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.”
LOLOL You serve worse than worms for dinner at home ?
kerry is beyond despicable. The lying ba$tard is not fit to share Oxygen with real Vietnam Veterans.
LOL, that's great!
He stills owes an apology to the VN vets he LIED about.
I, dad, am a lousy cook.
That's not just funny, it's genius.
He is such a pompous buffoon. THANK you Senator John Kerry (D-Gigolo)
It's bush's fault.
Yep. Ditto
Your son is about to experience what a really big family is. I did the same thing fifty years ago, and it was a life changing experience, in the most positive way. God speed.
His explanation doesn't make any sense...
Can you get this on youtube or some other web site where the world can see it? This is brilliant, and funny beyond description.
Kerry's campaign just flopped big time. No recovery possible, thank God.
LURCH!
You magnificent bastard! (and I mean that with the highest regard!)
It's great to see him as passionate as he is right now!! He can make a big difference in the days before the election. He needs to take the BULLY PULPIT every day--just like he is now!!
John Kerry is the hand grenade in the democrats picnic basket. Gonna be tough picking that schrapnel out from between their teeth.
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