of fraud, conspiracy and false statements to banks.
The Democrats' vice presidential candidate assailed the potential cost of Bush policies in a second term and said of the president: "I think he believes that he's Ken Lay and America is his Enron. The truth of the matter is that what happens when a CEO runs a company the way that George Bush has run America, they get fired.
"And that's exactly what's going to happen. George Bush is going to be fired by the American people."
The North Carolina senator, running mate to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, made his remarks while accepting the endorsements of more than 30 chief executive officers of outdoor equipment companies, including Patagonia, Columbia and Cascade Designs, before a town hall meeting in a suburb of Portland.
On the last part of a swing through the West, Edwards was spending the day campaigning in a state that Al Gore (news - web sites) won by less than one percentage point in 2000. Polls show Kerry leading in the state this year.
Edwards said the Bush campaign has criticized possible costs of Kerry's proposals while hiding the potential costs of its own.
"They will say just about anything," Edwards said of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites). "What they don't want people to know is that they're proposing another $3 trillion in spending and they have absolutely no way to pay for it."
"The truth is they want to make sure that their friends, particularly their friends in places like Halliburton, are well taken care of," Edwards said, a reference to the company once led by Cheney. "But they're going to attach $3 trillion of additional debt onto our children and onto our grandchildren."
Brian Jones, a Bush campaign spokesman, dismissed Edwards' comments as "flailing, baseless attacks," while the campaign challenged the $3 trillion figure.
"They're trying to hide the fact that they have not put forth a plan for paying for their own proposals," Jones said.
On the campaign trail, Bush often claims that the Kerry-Edwards plan would cost $2 trillion. The Democrats' campaign disputes the figure, arguing that the Kerry-Edwards health care and education proposals would be paid for by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.
Don't worry Johnny, come January, you will be John Edwards, Esq.
I love how the AP fails to mention that Ken Lay stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton administration.
Hey Breck Girl! What about all the millions McAuliffe got shadily from Global Crossing, you ambulance chasing POS. /rant
Pardon the crudity, but: These Enron Lays?
It is kind of obvious that Kerry can't go out and say things like this...
It is obvious that Breck girl should be the head of the ticket, not Kerry. They cant win with horseface, so they have Pretty face going out, making stupid inane statements smiling and then being let off by the moron.org Press corps...
is it just me or do these sort of hysterical attacks seem more geared towards keeping the party base in the fold than to reach out to indies?
If I were Junior I'd cool it with the cracks about Enron. Especially considering Lay's ties to Terayzah...
It's not just you.
Enron and Mr. Lay are vague memories at best to undecided voters - they are 100 news cycles ago.
More and more it seems that that the Senators' rhetoric is focused on shoring up their base.
Kerry/Edwards campaign strategy: Be a little more shrill each day. By November 2nd be on the floor catatonic with indignation.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Forged documents, economic doom in the midst of prosperity, discredited war heroics...the list of topics for Senator Edwards continues to dwindle. He's pre-occuppied with salvaging his political career or going back to chasing ambulances.
And Edwards is campaigning in a state that Al Gore carried.
This is intended to keep the base in line, which shows just how much trouble Kerry is in.
Playing to your base with six weeks left in the campaign has the smell of death to it.
I wonder which LIB OFFICIAL is high bidder on the DNC "KOOL-AID" concession Nov.2nd. ? I hear mfgr. of Kool-Aid is sold out of "GRAPE" flavor, (you can hardly taste the cyanide)
Who is John Edwards?
I think that you are right. It seems that they are trying ONLY to get and keep their base. This type of stuff just annoys most people.
/
A lightweight comment by a lightweight candidate.
Who thinks this stuff up for these guys?
nick
Edwards better be careful of that Haliburton talk... no telling what the VP will tell him at the debate :-)
A_R
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