Bush campaign attacks Kerry on Cheney remark

Washington Times ^ | 10/16/04 | Bill Sammon

[kattracks]

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — President Bush's advisers, seeking to keep Sen. John Kerry on the defensive, yesterday said they would continue criticizing his reference to the sexual orientation of Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter.
    Mr. Bush did his part to keep the story alive by expressing his displeasure with the Massachusetts Democrat for invoking Mary Cheney's homosexuality at Wednesday's presidential debate.
    "The president does not believe it was appropriate," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. Mr. Kerry found himself on the defensive in an interview yesterday with CNN's Candy Crowley, who asked about the flap half a dozen times. It was the second day in a row Mr. Kerry was forced to address the issue, which has overshadowed what pundits otherwise regarded as his strong showing in the third and final debate.

[snip]

 Mrs. Devenish said the Bush campaign did not criticize Mr. Kerry until his campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, said after Wednesday's debate that Miss Cheney was "fair game."
    "The first two times it was mentioned by John Edwards and John Kerry, we didn't really say anything," she said. "It was really Mary Beth Cahill going out and calling Mary Cheney 'fair game' that made it clear it was a political strategy, [a] political calculation."

[GeronL]

bump

new tagline

[Elkiejg]

Bush officials were particularly incensed at Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Kerry running mate Sen. John Edwards, for accusing Mr. Cheney's wife, Lynne, of feeling "shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences."

"Ooh, I think that's a campaign gaffe we'll be talking about for a long time," said Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush campaign. "I think that just exposed an ugliness on the Democratic ticket.

"I mean, that's her belief? That's an ugly belief," she added. "These are ugly words coming from a very negative campaign."

Agree with Ms. Devenish - Fatso Lizzy Edwards sealed the RATS fate with her tasteless comment.

[Elkiejg]

A good quote in the final paragraphs:

As for Mr. Kerry's insistence that he was just trying to be "positive," Bush aides said he is being disingenuous.

"I don't think voters will buy it," Mrs. Devenish said. "For a candidate wrestling with a perilously negative image in the voters' minds to play slash-and-trash politics with the vice president's daughter is just something he's going to pay a political price for."

[flashbunny]

She and John Edwards have been doing so much to sabotage the campaign that I think they're secretly working on hillary's behalf.

[Agrarian]

Doesn't make sense. Edwards' best chance for a major political future is with a Kerry win. If Kerry loses, he will be the Joe Lieberman of the 2008 nomination process. Of course, he might just be too arrogant to realize this, and too stupid to avoid being manipulated...

[Enterprise]

Note to Bush campaign: Pour it on. And I mean balls to the wall (sort of). Make it plain that you are appalled by the homophobic remark of Kerry and his bitch Cahill. Ride 'em, herd 'em, run 'em, rope' em, and brand 'em with a blazing B on their ruby red butts.