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John Le Kerry
The New Yorker ^ | May 19,2003 | Christopher Buckley

Posted on 05/14/2003 1:16:58 PM PDT by Molly Pitcher

|

Marc Racicot, the Republican national chairman, said recently that [Massachusetts Senator John] Kerry “is going to have a hard time translating out of New England.” Another Bush adviser said of Mr. Kerry, “He looks French.”—The Times.

President Bush told the Union of English-Speaking Peoples today that those who seek the U.S. Presidency should “at least make an effort to look American.”

The President told the monolingual audience that, “at a time when American values are being assaulted by a country we’ve had to liberate twice in the last century, it’s a bit much that Senator Kerry goes around acting like the headwaiter at some snooty French restaurant.”

Mr. Bush conceded that the most American-looking President was probably Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, but he said that Franklin Roosevelt’s middle name, Delano, “sounded pretty French.”

Top Republican strategist Karl Rove today dismissed Senator John Kerry’s charge that President Bush is understating budget deficits as a “typically Gallic smear.”

In a speech to the Anti-French League of Greater Indianapolis, Rove said, “If it quacks like a canard, and walks like a canard, you can bet it’s a canard.” He added, “I guess I don’t have to translate that for Monsieur Kerry.”

He suggested that the Massachusetts Senator was basing his calculations on euros instead of dollars.

In a sign that the Bush campaign plans to portray Senator John Kerry as an aloof, anti-American snob who doodles on legal pads during Senate committee hearings by conjugating French irregular verbs, Bush media adviser Mark McKinnon unveiled a half-dozen thirty-second spots designed to emphasize Mr. Kerry’s “alarming and unapologetic Francophilia.”

The ads, which McKinnon admits have been “somewhat” computer-enhanced, variously depict the Senator singing the “Marseillaise” on the floor of the U.S. Senate during a filibuster in the discussion of Bush judicial appointees, raising the French tricolor over the U.S. Capitol, and groping French actress Sophie Marceau during an anti-Iraq-war protest march on the Mall in Washington.

The Bush campaign today denied that it played any role in the leaking of video-rental records showing that Senator Kerry favors French films. The list of movies allegedly borrowed by Mr. Kerry includes “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday,” “The 400 Blows,” and “Claire’s Knee,” all by French directors.

The movies are subtitled in English. However, a top Bush aide remarked that the Senator “wouldn’t need the translations, since French is practically his first language.” He added, “It’s deplorable, at a time when Americans are struggling to make ends meet, that Mr. Kerry is pouring money into the economy of a country that sided with Saddam Hussein during Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today said that Senator Kerry, when he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, “probably” went to Vietnam for the purpose of winning the country back “for the French.” “I’m not saying he wasn’t brave,” Rumsfeld said. “Oh, my goodness, no. But was he really there to fight against Communist aggression, or was it to get back at the North Vietnamese for the loss of Dien Bien Phu? I think that’s a perfectly legitimate question.”

Responding to allegations by the Kerry campaign that his surname denotes French ancestry, Vice-President Cheney issued a statement that he would “probably commit suicide” if he found out that he had “so much as one cc. of French blood.”

He said that the name Cheney was German-Scots-Irish, with “a touch of Faeroe Islands and Mohican Indian.” One ancestor, he said proudly, had fought against the French at Waterloo, while another “scalped enough Frenchmen during the French and Indian War to make himself a warm winter coat.”

The Vice-President admitted that his wife, who has a Ph.D., speaks French, but he said that she prefers not to.

During the first Presidential debate, last night, President Bush repeatedly addressed Democratic challenger John Kerry with French expressions, calling him “mon vieux,” “mon cher,” and even “mon petit chou.” The latter means, literally, “my little cabbage.”

Senator Kerry for the most part ignored the President, until Mr. Bush asserted that Mr. Kerry looked as though he had “been weaned on a cornichon.” At this point, the Senator had apparently had enough.

“Merde, alors!” he said, his face a mask of cold, distinctly Gallic fury. “Assez! Salopard! Tu veux un morceau de moi? Eh?”

In what was viewed by many as a bid to woo Hispanic voters, Mr. Bush responded in Spanish, inviting Mr. Kerry either to kiss a burro or to sit on a burrito. The exact meaning was not immediately clear.

Both sides claimed victory.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; christopherbuckley; frenchphonies; helooksfrench; johnkerry; ketchup; looksfrench
Responding to allegations by the Kerry campaign that his surname denotes French ancestry, Vice-President Cheney issued a statement that he would “probably commit suicide” if he found out that he had “so much as one cc. of French blood.”

My favorite line....

1 posted on 05/14/2003 1:16:58 PM PDT by Molly Pitcher
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To: Molly Pitcher
Who can translate the French sentence?
2 posted on 05/14/2003 1:45:48 PM PDT by moneyrunner (I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed to its idolatries a patient knee.)
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To: Molly Pitcher
"acting like the headwaiter at some snooty French restaurant."


Senator Kerry entertaining at a democratic fundraiser...

3 posted on 05/14/2003 1:48:40 PM PDT by SquirrelKing ("Saddam is... Barney Rubble living at the No Roof Inn having a hummus smoothie." - Dennis Miller)
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To: moneyrunner
Enough! Bastard! You want a piece of me? Eh??
4 posted on 05/14/2003 1:49:22 PM PDT by patent (A baby is God's opinion that life should go on. Carl Sandburg)
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To: Molly Pitcher
Of all the husbands of all the ketchup heiresses in all the world, we got him.
5 posted on 05/14/2003 2:10:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Molly Pitcher; ohioWfan; JohnHuang2; rintense; DrDeb; Brad's Gramma; nicollo; JRandomFreeper
Funny stuff!
6 posted on 05/14/2003 2:15:59 PM PDT by kayak (Do not bet against the success of freedom. - GWB 5/9/03)
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To: Molly Pitcher
The ad depicts the Senator groping French actress Sophie Marceau

Well, finally something that raises his image a notch in my eyes!


7 posted on 05/14/2003 2:27:32 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
The only thing Senator Kerry actually looks like is that rock profile in New Hampshire that finally broke and slid on down to the lake.

By the way, since Senator Kerry is Irish, this French stuff must really be giving him a laff! But it was not ethnicity that put this public servant in office. It was alcohol.

By the time the average snockered Massachewshitts resident gets to the polls he'll only see tyhe K and the Y, and naturally he is voting for one of God's Chosen Peole, the Kennedy de jour. The people of the Commonwealth have been taking their KY in order to accomodatre the Kennedys for a long time.

8 posted on 05/14/2003 3:38:54 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

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To: LindaSOG
Too late. I was viewing here a while ago.
11 posted on 05/14/2003 6:53:50 PM PDT by Radix (This Tag Line offers the French word for surrender....Abandon)
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To: TonyRo76
I actually had never heard of her, but ran a Google image search. Do the same, and you'll find some that are even better but seemed borderline for posting at FR!
12 posted on 05/14/2003 7:03:57 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: kayak; Molly Pitcher
Spending the evening catching up on FR stuff... this is hilarious!

I love the irony that "Cheney" is a Fr___ word...
14 posted on 05/16/2003 3:34:25 PM PDT by nicollo
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To: nicollo
I'm glad you enjoyed the humor break ..... I was ROFL myself.
15 posted on 05/16/2003 5:59:09 PM PDT by kayak (Do not bet against the success of freedom. - GWB 5/9/03)
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