31 October 2006

Another High Quality Massachusetts Politician

Giving his all in the doomed battle to elect Phil Angelides governor of California, my Senator, John F. Kerry, found the right note to rally Democratic loyalists:
You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.
The audio is here. And here's the video.




As long time readers will know, my brother, an MD, is currently serving in Baghdad.

Kerry explains it all:
Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have…

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men…"
I am completely convinced that John Kerry meant to make a bad joke about President Bush, rather than a gratuitous insult aimed at the troops. So having made a stupid slip of the tongue, he immediately started digging himself an even deeper hole.

3 comments:

Brit said...

Nice try, Kerry, but nobody out-gaffes Dubya!

David said...

Peter: It's always about John Kerry.

David said...

Here's a comment from Althouse's blog that I think puts this point the best:

Daryl Herbert said...

I'm not gonna let these guys distort something completely out of its context solely for the purpose of avoiding responsibility, which is what they're doing

And here I thought we were distorting it completely out of its context solely for the purpose of making Democrats look unpatriotic for the upcoming elections.

How does "distort[ing]" what Kerry said "avoid[] responsibility"? Bush avoids responsibility for the Iraq War because he refuses to acknowledge Kerry's incisive humor? I think we're beginning to see the extent to which John Kerry believes American politics revolves around him.

John: you do know that elections are coming up, Republicans couldn't care less about you personally (even less so after this string of gaffes), you're not even running for office, your chance to avoid being Swift Boated was two years ago, the only reason Dems wanted you to fight back two years ago was to win the election, and by the way, elections are coming up?

You might have noticed a common thread in that last paragraph. If you're John Kerry, you think that common element is John Kerry.