Posted on 05/29/2007 9:00:58 AM PDT by seanmerc
John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 after weighing the political ramifications and being told by his future campaign manager that he would never be elected president in 2004 unless he sided with President Bush on the issue, according to a forthcoming book by Mr. Kerry's former strategist. The book by veteran Democratic Party strategist Robert Shrum, titled "No Excuses," paints a portrait of an often-dysfunctional Kerry presidential campaign in which senior strategists clashed with each other, the Boston Globe reports. An advance copy of the memoir of Mr. Shrum's years in politics, slated for release in early June, was provided to the Globe. Mr. Shrum provides a vivid description of events leading up to Mr. Kerry's decision to vote for the war. He writes that Mr. Kerry telephoned him on the eve of the Oct. 11, 2002, vote. Mr. Shrum said that Mr. Kerry was skeptical of Mr. Bush's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that he "didn't trust Bush to give the diplomatic route a real chance." Nonetheless, Mr. Kerry asked Mr. Shrum whether he would "be a viable general election candidate if he was in the small minority of senators who voted no." Mr. Shrum wrote that he told Mr. Kerry that it was "impossible to predict the political fallout if we went to war." But he wrote that Jim Jordan, Mr. Kerry's former Senate press secretary and future campaign manager, "was insisting that he had to vote with Bush." Mr. Shrum wrote that Mr. Jordan had "hammered" Mr. Kerry with a warning: "Go ahead and vote against it if you want, but you'll never be president of the United States." Mr. Kerry voted for the war resolution, and Mr. Jordan became Mr. Kerry's campaign manager three months later.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
well said...
Jake, everything you said about Shrum is absolutely, 100% true - but ain’t he fun to watch, particularly at this time!!
He is - I love watching politician eat their own.
It’s sad - but always good theater
You goota give Schrum credit eith JFKerry, he came within 60,000 votes of winning (Ohio) and the whole Election with a hopeless idiot and anri-American flip-flopper. Thats SCARY!
I'm wondering how a kiss-and-tell book is going to cause anyone to confide in him...
‘You goota give Schrum credit eith JFKerry, he came within 60,000 votes of winning (Ohio) and the whole Election with a hopeless idiot and anri-American flip-flopper. Thats SCARY!’
I give the ‘credit’ to the MSM, not Bob ‘I can’t win national elections’ Shrum.
Hell, Dan Rather did more for Kerry than Schrum did.
After this book, he won't be either. Who would let this guy run his campaign, only to write a tell-all book a few years later? This means Shrum is sticking to punditry from now on.
Bob Shrum “King of the Losers” nips back. Serious can anyone challenge Shrum for having a worse national campaign record?? Even Harold Stasser probably hired different managers over the years. Shrum must have offended a goat somewhere in the past (a not-so-viled reference to the Chicago Cubs and their angry goat).
So Lurch decides the weightiest matters of war and peace by putting his finger up to the political winds..... what a surprise. I very much doubt he had any real doubts about the WMD issue then — virtually everyone from multiple intel agencies to both parties was agreed on the problem, the question (then) was only what to do about it.
Lurch put on his secret CIA hat from his secret mission to Cambodia and pondered which vote would be best for his personal political prospects. No surprise there....
Agree............Shrum makes me get diahrea whenever
his bald, blank face appears with Chrissie...Schrum
has an easy name to rhyme..as in Crumb!! Also is
very appropriate for his half/ass advice to anyone
for anything???????? JK
I think he’s aiming for a gig at CNN
He throws like a girl!
'Her New York crew is fighting . . . with her D.C. folks, and it's worse than the normal stuff, real serious tensions,' said a Democratic Party source. 'The New York folks are the ones who got her elected to begin with. They've done it and know what to do. The D.C. folks are the "geniuses" who do "national elections" and think everyone here is a rube.'
Probably upset that she spilled the beans and advocated naked socialism over personal liberty and responsibility.
We Are All in It Together, Clinton Says [Shared Prosperity Should Replace "On Your Own' Society"] (AP May 29, 2007 Holly Ramer)
These presidential contenders wouldn’t get very far telling the voting public that their stance was based up campaign advisers and polling data, so they tell the public that “Bush lied” instead.
They don’t even read the briefings themselves.
Hillary is too focused on choosing a campaign theme song.
(s) so it was not the candidate, the message was not dumbed down enough for the stupid people to understand(/s)
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