15: Kerry vs. the GOP.
EVENT
From the New York Times political blog, the caucus:
October 31, 2006, 2:39 pm
Getting Stuck on Iraq
By Kate Phillips
Well, all sides seem spoiling for a fight, and over what, of course, but the war in Iraq. With President Bush telling crowds at his final week of “open rallies” for candidates that if Democrats win, the terrorists win, we thought the language had already gotten pretty hot in this last stretch.
Today, the White House and Senator John Kerry engaged in a war of words over a comment the Democratic senator (and 2004 presidential nominee who lost to Mr. Bush) made to students on Monday during a college event for Phil Angelides, the challenger to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t - you get stuck in Iraq."
? Well, it didn’t take long for Republicans, conservative bloggers and families of soldiers, as well as Senator John McCain, to pounce on the remark, and for Mr. Kerry to smack back at them.
At the White House briefing, the press secretary, Tony Snow, was not only armed with the full Kerry quote, but with a bucket-full response:
It sort of fits a pattern. You may recall that last year Senator Kerry on CBS’s Face the Nation accused U.S. soldiers of terrorizing kids and children in Iraq and recently also described troop concentrations in Baghdad as, quote, “having failed miserably.”
What Senator Kerry ought to do first is apologize to the troops. The clear implication here is: If you flunk out, if you don’t study hard, if you don’t do your homework, if you don’t make an effort to be smart and you don’t do well, you, quote, "get stuck in Iraq."
Bret, an extraordinary thing has happened since Sept. 11, which is a lot of people, America’s finest, have willingly agreed to volunteer their services in a mission that they know is dangerous, but is also important. And, you know, Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who have given their lives in this. This is an absolute insult, and I’m a little astonished that he didn’t figure it out already. I mean, you know, as far as Senator Kerry - I mean, you’ve seen me; if I say something stupid, I apologize as quickly as possible. And this is something for which he ought to apologize. Meanwhile, it’s probably reasonable to ask some of the Democrats - ask Jim Webb or Tammy Duckworth, both of whom are citing their military record, "O.K. What do you think about it? What do you think about this quote? Do you agree with him? He was your presidential nominee."
And as for the notion that, you know, you can say this sort of thing about the troops and say you support them, it’s interesting.
Toward the end of the briefing, Mr. Snow was again asked about the Kerry comment:
Q: Tony, some of Senator Kerry’s people are saying that Senator Kerry was not talking about the soldiers when he made that comment, but in fact was talking about the president.
Mr. Snow: What, we’re deporting high school students to get stuck in Iraq?
Q: That - I’m just telling you what Senator Kerry’s people are saying, that he was talking about the president, not the soldiers, that if he’d done his homework, we wouldn’t be stuck in Iraq.
Mr. Snow: Okay. A, that’s - I’m sorry. Tell him to try Version 2.0.
Senator Kerry then issued a blistering statement, prefaced by this name-calling intro:
Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in
response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing
nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s
comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous
record:
"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.
I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.
The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who 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. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.
Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.
Then Senator McCain chimed in:
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.
Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night.
Without them, we wouldn’t live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.
Update: 2:45 p.m. Senator Kerry was steaming in Seattle. At a news conference, he asserted that the White House knows full well that his remarks were a “botched” joke aimed at the president and his people. "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and his broken policy," Mr. Kerry said angrily. He called the White House comments "a textbook" Republican campaign strategy, to turn everything into "raw politics."
"Shame on them," he said. "Shame on them."
Mmmmmm. Plan or no plan, staying or changing the course, timetable vs. deadline vs. benchmark vs. goals, we’re pretty sure anything that anyone says that can be construed as maligning the American troops is a no-brainer, losing war of words. We’ll have to see tonight if Mr. Bush takes this cue, too.
Everything he's said, of course, is correct. It is easy to see how his statement was taken as a comment about uneducated enlistees, but it takes very little additional effort to understand what he really meant by the comment. The comment he was accused of making was, as he Kerry aptly put it himself, "crazy."
I just wish he could have fought like this in '04.
Is the Democratic Party going to be a phoenix this year?
END OF POST.
Getting Stuck on Iraq
By Kate Phillips
Well, all sides seem spoiling for a fight, and over what, of course, but the war in Iraq. With President Bush telling crowds at his final week of “open rallies” for candidates that if Democrats win, the terrorists win, we thought the language had already gotten pretty hot in this last stretch.
Today, the White House and Senator John Kerry engaged in a war of words over a comment the Democratic senator (and 2004 presidential nominee who lost to Mr. Bush) made to students on Monday during a college event for Phil Angelides, the challenger to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t - you get stuck in Iraq."
? Well, it didn’t take long for Republicans, conservative bloggers and families of soldiers, as well as Senator John McCain, to pounce on the remark, and for Mr. Kerry to smack back at them.
At the White House briefing, the press secretary, Tony Snow, was not only armed with the full Kerry quote, but with a bucket-full response:
It sort of fits a pattern. You may recall that last year Senator Kerry on CBS’s Face the Nation accused U.S. soldiers of terrorizing kids and children in Iraq and recently also described troop concentrations in Baghdad as, quote, “having failed miserably.”
What Senator Kerry ought to do first is apologize to the troops. The clear implication here is: If you flunk out, if you don’t study hard, if you don’t do your homework, if you don’t make an effort to be smart and you don’t do well, you, quote, "get stuck in Iraq."
Bret, an extraordinary thing has happened since Sept. 11, which is a lot of people, America’s finest, have willingly agreed to volunteer their services in a mission that they know is dangerous, but is also important. And, you know, Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who have given their lives in this. This is an absolute insult, and I’m a little astonished that he didn’t figure it out already. I mean, you know, as far as Senator Kerry - I mean, you’ve seen me; if I say something stupid, I apologize as quickly as possible. And this is something for which he ought to apologize. Meanwhile, it’s probably reasonable to ask some of the Democrats - ask Jim Webb or Tammy Duckworth, both of whom are citing their military record, "O.K. What do you think about it? What do you think about this quote? Do you agree with him? He was your presidential nominee."
And as for the notion that, you know, you can say this sort of thing about the troops and say you support them, it’s interesting.
Toward the end of the briefing, Mr. Snow was again asked about the Kerry comment:
Q: Tony, some of Senator Kerry’s people are saying that Senator Kerry was not talking about the soldiers when he made that comment, but in fact was talking about the president.
Mr. Snow: What, we’re deporting high school students to get stuck in Iraq?
Q: That - I’m just telling you what Senator Kerry’s people are saying, that he was talking about the president, not the soldiers, that if he’d done his homework, we wouldn’t be stuck in Iraq.
Mr. Snow: Okay. A, that’s - I’m sorry. Tell him to try Version 2.0.
Senator Kerry then issued a blistering statement, prefaced by this name-calling intro:
Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in
response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing
nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s
comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous
record:
"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.
I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.
The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who 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. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.
Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.
Then Senator McCain chimed in:
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.
Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night.
Without them, we wouldn’t live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.
Update: 2:45 p.m. Senator Kerry was steaming in Seattle. At a news conference, he asserted that the White House knows full well that his remarks were a “botched” joke aimed at the president and his people. "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and his broken policy," Mr. Kerry said angrily. He called the White House comments "a textbook" Republican campaign strategy, to turn everything into "raw politics."
"Shame on them," he said. "Shame on them."
Mmmmmm. Plan or no plan, staying or changing the course, timetable vs. deadline vs. benchmark vs. goals, we’re pretty sure anything that anyone says that can be construed as maligning the American troops is a no-brainer, losing war of words. We’ll have to see tonight if Mr. Bush takes this cue, too.
