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Kerry: McCain's Judgment Is Dangerous WASHINGTON, July 6, 2008(CBS) Sen. John Kerry believes that the presumptive Republican nominee for president is adhering to the Bush Administration orthodoxy in ways that call into question his carefully-nurtured image as a political maverick. "John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting," the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said on CBS' Face The Nation. "This is a different John McCain. This is not the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain. "And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues...

You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline.

FLASHBACK: Wesley Clark, Then and Now. Plus, dodging missiles. [videos]

One of the dumbest things about the Clark kerfuffle is that because there are so many elements of military service that people respect, the narrow critique he’s offering against McCain seems almost beside the point. I see service mainly as a testament to character and fortitude; others see it as evidence of good judgment, and others as an important lesson for a C-in-C to have (i.e. “experience”) before committing other men to war. So far as I know, McCain has never staked his own wartime ordeal to any one of these, preferring to let voters draw whatever they find most...

Just four years ago, Sen. John Kerry strode onstage at the Democrat National Convention and declared, "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." In the course of the contest between Kerry and Bush, John Kerry and the Democrats set up the John Kerry Test for Presidential Qualification, one which George W. Bush could only fail, and one which only John Kerry could pass. There are three points to the test: http://familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.499/pub_detail.asp

Failed 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) lashed out today at the most decorated living American serviceman, Col. Bud Day, who was awarded the Medal Honor for his heroism as a POW during the Vietnam War.Kerry attacked Day for his role in the McCain Truth Squad (a new effort by presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain to defend his military service from criticism) because of Day's participation in the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (SBVT) 2004 campaign which criticized Kerry's service in Vietnam as a junior naval officer and his actions protesting the war when he returned...

The past several weeks have seen charges and countercharges flying over the claimed release of medical records by the current prospective Democrat and GOP candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. In the current poisonous political atmosphere, the electorate doesn't know whom to trust. Its growing distrust of conventional "mainstream media" has caused an unprecedented meltdown in circulation and network news viewership nationwide. And their distaste for the vicious politics of both parties in Congress has driven the level of public approval of the political establishment at every level -- from the press, to candidates, to elected officials -- to all...

Jeff Beatty may be the man to finally beat the Massachusetts liberal. The Democratic Party’s accusation that the Republican Party is only for elitists has resonated with the fishermen, immigrants, construction crews and farmers of the Bay State since the civil war era. In the United States most people are accustomed to electing their leaders. However, in Massachusetts there is a sort of liberal Democratic monarchy which has had a grip on her citizens since the Great Depression. The monarchy, of course, is the Kennedy Dynasty. Joseph Kennedy built a financial empire which quickly expanded into Boston’s political realm. The...

Vietnam veterans ask T. Boone Pickens to pay up on Kerry record 02:48 PM CDT on Saturday, June 21, 2008 By GROMER JEFFERS JR./ The Dallas Morning News Ten men who served in Vietnam with Sen. John Kerry want Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens to fork over the $1 million he said he would give anyone who could disprove claims that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made about Mr. Kerry's war record during the 2004 presidential campaign. The men sent a lengthy letter and supporting documentation to Mr. Pickens on Thursday. Mr. Pickens, who helped support the anti-Kerry group, could...

For most people, “Swift boat” has become a political verb, a synonym for the kind of attack that helped destroy the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004. But for a group of Vietnam veterans at the center of the attacks, it is still a fresh fight. On Friday, the group, who served with Mr. Kerry in Vietnam, sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman who helped finance the 2004 attack advertisements, taking him up on a challenge he issued last November: that he would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single...

ABC News' Teddy Davis, Gregory Wallace, and James Gerber Report: Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., suggested Tuesday that Osama Bin Laden would be entitled to Habeas Corpus rights under a recent Supreme Court decision should he be detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. Kerry argued, however, that it is wrong for the McCain campaign to ascribe this reading of the al Qaeda leader's rights to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., since any president would be bound by last week's 5-4 ruling on the rights of Guantanamo detainees to access federal courts. "The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled...

Kerry: McCain Is The Real Flip-Flopper June 19, 2008 5:07 PM ABC News' Teddy Davis and John Santucci Report: Maligned as a "flip-flopper" during his 2004 presidential run, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, D, argued Thursday that Arizona Sen. John McCain, R, is the one who truly deserves the "flip-flop" label. "There was one issue on which the entire Republican campaign based itself last time about a flip flop which was that I voted for something before I voted against it in an amendment on the floor of the Senate. It was a vote of principle. It was not a change...

...in this election cycle, I can’t imagine the DNC would knowingly allow the carefully manicured image of their candidate to be pulled into the culture wars with such a provocative commercial sponsored, at least indirectly, by the spouse of their former standard-bearer... See video here

"The Los Angeles Times (LAT) has released a major new national poll that includes oversamples in three battleground states, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin. And it provides little evidence that the GOP's fervently-desired "Reagan death bounce" is materializing; in fact, Kerry's 7 point lead among RVs in this poll (51-44), conducted entirely since Reagan's death, is actually larger than Kerry's lead in a recent Gallup poll that only partially overlapped the period since Reagan's death."

Short Pants’ Short Memory Swift-boat THIS.by Steve Finefrock Michael Kinsley is wearing his intellectual short pants again, in his essay on Swiftboating. Wishing upon wishes for a ‘clean’ campaign of purity, he asserts, “Swift-boat is shorthand for the brilliant, despicable Republican campaign strategy in 2004 that turned John Kerry's honorable service in Vietnam into a negative factor in his campaign. The phrase has become more broadly the term for a particular category of campaign tactics and has even become a verb. To ‘swift-boat’ somebody is to use these tactics against him or her.� Kinsley is not stupid, nor ignorant, but...

Obama-Kerry? Editorial of The New York Sun June 17, 2008 The news that Senator Kerry's name is on a list of potential running mates that Senator Obama is circulating on Capitol Hill, according to NBC News, was enough to get our attention. Maybe they meant the president of the New School, Robert Kerrey? Both men are decorated combat veterans of Vietnam that would bring Mr. Obama some of the national security heft he is apparently seeking in a vice presidential candidate. No, according to a report in yesterday's New York Times, "During the course of two long dinners at the...

NEW YORK: John Kerry, who suffered defeat at the hands of President George Bush in last US elections, now harbours aspiration to become Secretary of State if presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama wins the race to the White House in November. Kerry, who is the third ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is keen to be nation's top diplomat but does not eye the bigger prize of vice-presidency, Newsweek on Sunday quoted an unidentified source close to him as saying. That could also well be the case for Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, the committee's second-ranking Democrat and for Senator...

Iraq isn't the big story this month. Gas prices are. In May, the Associated Press reported, U.S. military deaths plunged to the lowest monthly level in four years and civilian casualties were down sharply, too. Gasoline also hit $4 a gallon. And you don't see as many "No war for oil" bumper stickers as you used to. The success of the Bush surge -- with Iraqi forces having led offensives in three major cities and taking on Shiite militias -- has been greeted in America with a collective shrug. "My perhaps overly cynical view is that it's probably too much...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, is leaving the door open - a crack - that he would accept his party's nomination for vice president this year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry today made the follow statement in response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision that foreign detainees held at Guantanamo Bay may challenge their detention in U.S. courts: “Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what almost everyone but the Administration and their defenders in Congress always knew. The Constitution and the rule of law bind all of us even in extraordinary times of war. No one is above the Constitution. The historic writ of habeas corpus endures. This is a major rebuke of the Administration’s post-9/11 policies that have divided us at home, alienated and isolated...

John Kerry, who's served in the past as Obama's heavy-hitter on national security, expressed incredulity at McCain's remark this morning that the timing of troops return is "not too important." "It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs of Americans and particularly the families of troops who are over there. To them it’s the most important thing in the world when they come home," he said. "It’s a policy for staying in Iraq." Kerry and Obama aide Susan Rice also both said McCain is "confused" -- a line some in McCain's camp will surely take as a...

If you're going to promise "new politics," it would probably be wise to eschew the same old Beltway cronies and insiders who have served presidential nominees of yore. And if you're going to attack political opponents for playing "textbook Washington games," it would probably be best not to play them yourself. If you do, you'll end up tongue-tied in front of the cameras, hung by your own holier-than-thou rhetoric and faced once again with the decision to throw another bad choice under the bus. Yes, Barack Obama, we're talking about you. Again. It's getting mighty crowded under that bus, isn't...

LOWELL – Gloucester attorney Ed O’Reilly got enough support from party officials today to ensure that he will give US Senator John F. Kerry his first Democratic primary challenge in 24 years. At the state Democratic Party convention at the Paul E. Tsongas Arena, O’Reilly got 22.5 percent of the 2,574 ballots cast, more than the 15 percent he needed to secure a spot on the primary ballot. Kerry got the majority of votes, which means he'll get the party's endorsement. "Party officials said this campaign is a nuisance. And it is. It’s a total nuisance," O’Reilly said to the...

It's Time to Talk to Syria By JOHN KERRY and CHUCK HAGEL June 5, 2008; Page A19 After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, President George H.W. Bush did the improbable and convinced Syrian President Hafez Assad to join an American-led coalition against a fellow Baathist regime. Today, these leaders' sons have another chance for a diplomatic breakthrough that could redefine the strategic landscape in the Middle East. The recent announcement of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria through Turkey, and the agreement between the Lebanese factions in Qatar – both apparently without meaningful U.S. involvement – should serve as a...

Most conversations about the coming elections focus on the question of which candidate is most suited to lead the nation as it confronts the challenges and threats ahead. A better question would be to ask whether there is one party– the Democratic Party – which has demonstrated in word and deed that it is unfit to lead the nation in war at all. Criticism of government policy is essential to a democracy.

Presidential candidate Senator Obama sought to boost his election prospects by glomming onto some vicarious glory achieved by what he called “one of my ‘white-ass’ uncles.” “Those trying to paint me as uninformed about the vicissitudes of national defense are overlooking the education I got from my Uncle Charlie,” Obama said. “You know, my Uncle Charlie was with the troops that freed the Jews at Auschwitz during the war. I think this education shows I have sufficient background and knowledge on matters of war and peace.” Obama said he hoped that the revelation of his “uncle’s heroism in saving the...

U.S. Sen. John Kerry - wary of a potential political embarrassment - has been calling in favors to top Bay State Democrats in a bid to block a Gloucester lawyer from getting on the ballot to challenge him, the Herald has learned. Several high-ranking Democrats said the senator has reached out in recent days seeking support and asking for help in preventing attorney Ed O’Reilly from getting the convention votes he needs to force a September primary race against Kerry. O’Reilly, a former firefighter, needs 15 percent support from the Democratic State Committee at the party’s convention Saturday in Lowell...

Publisher Peter Osnos, who admits to personally working with former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan on his new book, What Happened, began his career as an assistant to I.F. Stone, the pro-communist "journalist" named as a Soviet agent of influence who was the uncle of Weather Underground communist terrorist Kathy Boudin. But the connections don't end there. Boudin's son Chesa was raised by Barack Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were Boudin's comrades in the communist terrorist group, after Kathy Boudin went to prison for her involvement in an armed robbery and assault that took the...

On the heels of a directive to soldiers from America’s top military official to stay out of politics, Senator John McCain acknowledged that his use of Gen. David H. Petraeus’s picture in a fund-raising pitch was not appropriate. “It won’t happen again,” he vowed at a news conference this afternoon. This morning, the Obama camp dispatched a statement from Senator John Kerry criticizing Mr. McCain’s use of a photo of the top commander in Iraq in a fund-raising pitch that went out to supporters via e-mail on Thursday. “It’s deeply disappointing that Sen. McCain is using a picture of General...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) believes that on September 11 "we were basically at peace." Asked to clarify his remarks, specifically asking about the attacks on the U.S.S. Cole during Barack Obama campaign conference call, Kerry said, "well, we hadn't declared war," The Hill's Sam Youngman reports. Asked if al Qaeda was a threat at the time, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said, "well yes, obviously they were a threat. But, fundamentally we were not at war at that point in time." Kerry also called John McCain "out of step with history and facts."

When the deadline for certification passed yesterday, Jim Ogonowski, the Republican leadership's choice to challenge US Senator John F. Kerry, was 82 signatures short of qualifying for the GOP primary ballot, according to the state's central voter registry. But Ogonowski's campaign aides contend there are enough certified signatures at various town offices around the state not filed yet on the computerized registry to put him across the 10,000 threshold. Local election clerks were legally required to finish their certifications yesterday. The majority of those clerks have shipped their results to the secretary of state's office via computer, but some may...

-snip- _Is the Massachusetts Democrat positioning himself to be secretary of state in a potential Barack Obama administration? _Could a Kerry appointment create not one but two Senate openings in Massachusetts, assuming Sen. Edward Kennedy cannot complete his term after being diagnosed last week with brain cancer? Kerry aides insist he's not angling for the job and point to his long involvement in foreign affairs. It started with his famous testimony as a 27-year-old veteran questioning the Vietnam War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It continues today, at age 64, as the No. 3 Democrat on the same panel....

The Wisdom In Talking By John F. Kerry Saturday, May 24, 2008; A21 As President Bush commemorated Israel's 60th anniversary by attacking Barack Obama from overseas, here at home he found an all-too-frequent ally: John McCain. When Bush accused "some" -- including Obama, Bush aides explained -- of "the false comfort of appeasement," McCain echoed this slander. "What does he want to talk about with [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?" McCain asked, fumbling to link Obama to the Iranian president's hateful words. Soon, a GOP talking point was born. Lost in the rhetoric was the question America deserves to have answered: Why should...

Behold the “global test” in action. Pray tell, dear Waffles, from whom will we be reclaiming it? "Dialogue helps us isolate Ahmadinejad rather than empowering him to isolate us. More important, even if we fail to reach an agreement, engaging Iran will spark three conversations likely to strengthen our position… The third conversation is with the world. By engaging Iran, we reclaim the moral high ground — no small feat. If Iran refuses to budge, we have new leverage to expose it as a threat whose bad intentions cannot be explained away." I’m curious to hear how Iran’s intentions might...

Republican Jim Ogonowski, who has the backing of key party members in his bid to challenge US Senator John F. Kerry, could be in danger of stumbling on his first crucial test: collecting 10,000 voter signatures to secure a spot on the GOP primary ballot.

Charging the 2000 presidential election was 'rigged', the DUmmies swore they were not going to allow it to happen again in 2004 (Kerry defeated like Al Gore in 2000). Post from: Lori Price CLG (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-22-2004 11:17 PM Response to Reply #10 16. Yes, spread the word, even if you *didn't* read it, that there *will* be riots! Yes! Riots, and a whole lot more!..." Democratic Underground blogger ("happyslug": 1000+ posts) responds... "if it is decided to fight, be prepared to fight, bring a backpack, entrenching tool, tent, and other equipment of an Infantrymen. You will need it...

DEMOCRATS' HYBRID PICKUP TRUCKSMay 14, 2008 On the very day of a special election to fill a vacated congressional seat this week in Mississippi, The New York Times accused the Republican candidate of running racist ads against his Democratic opponent. Talk about dirty tricks! By The New York Times, that is. The Republican thus accused of racism narrowly lost the election the night the Times article appeared, so I guess the Times can proclaim: "Mission Accomplished." The ad in question, on behalf of Republican Greg Davis, pointed out that Barack Obama had endorsed Davis' opponent, Travis Childers -- another in...

The best evidence yet that the drumbeat against public support of pro-abortion Catholic pols at Catholic institutions is having an effect appears in the Boston Globe of all places. The Globe tells us how the personally opposed prevaricators are just not getting the choice commencement invites from Catholic Institutions to which they had shamefully become accustomed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the nation's most powerful Catholics, but this year the only commencement address she gave was at one of the eight campuses of Miami Dade College. Senator John F. Kerry is headlining three commencements this year - the...

For those who haven’t heard, IVAW will be presenting materials from their Winter Soldier investigation to the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) next Thursday (May 15). I’ve created another petition asking the CPC to verfiy any info that IVAW brings to them. This petition reads about the same as the petition that was circulated for the Senate Armed Services Committee. The CPC is more of an ad-hoc group than any sort of official committee, but since we’ve been out in front of IVAW on this, we should probably stay there. Please circulate this petition among your mailing lists. I’ll be doing...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama's current level of support among white voters in a head-to-head matchup against John McCain is no worse than John Kerry's margin of support among whites against George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

Obama supporters Sen.John Kerry, D-Mass., and Gov. Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz., argue that the superdelegates now have a responsibility to move the nominating process forward. “Obama has shown he can win across the board and now its time for superdelegates to bring this to a close,” Napolitano said. Obama is expected to meet with undecided superdelegates tomorrow in Washington. Kerry said that it is the responsibility of the superdelegates to ensure that the Democratic Party will be unified at the convention in August, and suggested that Obama could have won the Indiana primary last night if it was not for the...

A papal visit, with its weeks of build-up and intense media coverage, often seems to end with an afterglow — but very little news — once the pope and his party fly back to the Eternal City. Not so with Pope Benedict’s recent U.S. visit where, more than a week after it ended, the volatile issue of public figures, the abortion & Communion issue is making headlines.While journalists reported that prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion rights stepped up to receive the Eucharist during Masses in Washington and New York (here’s our story and blog post), the development was...

Unquestionably, canon 915 is the most discussed canon in the Codex Iuris Canonici, or Code of Canon Law, in recent Church history.  Many in the media have reported on the January 8, 2004 canonical actions of Archbishop Raymond Burke, then bishop of the La Crosse, Wisconsin diocese.  Archbishop Burke’s discipline on legislators has rocked the Catholic Church worldwide.  Because of misinformation, speculation and outright resentment, confusion reigns regarding the Archbishop's promulgation of his 'canonical notification' based on canon 915, the official communication of what the Church's discipline is. I would like to make some important clarifications, with appropriate documentation, in...

In the aftermath of the U.S. visit by Pope Benedict XVI, traditional Catholics are asking a troublesome question: Did pro-choice politicians receiving Communion at the papal Masses indicate the pope had softened on the abortion question? The answer is no. On the contrary, it reflected disobedience to Benedict by the archbishops of New York and Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and Edward M. Kennedy received Communion at Nationals Park in Washington, as did former mayor Rudolph Giuliani at Yankee Stadium in New York. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington and Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur. Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of...

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on Monday pinned the Purple Heart on Private First Class Sean Bannon in a pregame ceremony at the mound as Curt Schilling stood beside them. Bannon, 22, of Winthrop, Massachusetts, was critically wounded by an IED in Iraq. He has spent the last month at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington, D.C. Bannon requested that Kerry, a fellow Purple Heart recipient, do the honors of presenting him with the medal and asked that the Senator ask the Red Sox if he would be able to receive the award at home plate. The Red Sox organization was...

If the words "swift" and "boat" must be combined and turned into a verb, then let us insist on its proper use. The word as a verb originates from the campaign undertaken in 2004 by the Swift Boat Veterans in response to the John Kerry presidential candidacy. The word means, or should mean, the exposure of a fraudulent autobiography of one seeking political office or public influence. It is the correction of a personal and professional record that has been selectively and dishonestly compiled, as the Swift Vets did so effectively to that of John Kerry. Although swiftboating may be...

The days of Swift Boating are numbered Friday, April 18, 2008 12:25 PM EDT While the Democrats continue to gnaw at each other for the party’s nomination, there are signs, indications even, that some of the recent methods of electoral success in the past are fading as effective tools. Most notably, “Swift Boating,” may finally be on its way to becoming a historical footnote. Swift Boating describes the effective use on well funded false charges against th