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."
Actually Plankton is working for Rove and inserted himself in Kerry's head from whence he controls all functions.
Give your boy a hug from this Navy Dad and tell him he doesn't know how many are praying for him and his compadres.
I must be channelling your friend since that is what I call it also. And the Treason Media is its #1 abetter.
I hope there are thousands like you who come to the same conclusion and resolve.
That particular House seat appears cursed, doesn't it?
The evergiving knowledge from Star Trek :^)
Then there is the fact that you do not 'get smart';
you are either smart or not, intelligent or not.
You can "get educated", "get skilled", and "get informed",
but "smart" is on you.
Or can be like Kerry and "get educated", even be clever, sly, and conniving; without having a clue about "smart".
(Although, it did take some brains to realize that money could be made through selective dating.)
Jack Tapper--the ultralefty from Salon?
>>>It is terrifying how close Kerry (and Gore before him, who fits the profile above pretty well himself) came to the presidency. These people are self-centered, delusional, dangerous boobs and the thought of them in the Oval Office literally makes my blood run cold.
What about billy jeff? Those traits pretty much describe him as well and he sadly did make it to the WH.
Thank you fellow sailor!
Thank you. The Democratic Party has been stolen by a bunch of losers. The way they treated Lieberman tells you that FDR, Truman and even JFK would be unwelcome.
Actually my boy is the sailor I'm just a fan.
My guess is that the incredibly lame attempt at spin(the "botched joke" lie), the further insults, arrogance, pseudo-tough-guy bluster from the pansy senator and friends in the MSM will turn off more people than the original insult. If Kerry and friends keep digging the hole deeper, then it will turn off 'rat-leaning but otherwise normal people. Like Washington scandals, it is the attempt to cover up, not the original sin that hurts.
"My guess is that the incredibly lame attempt at spin(the "botched joke" lie), the further insults, arrogance,... ...will turn off more people than the original insult. If Kerry and friends keep digging the hole deeper, then it will turn off 'rat-leaning but otherwise normal people."
There's logic to that assessment, and I certainly hope you're correct. I pray that "residual" repercussions draw enough normal Americans to vote against the rat-pack to keep both houses in Republican hands.
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