White House Insists Kerry Apologize

The Associated Press ^ | Nov 1, 2006 | JENNIFER LOVEN

[maggief]

WASHINGTON - The White House pressed Sen. John Kerry Wednesday to apologize for a comment Republicans say was disrespectful of U.S. fighting forces in Iraq, saying he "put gasoline on the fire" of an already sizzling midterm election campaign.

"Sen. Kerry may have botched the line, but what he said was insulting to the troops, and what he ought to say is, 'Look, I botched the line, but I'm sorry for giving offense,' " press secretary Tony Snow said on CBS's "The Early Show."

[mainepatsfan]

How dare they! /s

[truthandlife]

Republicans continue to attack and be on the offensive. It is pretty easy to be on the offensive when Kerry gives this gem of a quote.

The ads from the RNC should be great!

[b4its2late]

He'll say he apologized before apologizing.

[DogBarkTree]

Kerry is to appear at 5:30 p.m. today at 2 Logan Square in Philadelphia. Casey, a fellow Democrat, is leading incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in the polls.

[hunter112]

Ya gotta love it, it's win-win. If Kerry makes an apology, Bush wins, if Kerry refuses, Bush wins. About all Kerry can do is to go crawl into a hole until Wednesday morning. Even then, he had better be in his spider hole, the Rats will want to have his neck when they fail to take control of Congress.

[maggief]

The 'unbotched' joke.

A Kerry spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said later that the senator's prepared text had called for him to say: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

[quantim]

[Drawsing]

Even if he botched the line, he still was directly insulting the president by calling him an uneducated idiot. Since when did that kind of name-calling get to be okay for a possible presidential contender?

[ErieGeno]

Sen. Kerry may have botched the line

Kerry botched nothing. He stated exactly what thought was in his mind.

[icwhatudo]

The memo Kerrys people produced to show the joke was about Bush had a strange "TH" that could only be produced by 1960's era typewriters....

[CaptRon]

Even this excuse has been changed to one where he allegedly was supposed to say 'like Bush'

They can't even keep their excuses straight.

[edcoil]

In case anyone is interested. The number one story yesterday was the Kerry being Kerry show showing 30 years of democrat hatred for our military - and what does the LA Times have on its front page?

Nothing. Kerry not mentioned at all.

They have a picture of Phil and... the mayor of LA.

Just more proof to cancel your subscription - if you still have one.

[Peach]

So Kerry, who yesterday said he was going to "get in their faces" and "not going to take it anymore" is basically hiding today.

If he can't take on American voters, how can he possibly take on the terrorists?

[Let's Roll]

And don't you love it when he makes whatever excuse (I've lost count) and says, "and the White House knows this full well"??

Raising the bar again - now the WH is supposed to divine the thoughts/intentions of idiots.

[Fighting Irish]

Even if he botched the line, he still was directly insulting the president by calling him an uneducated idiot. Since when did that kind of name-calling get to be okay for a possible presidential contender?

post of the day!

[bluecollarman]

How is it he botched the line? Bush did get an education. So how does his analogy work? Bush graduated with a MBA from Harvard and higher grades than Kerry. In other words, Bush did exactly what Kerry said would keep you out of Iraq.

I don't think the WH should concede that he may have botched a line.

[traderrob6]

Exactly, this is about the fifth rewrite of this "joke" each time trying to make it more credible. He said what he meant and meant what he said and one has to be pretty gullible to believe otherwise.

[SMARTY]

KERRY DID NOT BOTCH ANYTHING. HE SAID WHAT HE SAID AND WE GOT THE MESSAGE LOUD AND CLEAR AGAIN!!! KERRY NEEDS TO STFU

[Bloodclot]

The 'unbotched' joke. A Kerry spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said later that the senator's prepared text had called for him to say: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." If that is what Kerry meant to say than it makes no sense, i.e., you end up being President of the United States if you don't study??????