Kerry no-show in intelligence committee-Missed 38 of 49 public hearings in 8 years

worldnetdaily.com ^ | 8-2-04

[treeclimber]

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry missed most of the public hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee during his eight years on the panel, according to his colleagues.

During his tenure on the committee, which provides oversight of national intelligence agencies, Kerry was absent for 38 of 49 public hearings, according to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

"There's been a total avoidance of discussion of the voting record of John Kerry," said Chambliss last week, following Kerry's acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination. "But that's not surprising. There's one area that he claims to have a lot of expertise and that's in the area of national security and on the issue of terrorism."

Chambliss said Kerry's vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, is a current member of the committee, "And I'll just tell you that in the last year and a half we haven't seen a whole lot of his running mate. And I would hope that he would agree to release to you the record of his attendance at meetings and hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee over the last year and a half, or his total service on that committee."

Chambliss also questioned some of the votes Kerry did cast.

"For example, in1993 after the World Trade Center bombing Senator Kerry introduced a number of measures that were to reduce funding for the intelligence community by $7.5 billion, including a bill that he introduced in 1995 that called for the reduction in funding for the intelligence committees and intelligence communities by $300 million a year for five consecutive years," he said.

Chambliss points out those five years led up to Sept. 11. Kerry did not get any co-sponsors on that bill.

"He's been in the Senate for 20 years," said Chambliss. "Nobody has come to the platform to say, 'This is what John Kerry has done in his 20 years in the Senate.' They're not doing that because they can't do that."

[treeclimber]

But he has all the answers. He knows how to solve all our problems, even without being informed...

yeah right....

[goldstategop]

Senator Kerry couldn't even bothered to be kept informed of the most crucial developments facing our country and he wants us to trust him as President? Last month in New York City, he admitted he was too busy to receive a national security briefing. But he wasn't too busy allowing Whoopi Goldberg to utter an X-rated rant against the President that he described as the embodiment of American values. At least we know his priorities. He wants to get elected and everything, including the safety of our country, is secondary to that objective.

[mewzilla]

And I would hope that he would agree to release to you the record of his attendance at meetings and hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee over the last year and a half, or his total service on that committee.

Well, Junior, how about it? How many have you missed?

[toomanygrasshoppers]

This information has to be hammered over and over again by the Bush campaign. It's a simple message that even the dems could understand.

[OldFriend]

Ketchup-boy demanding that all the 9/11 commission recommendations be implemented immediately.

Has he read the recommendations? I doubt it....been too busy dreaming up new excuses for every faux statement he makes.

[treeclimber]

You're damn right in your summation.

[ChadGore]

The guy can't even SHOW UP to do his job ?

[mewzilla]

He won't show up. Even worse.

[IamConservative]

Republicans will retain control of the house. Under no scenario will the Democrats get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Doesn't really matter what Kerry's domestic agenda is, it's not going to happen. This election is truly about foreign policy and national security. I do find the "I have a plan but I am not going to share it until I am elected" approach interesting. I do not think "hate Bush" can win a national election. I just don't see then undecideds trusting this clown.

[7.62 x 51mm]

And the idiot, liberal-demokkkRAT voters in Taxachusettes keep returning him and the bloated, alcoholic murderer, Kennedy, to office. What a disgrace of a state.

[Twinkie]

Oh well, the Senate "career" looks like it has just
been a stepping stone to bigger and better things,
a sham - like the illustrious three and some weeks
military "career". Another sham President, just what
we need after 8 long yrs. of the Clintons.

[Pharlap]

Kerry has said he has the answers. He just will not tell us what they are until after he is elected. That's just too great a price to pay to find out what they are. I, for one, will do all I can to keep his answers secret. That said, I would hope the Senator would provide, sooner rather than later, the answer to one very troubling question: Where are the F***ING balloons?

[SamAdams76]

The Dems must be nuts to nominate this pompous jackass who is going to be so easily destroyed by the Bush campaign this fall.

I mean it's going to be like shooting ducks in a barrel. John Kerry - missed 38 of 49 hearings for this, 22 of 30 hearings for that, missed 90% of his senate votes, and on and on. John Kerry - the "absentee" senator.

There will be absolutely no defense that Kerry will have to all of this. What's he going to do, bring up Bush's "spotty" National Guard attendance from 30 years ago? Too bad, that's old news already.

The Bush campaign is playing it smart. They are saving all this ammunition for the fall. The ads pointing out Kerry's failure to carry out the senatorial duties he was elected to perform are going to be devastating. I can see one of them now...A short clip of Kerry at the DNC saying "John Kerry reporting for duty..." and then a laundry list of all the missed votes and meetings over the past years.

It's going to be fun to watch.

[SamAdams76]

Also...it would be a nice touch for the Bush campaign to insert clips at the end of the ads showing Kerry skiing, bicycling and snowboarding, etc. Kerry sets aside plenty of time for these activities but he rarely has time to show up and actually do his job.

[jimfree]

This could be huge.

[Pharlap]

The ad might be captioned "The return of the prodigal son", or to continue the theme "The return of the AWOL senator,"

[Guillermo]

Dude, give the guy a break.

What's he supposed to do when there's new poweder on the slopes? Big waves on the beach? High winds for his kiteboard?

[OXENinFLA]

PING/..............

[JustaCowgirl]

"I can see one of them now...A short clip of Kerry at the DNC saying "John Kerry reporting for duty..." and then a laundry list of all the missed votes and meetings over the past years. "

And dollars to donuts there will be an ad almost exactly with that script. The Republicans are smart enough to show that dorky salute over and over again.

[Imagine]

FACTS DON'T MATTER TO KERRY. ALL HE NEEDS TO KNOW ARE THE DEMANDS OF THE FOLLWING GROUPS, which comprise the majority of the democRAT party. Please note that the average, working guy is not found anywhere on the list.


The democrat convention in Boston was nothing but an exercise in putting a new dress on an old whore.

The convention planners had to hide all their extremists from public view. WE DID NOT SEE THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY:

· the hateful gays and lesbians, who in addition to their nights of sinful debauchery, covet our most precious – our children;
· the violent Marxists that hate freedom and individual wealth, yet want to run the country;
· the hateful atheists and Christian-haters who hate Christians and "tradition-only" Jews who hate truly spiritual Jews;
· the educationalists hate parents who would raise children with ethics and morals, who design the perverse curricula designed to indoctrinate our children with hate-America and free-sex ideas;
· the vile and hateful abortionists rejoicing as they kill baby after baby and strive to silence the pro-lifers;
· the hateful feminists whose contempt of men knows no limits;
· the union thugs who shake down corporations and beat up those that just want to work;
· the zombie-like bureaucrats who run the legions of non-performing, paper-shuffling “goobermint” employees (military excepted) who vote democrat just because a republican president might actually expect them to work;
· society-dependent families and individuals who take advantage of every hand-out program in America and vote only for those who promise more goodies for them;
· the bitter socialists who want to sap the productivity of the producers and capitalists by penalizing profits;
· the intellectual elite who hate everything that America stands for, and prattle on and on as to the evils of our society, but, haven’t the capacity to think their way out of a paper bag, let alone be productive members of the American economy. According to them, government control of our lives “good, ” but individuals choosing their own path and having success “bad.”
· the hateful racial "dividers" who blame the evil white man for all their cultural problems, and demand more and more of the your hard labors as compensation;
· the open-border racists who invite floods of illegals into this country and then encourage them to sign up for all the freebees;
· the gun-haters who hate the that honest Americans might have a gun in their home, or worse yet, that some of them have license to carry it under their coats
· And the (not so) hateful, but brain-dead suburban soccer moms who really have no clue, except that they want abortion to remain unrestricted, and think their most important purpose in this world is to have tea with their town’s Superintendent of schools so their kids get the best teachers.

WE DID NOT SEE THE TRUE FACE OF DEMOCRATS at the Boston convention but they were there nonetheless. These hateful people had to sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut; allowed only to clap their hands, flash big smiles and cheer their leaders’ lies. They looked just like you and me at the convention, but they were impossible to spot. But, they were there as certain as the sun rises in the east!

Being “democrat” is synonymous with being dishonest. Except for their voting base, the only way the democrats can convince people to vote for them is to pretend they are normal people. You can dress them up, but you can’t change what’s inside – they’re rotten to the core.

[yoe]

Kerry had Sandy Berger on his campaign committee as his Security Advisor...until Berger got caught on camera with his pants down, 'er stuffed.........

[mewzilla]

Kerry have been reporting for the cushy duty at the convention. But hew sure as HECK was AWOL from his intell committee responsibilities.

[motor_racer]

Could we please stop saying "missed" and start saying "skipped"? To say he missed them implies it may have been unavoidable, even an innocent mistake. He skipped them. They simply didn't rise to the top of his priorities.

[uncbob]

Under no scenario will the Democrats get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

They don't have to If the GOP loses control they will roll over even more than they do as a majority

[Condor51]

"Reporting for ...... oops!
Never mind, gotta run. See ya."

[Stag]

Hey, don;t be so hard on the guy, burying his head in the sand is a perfectly reasonable strategy for a 4 month combat vet.

[prairiebreeze]

From another article AWOL In The Fight Against GW Bush

The publication Congressional Quarterly examined 119 recorded votes held in 2003 in which the president had taken a position. CQ found that Kerry was present for just 28 percent of those votes. In contrast, Kerry's colleague from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, was present for 97 percent of the votes.

When Kerry showed up, he did indeed vote against the president a significant number of times. In 2003, according to CQ, Kerry sided against the president 70 percent of the time. Kennedy, usually viewed as the gold standard of liberal orthodoxy, voted against Bush 53 percent of the time.

How in the He!! does this guy justify a paycheck?? Wake up Massachusettes, FGS!

Prairie

[angkor]

missed 38 of 49 hearings for this, 22 of 30 hearings for that

Has a career rating of 92 from Americans for Democratic Action, a premiere liberal lobbying group.

[IamConservative]

Let's hope not. The Dems have established that the filibuster is to be used as a tool to prevent a President from implementing a legislative agenda.

[prairiebreeze]

Ping, for your distribution consideration. :^)

[TheBattman]

Exactly what I was thinking - he has missed nearly all of the security briefings, mised hearings, and yet is suppose to be such an expert on the subject?

And Stupid American Sheople are polling (at least in most of the Major Lame-stream media's polls" in favor of this lying sack of crap.

I guess we will see if the end of America is at hand - depending upon the November election.

[aruanan]

Related to Kerry's almost complete no-show, I heard a clip of Kerry telling how GW Bush had misled him and the American public into authorizing the use of force in Iraq. This clip provided a very good, but scary, insight into how Kerry's mind works.

Kerry said he voted for the bill but that he had specifically listed what he meant by voting for that bill in his Senate speech. He went on to say that Bush had not fulfilled those enumerated Kerry speech conditions and, therefore, had misled both Kerry and the American people about the use of force in Iraq.

The problem with this argument is that it was the bill, not Kerry's rhetorical filagrees, that authorized GW Bush to do what he did in Iraq. It was the wording of the bill, not Kerry's reasons for voting for the bill, that defined the scope of the president's action in Iraq.

Kerry's comments indicate that for him the most important thing about the bill was his reason for voting for it. This gives insight into the degree of his inflated self-importance. Accordingly, anything that doesn't jibe with Kerry's reasons for voting for the bill, never mind the actual language of the bill, is contrary to the bill. This sort of thinking borders on the pathological.

Now if all these things Kerry had enumerated were SO important that he expected them to be followed by the president as though they had the force of law, then he should have offered them as specific amendments to the bill. But he did not.

Not only this, Kerry claims that since his reasons for voting for the bill weren't followed, GW Bush had been misleading him in asking him for authorization for the use of force in Iraq. Huh? GW Bush was acting within the language of the bill, not within Kerry's wish list about why Kerry was signing the bill. So where's the misleading?

If you look at some other comments Kerry made last week about that bill, you'll see Kerry stated that he and others thought GW Bush was just asking for this authorization in order to placate folks like the Secretary of Defense and that Bush wouldn't actually go ahead and use force. Kerry claims, then, that when GW Bush actually did go ahead and use force in Iraq, he was able to do so by having misled Kerry into thinking that he was going to take the resolution and then do nothing.

So what we have here is a case of one person, GW, clearly stating what he was going to do and why he was going to do it, and another person, Kerry, believing that GW was just saying all these things but was actually planning to do what Kerry wanted. So when what Kerry thought wasn't followed, he claims that the other person had somehow 1. known what he thought, 2. pitched his deal to Kerry based on a mutual, though unspoken, understanding, 3. gotten the okay, and then 4. violated that unspoken understanding, having deliberately misled Kerry into supporting it in the first place.

Do we really need this kind of "mind" in the White House as Commander in Chief? He's too much steeped in the Senate tradition of saying one thing for the record and another thing off the Senate floor, of tradeoffs and ostensible, but not real, support to deal with folks like Osama who say, "We will destroy you" and then set about trying to do it. Kerry and his word games and complexities and nuances need to be left on the curbside with the rest of the trash. It has no place in the Executive Branch.

[no dems]

I heard Senator Zell Miller (D) of GA say the same thing on yesterday's Meet the Press. I thought: Here's another op for the GOP. But, will they capitalize on it?" I hope so.

I can't wait to hear Zell speak at the GOP Convention.

I will e-mail this to the BC'04 Campaign as well as several battleground state GOP HQ, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Rush.

[hoosiermama]

AM not sure that the RNC should show the film....It does need to be made and distributed, but would have more impact if it were put together and funded by a "Group of grass root citizens"......

[OrioleFan]

I bet Kerry passed up briefings on the latest threats, too.

[Graymatter]

"And I would hope that he would agree to release to you the record of his attendance at meetings and hearings..."

Excuse me? Are you telling us this is not simple public knowledge? We need his permission to know if he has been at his job?

[Whataday]

It is amazing that no one on the networks brings this up...

[Graymatter]

Excellent argument. I hope somebody's listening!

[TexasCajun]

And as a Senator for what? 20 yrs? He can not even mention 1 piece of legislature that he sponsored or cosponsored that he help enact, not one!

...did even have anything to say about his senate career in his acceptance speech.

[aruanan]

Thanks.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"The ad might be captioned "The return of the prodigal son", or to continue the theme "The return of the AWOL senator,""

John Kerry did not once go AWOL during his four months serving in Vietnam.

But where has John Kerry been since that time 35 years ago?
In 2003 John Kerry was AWOL from his senate seat 85% of the
time. In his 8 years on the Senate intelligence committe, John Kerry was AWOL 38 out of 49 meetings.

35 years ago is a long time Senator Kerry, what have you done since those four months in Vietnam, when you won your 3 purple hearts, yet will not tell the nation what they were for.

Let's face it. It isn't that the Senator was AWOL, he just never arrived to go AWOL.

[smiley]

Curious...just what was Kerry doing instead of showing up for work???.....

[Smartaleck]

"Kerry no-show in intelligence committee-Missed 38 of 49 public hearings in 8 years "

I he ain't there, how can he be mis-led?????

Fact is, he had no clue.

[AmericanMade1776]

Just when is Kerry "GOING TO REPORT FOR DUTY"?

[gathersnomoss]

..."voters in Taxachusettes keep returning him and the bloated, alcoholic murderer, Kennedy, to office"

You obviously have no eye, er uh ear, for talent. Kennedy's second career as a Spanish singer is taking off. Don't tell me you haven't heard him yet.

[DoctorZIn]

This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!

[7.62 x 51mm]

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Yes, I did hear two songs by him, on Hannity, and one was in Spang-lish. The other was an Irish song, sung in the key of Scotch. Freaking hilarious! I'd love to see the video.

[Barset]

Thanks. I can use this, not that facts influence the "America is just a place. We stole it from the Indians so what right do we have to keep anyone else out. Constitution? I don't care what it is; it don't mean nothin'. etc., etc.," contingent of voters.

[Smartass]

THANKS FOR THE PING!

Meaning..."Hanoi John" was AWOL, with pay!

[OXENinFLA]

Ping............