Posted on 11/01/2006 3:14:06 AM PST by InfantryMarine
''You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.'' -- Sen. John Kerry
WASHINGTON (Nov. 1) - The White House and Sen. John Kerry traded their harshest accusations since the 2004 presidential race on Tuesday, with President George W. Bush accusing the Democrat of troop-bashing and Kerry calling the president's men hacks who are "willing to lie."
The war of words, tough even for this hard-fought campaign season, came after Kerry told a group of students on Monday that those unable to navigate the U.S. education system "get stuck in Iraq."
The two parties are searching for any edge amid indications Democrats could take back the House of Representatives and possibly win control of the Senate from Bush's Republican party in next week's congressional elections. Though neither Bush nor Kerry is on any ballot, the bitterness with which they fought each other as 2004 rivals for the presidency spilled over as both campaign hard for their parties in a race shaped in large measure by public doubts about the Iraq war.
The Kerry Flap Will a "botched joke" by their onetime presidential candidate hurt the Dems? Or are Republicans just changing the subject?·
White House press secretary Tony Snow was asked about Kerry's comment at his regular briefing with reporters, and had clearly come prepared with a lengthy attack. He said the quote "fits a pattern" of negative remarks about U.S. soldiers from the decorated Vietnam veteran and suggested that whether Democratic candidates - particularly those running on their military service backgrounds - agree with their 2004 standard-bearer should be a campaign litmus test.
Bush, campaigning later in Georgia, said Kerry's statement was "insulting and it is shameful."
"The members of the United States military are plenty smart, and they are plenty brave, and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology," Bush said during an appearance for a former GOP congressman, Mac Collins, who is trying to oust Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall. There were boos at the mention of Kerry's name and cheers at Bush's call for an apology.
Kerry, who is considering another run for the White House in 2008, angrily fired back.
His statement called Republicans "assorted right-wing nut jobs."
And at a hastily arranged news conference in Seattle, Kerry said: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."
Kerry said the comment in question was "a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops ... and they know that's what I was talking about."
You Asked: How can the administration say that things are getting better in Iraq?
It came during a campaign rally for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, who is running against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kerry opened his speech at Pasadena City College with several one-liners, saying at one point that Bush had lived in Texas but now "lives in a state of denial."
He then said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
That, Kerry said, was meant as a reference to Bush, not troops. Kerry said it is the president who owes U.S. soldiers an apology - for "a Katrina foreign policy" that misled the country into war in Iraq, failed to adequately study and plan for the aftermath, has not properly equipped troops and has expanded the terrorist threat.
Kerry called the White House attack "a classic textbook Republican campaign tactic" that reveals Republicans' "willingness to reduce anything in America to raw politics."
"I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes," he said. "It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did."
Unsubstantiated allegations about Kerry's Vietnam War heroism from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth figured prominently in the 2004 Kerry-Bush race. Even Kerry has blamed his slow and uncertain response to the group's claims for helping to doom his White House chances, and Democrats viewed the Tuesday fracas as a test of that lesson.
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"Enough is enough. We're not going to stand for this," Kerry said. "We are going to stay in their face with the truth."
Other Republicans, sensing opportunity for their side, piled on throughout the day with their own demands for an apology from Kerry.
Sen. John McCain, like Kerry a decorated Vietnam veteran and a potential 2008 presidential rival, said while campaigning for Republican candidates that "the suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq is an insult to every soldier serving in combat today."
Added House Speaker Dennis Hastert, struggling to keep his party in control of Congress: "Our soldiers risk their lives in the face of grave dangers on the battlefield, and no one who chooses to courageously and selflessly defend our country can be considered 'uneducated.' "
Separately, the White House issued President Bush's Veterans' Day proclamation praising those who have served in the armed forces - a week and a half before the Nov. 11 holiday.
I wish some one would explain to me how his comments related directly to the President.
Heads up Tony Snow is going to be on BOR tonight.
A deliberate insult 55%
A botched joke 35%
I'm not sure 10%
Total Votes: 35,809
| How do you view Senator Kerry's remark? | |
| A deliberate insult | 55% |
| A botched joke | 35% |
| I'm not sure | 10% |
| Total Votes: 36,009 | |
| Note on Poll Results | |
I agree with Robert Novak. Kerry's response to the outrage came off as hysterical, as in out of control. It was almost on the scale of Howard Dean's scream. He's toast...except in MA.
35% won't believe their own eyes & ears...
BTTT!
For once, their own poll question bites them in the ass.
'Deliberate insult' can be read to mean either the President OR the troops
A deliberate insult 55%
A botched joke 35%
I'm not sure 10%
Total Votes: 38,314
A deliberate insult 55%
A botched joke 35%
I'm not sure 10%
Total Votes: 41,214
Substantiated only by those who were with him and hurt by his traitorous actions. Substantiated only by 200 of his Swiftboat peers. Substantiated only by men with more medals for heroics than this pile ever could dream of getting.
Unsubstantiated by Chris Mathews and the dead media.
The comments that were unsubstantiated were those Kerry testified to the Senate about those 200 Swiftboat vets and all the others still fighting in Vietnam, but that never stopped the Communists in the media and government from claiming it was the gospel even to this day.
Note total votes keeps going up and the percentage stays exactly the same. Odd.
How do you view Senator Kerry's remark?
A deliberate insult 55%
A botched joke 35%
I'm not sure 10%
Total Votes: 41,964
You got it. Many of those 35% also hate the military,too. Yet, they expect the military to defend them, their homes, and their right to curse those who defend them.
This stilted opinion is based upon what? Is there a logical train of thought you can cite that would bring out this far-from-obvious linkage between a vote for the military (which is what the 35%ers represent) and an internal loathing for the military?
That said, the poll itself presents a false choice, in that the botched joke was so poorly phrased it ended up being an insult. So it could be and likely is, both. The question of which you choose indicates which you value more: John Kerry's credibility or the morale of the military. For that, there appears to be no joint solution.
You could have pointed this out, rather than going on to insult the 35% who took the moment to stand up for the military even in the face of such a biased poll.
On the other train of thought, I'd like to say that the fix was in on that poll, but the law of large numbers suggests that the the percentages will move very little, once the total reaches something substantial (such as 35,000, for instance).
Still, it is odd it didn't move at all. At least varying to 54/36 or 56/34 is very possible, given the results are watched over 1/7th of the eventual total. Then again, that result is in line with the generic expectation for Democratic vote on Tuesday. What a coincidence, eh?
Did Kerry deliberately insult the military? 55%
Was Kerry making a joke that he screwed up (read this as Kerry did nothing wrong) 35%
And the the always 'clueless' I don't know 20%.
The 35% are standing up for Kerry the way I read it.
Criminy! My total bad. Total apologies. I really read that question backwards.
Sorry!!!
done:
A deliberate insult 56%
A botched joke 35%
I'm not sure 9%
Total Votes: 65,824
| How do you view Senator Kerry's remark? | |
| A deliberate insult | 56% |
| A botched joke | 35% |
| I'm not sure | 9% |
| Total Votes: 67,111 | |
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