Posted on 10/31/2006 3:54:12 PM PST by MikeA
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 31, 2006 — For weeks, Republicans on the campaign trail have been looking for something — anything — to talk about other than the record of the Republican Congress and the way the Bush administration has conducted the war in Iraq.
Monday, they got their wish. While stumping for local Democrats in California, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., addressed students at Pasadena City College and made a comment about education and the war in Iraq that lent itself to much controversy.
"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," he said.
It was a rhetorical gift for the embattled Republican Party which is eager to run against Kerry again. The White House unusually notified the media ahead of time that the president would address the issue in remarks at today's campaign rally in Georgia.
Election Fodder
The Kerry kerfuffle is a prototype of controversies of the new media age. "Thanks to the Internet, all life is on the record now," observed journalism professor Jeff Jarvis of CUNY. "Everything a politician says and does is public and the world can see in a second … that's life now."
After Kerry's remarks were mentioned on the Web sites of local newspapers, including the Whittier Daily News, the video popped up on YouTube and conservative blogs like Newsbusters.org, and then talk radio seized on them.
Though, as opposed to 2004, it didn't take Kerry weeks to respond to attacks against him. Shortly before noon, Tuesday, Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, responded, insisting in a statement that he had not belittled the intelligence of soldiers serving in Iraq, but rather, that of "the president who got us stuck there."
But it may have been too late, the train had left the station.
"I believe Sen. Kerry owes an apology to many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., campaigning in Indiana.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said, "It tells us what John Kerry himself and the Democratic Party think about the troops and the U.S. military."
By the time Kerry got to a microphone in Seattle this afternoon to explain what he called a botched joke about the president, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans, had already heard about this new issue and Republican candidates were talking about it.
"It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who have never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did," Kerry added.
What's unclear is if Kerry's comments will help rally Republican voters or help their party portray Democrats as against the troops to score victories next Tuesday. A Democratic congressman told ABC News, Tuesday, "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."
Quite an October Surprise!
Kerry is an arrogant, elitist snob. He cant help showing it all the time. His big mouth is a gift for the GOP.
IMHO the dumbest thing Kerry said was "trying to get smart" because that infers you're DUMB if you got caught in Iraq. Dumb@$$...
Even it was a joke aimed at the president, i think it's in poor taste. Didn't kerry himself vote to give the president authority to go into Iraq?
He spoke out against the war during a graduation speech at Yale.
You could say he was against the war, before he was for it, before he was against it!
Translation: Before the New Media, Democrats could say anything they wanted and the DBM would provide cover for them.
Kerry is a moron treasonist -- anti-American, anti-military communist trash. There is only one explanation for what he did, and that is he just SHOWED AMERICA WHAT THE PLATFORM OF THE DEMORAT PARTY REALL IS.
Pure scum. If it were not for the equally treasonous, anti-American MSM, he would be gone. The Demorats do not have the courage or guts to admit their "leaders" are a bunch of criminal treasonists.
To HELL WITH KERRY!! And that would be kind.
Referring to Nam, not Iraq ...
That's one more Democrat Hillary doesn't have to worry about in 2008.
A ridiculous gaffe, to be sure, by an arrogant, unrepentant traitor, revealing his true self. And, yes, the dems mostly share his position. But, I'm curious, does anyone care enough about John Kerry these days for this to make more than a passing dent of impact on this election?
Who was the Dim Congresscritter who slammed Kerry on his outrageous remarks? ABC does not mention the source? Hmmm?
Those that are "stuck" in Iraq did not make an effort to be smart...
As a former soldier John Kerry makes me puke.
I thought he graduated from Harvard and Yale and was a fighter jet pilot. Not the marks of a stupid man.
Starting to wonder if Rove got a new lever added to the weather machine.
John Kerry should RESIGN NOW!
He needs to be drummed off the hill with all the rest to those leftist Democrats.
What ever happened to the Zell Millers of the Democrat party? At least the Democrat true colors are shining through.
Just let 'em talk and they'll never gain power again.
I just don't see a joke in there, anywhere.
So Bush was too educated to be in the military?
So Bush was too stupid to be in the military?
What?
Kerry jumps the shark while yelling "Aaaaarrrrrgggggggh!!".
Happy Rovember democrats, it'll be one you won't forget in a long while.
Bwhahahahahahah!
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