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."

[NonValueAdded]

Atta boy, Tony!!! 105% on the money. Kerry, excuses are like, ahem, anatomical features, everybody has one. Doesn't matter what you allegedly meant to say, Kerry, it matters what you DID say. And we'll never let you forget that.

[OESY]

Tony Snow's handling of this and other controversies has been outstanding (most recently today on CNBC). He knows how to make a persuasive argument and how to joust with a contentious White House press corps. Snow has potential some day in the future to be presidential material.

[maggief]

The supposed 'unbotched' line also insults the military.

[Siena Dreaming]

Was Kerry joking when he said he spent Christmas in Cambodia?

[maggief]

Tony Snow ping!

[Robe]

My only comment is " How in hell did Carl Rove get that stupid $OB to say that"..
Carl you magnificent Bastard !!!

[Crawdad]

Here's a botched joke:

"Take my life, please."

Any others?

[Democratshavenobrains]

If Kerry refuses to apologize he wins the die hard idiots on the Left who want a "fighting Dem".

[hoosiermama]

He was on Imus this AM and Imus told him to:

Fox just reported that IMUS told him to go ride his bicycle, go sailing, etc...but just shut up.... 71 posted on 11/01/2006 8:41:07 AM EST by cbkaty

[OESY]

We go to war with what a leading Democrat said, NOT what he wished he had said and NOT what he wanted to say.

Al Jazeera prints only his actual words to rally those who are intent on killing our troops.

[maggief]

Hat tip: dead

[Obadiah]

"...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matthew 12:34-37

[pepperdog]

And hasn't it been reported that the President actually had a higher GPA than the brilliant Kerry?

[hoosiermama]

Dead know how! His latest masterpiece!

[BluH2o]

As an astute FReeper pointed out earlier. Where's the condemnation of Kerry's remarks by his fellow 'Rats? You would think a few would break ranks and want to go on the record as showing support for our military ... the silence is deafening. It tells you all you need to know about 'cut & run' culture that is pervasive in the 'Rat politico ranks.

[hoosiermama]

You type faster than I do...

SBM in the interest of saving whateveritis...pleae omit my duplicate post of Dead's masterpiece.

[pepperdog]

That is great, wish I knew how to email it! I have a few friends who would love it.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I was in college from 1965-69 (before enlisting in the Air Force, where I spent 1970-74.) During those Vietnam War years, up until the early 1970's when a draft lottery system was employed, the prevailing mindset was that if one stayed in school, one would avoid the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Allan Sherman, a song parody writer (a predecessor of Weird Al Yankovich) wrote some lyrics to go with a college fight-song, and the last paragraph is a reliable time-capsule of the prevailing sentiment. Here are the lyrics to The Drop-Outs' March:

(No more pencils, no more books,
No more teachers' dirty looks.
Dropouts! dropouts! Yeah team!)

On, dropouts, down the field,
Ain't we the national shame.
Cheer for our fun-loving breed,
Who can't hardly read,
Or write our name.

March, dropouts, backward march.
Ain't we a tragedy.
Leave us unite, and fight, fight, fight
For good old stupidity.

Duh!
Duh!
Drop, dropouts, out of school,
Proud of the will to fail.
You won't find us in the school halls.
Look in the pool halls, or in jail.

Long may our colors wave,
Sons of the black and blue.
Light-hearted chaps
Who steal hubcaps,
We've got nothing else to do.

Ignoramus there you are,
Sitting in your hopped-up car,
And your brains ain't up to par,
And your ears stick out too far.

Go, dropouts, go and buy,
One comic book or two.
You need some rest and enjoyment,
Your unemployment check is due.

Soon, dropouts, very soon,
You'll wear a different hat.
Soon you will be in the Army.
Just try dropping out of that!

---

John Kerry, whose intellectual growth began and
ended during the Vietnam Era, was probably making
a joke with a similar theme. That is--smart people
educate themselves and succeed; not-so-smart people
flunk out of school and end up in a war zone.

Of course, it is possible that Kerry was actually just
using today's left-wing, politically correct wisdom--that Bush is a moron (although he had better college grades than Kerry.) The amusing thing, to me, is that it really doesn't matter one bit whether the antecedent of the pronoun "you" in Kerry's "You end up stuck in Iraq" is, in fact, George W. Bush, as Kerry claims, or The American Fighting Man, which is the Republican point of view. It doesn't matter because, in today's age of 24-hour spin cycle, appearance always trumps reality.

If the democrats want George Allen's silly "Macaca" utterance to indicate he's a racist, then, by golly, he's a racist. And if Rush Limbaugh repeats Michael J. Fox's own revelation--that he stayed off his meds so that his affirmity would appear more pronounced--then Rush is an insensitive boor, and so are all republicans. In a playing field as politically-charged as we have today, a botched joke is equivalent to totally "dissing" our brave men and women in the military. And, whatever Kerry "meant" doesn't mean a damned thing. If it brings our conservative minions to the polls on Tuesday, the impact will be the same, whatever his intentions.

[rightinthemiddle]

Jennifer Loven is a DNC hack, btw.