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Vets, pols stick it to Kerry: Iraq remarks draw ire
Boston Herald ^ | Oct. 31 2006 | Joe Dwinell

Posted on 10/31/2006 1:52:37 PM PST by Rennes Templar

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s “botched joke” about students needing to study hard or risk becoming “stuck in Iraq” has ignited a political firestorm over the war exactly a week from the election.

Kerry lashed out at the White House at a press conference in Seattle this afternoon for attacking him for his comments. The White House, however, called on Kerry to apologize for troop-bashing. A defiant Kerry refused.

“Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how,” Kerry said. “I apologize to no one for my criticism of the President and his broken policy. If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the president and his failed team.”

Kerry then admitted “my statement yesterday, and the White House knows this full well, was a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops.”

Yesterday, at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, Kerry told a cheering Pasadena City College audience: “Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and do your homework and you make an effort to be smart you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Video snippets of the speech have popped up on www.youtube.com, prompting irate calls by mothers of U.S. soldiers to Boston radio talk stations.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) issued a statement today calling on fellow Vietnam veteran Kerry to say he’s sorry.

“Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country’s call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education,” McCain said in a statement posted on drudgereport.com.

And the White House also called on Kerry to apologize.

“Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who’ve given their lives in this,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said. “This is an absolute insult.”

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, fired back, saying the president and his administration are the ones who owe U.S. troops an apology because they “misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it.”

“This is the classic GOP playbook,” Kerry said in the harshly worded statement. “I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium.”


TOPICS: Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hanoikerry; johnkerry; kerry; kerrydumbiraqgaffe; kerryisanabortion; kkkerry; lurch; pervertedsickjokepos; swiftvets; traitorkerry; unfit
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To: kingu

Where's Kerry's Sugar Mama?


81 posted on 10/31/2006 3:09:47 PM PST by Milligan
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To: Rennes Templar

Karl told the Dems, "Whatever you do, don't push the red button."

Did they listen?

82 posted on 10/31/2006 3:11:45 PM PST by DeFault User
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To: GretchenM
Here we go again.

What's that sound I hear...could it be the sound of twin V12s in a Swift Boat?

We're still out here Kerry and we are watching your every slither.

83 posted on 10/31/2006 3:12:40 PM PST by Cuttnhorse
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To: Rennes Templar

2º... WHOA! We almost hit 70 today in MA.


84 posted on 10/31/2006 3:14:30 PM PST by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: P-Marlowe; blue-duncan; Corin Stormhands; jude24; Gamecock; Dr. Eckleburg; Alamo-Girl; ...

Ping to #7 this thread.


85 posted on 10/31/2006 3:18:13 PM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it! Supporting our troops means praying for them to WIN!)
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To: 13Sisters76
"This man is a GIFT to the GOP!"

You are so right!

Keep it up Johnny-Boy. Piss off more Americans and show them what an A-Hole you really are!

86 posted on 10/31/2006 3:18:33 PM PST by albee (The best thing you can do for the poor is.....not be one of them. - Eric Hoffer)
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To: rwgal
What kind of dim witted clowns keep re electing this scum?

The same ones that keep re-electing Ted Kennedy. Nuf said?

87 posted on 10/31/2006 3:19:05 PM PST by L.N. Smithee (Dixie Chicks: "We're Not Ready To Make Sense!")
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To: dead

Oh, that is good.


88 posted on 10/31/2006 3:19:29 PM PST by tioga
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To: Rennes Templar

Global warming ya figure?


89 posted on 10/31/2006 3:20:35 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: johnny7

John F. Kerry provided the Wellstone moment of the 2006 campaign.


90 posted on 10/31/2006 3:23:38 PM PST by Don'tMessWithTexas
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To: InvisibleChurch
You'd like this one:

Today on the Howie Carr Show(WRKO Boston), another mother called in about the Kerry comment stating that her son was now at Paris Island(Marines) and that she took it as a personal insult. She also said that Kerry insulted her fathers service as well. He was serving in Vietnam when Kerry went before the House Committee in 1971.

She was excellent!

91 posted on 10/31/2006 3:24:01 PM PST by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: kjo

Doubtful. Durbin only apologized because Mayor Daley ordered him to do so. Daley has a son in the military, so he's that extremely rare Dem, one with some clue about reality. There's no one in MA with a clue among the Dems, so Kerry won't be forced to do the smart thing politically. Heck, the base will lionize him for saying what so many of them actually believe.


92 posted on 10/31/2006 3:28:53 PM PST by LenS
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To: Rennes Templar

If Kerry works hard, studies and does his political homework, he'll apologize and never make this mistake again. If not, he'll be stuck in deep Heinz Ketchup for the rest of his career.


93 posted on 10/31/2006 3:29:12 PM PST by omni-scientist
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To: johnny7

He blew it, not once but twice, by what he said, and then for refusing to apologize for it! Those da@n democrats always harp on how Bush refused to apologize and here is Mr. FOOT IN MOUTH himself refusing to do the right thing and EVERYONE in AMERICA KNOWS IT! I hope it shakes up Republicans in EVERY STATE to get out and vote republican and hopefully some dem military families will be outraged enough to turn the tide!


94 posted on 10/31/2006 3:29:40 PM PST by princess leah
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To: Rennes Templar

Ya gotta love it!!!


95 posted on 10/31/2006 3:30:30 PM PST by no dems (Duncan Hunter for Prez / Tony Snow for VEEP in '08)
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To: princess leah

They gotta' beat on this like a rented mule... Kerry's gaffe is our Fitzmas!


96 posted on 10/31/2006 3:35:01 PM PST by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: MNJohnnie
One thing is for certain...whatever the dims have in store for their "October Surprise" will be unveiled tomorrow NLT 0800 EST.

They must do whatever they can to get this one off the front pages and off the news programs.

97 posted on 10/31/2006 3:37:29 PM PST by Mariner
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To: EternalVigilance

Kerry, Stuck on stupid


98 posted on 10/31/2006 3:40:20 PM PST by mcspur (Covered by his blood, safe in his arms.)
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To: Cuttnhorse
The response sound is a beautiful thing.

Kerry's liberal media friends' redux of his *war hero* status, now that activates this:

99 posted on 10/31/2006 3:43:48 PM PST by GretchenM (What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Please meet my friend, Jesus.)
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To: Rennes Templar

“I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium.”

Ketchup boy just keeps a diggin his way to China. Maybe he can insult Mom and Apple Pie before Theresa pulls his allowance.


100 posted on 10/31/2006 3:44:22 PM PST by FastCoyote
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