Kerry Quotes:
"George Bush has sought to undo guarantees enshrined in the Constitution -- not by amending it but by subverting it with his judicial nominees. As President, I will only appoint Supreme Court Justices who will uphold a woman’s right to choose. A just America demands a Supreme Court that honors our Constitution -- and an Attorney General whose name isn’t John Ashcroft." (Acceptance speech, 2 Sept. 2003. Where is the guarantee enshrined in the Constitution to have an abortion?)
"And courage means standing up for gun safety, not retreating from the issue out of political fear or trying to have it both ways. I’m a hunter and I believe in the Second Amendment but I’ve never gone hunting with an AK-47. Our party will never be the choice of the NRA -- and I’m not looking to be the candidate of the NRA." (From acceptance speech, 2 Sept. 2003. Kerry knows that the 2nd amendment is not about hunters' rights, but about the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.)
"So I believe the Senate will make it clear, and the country will make it clear, that we will not be blackmailed or extorted by these weapons, and we will not permit the United Nations--an institution we have worked hard to nurture and create--to simply be ignored by this dictator." (From a speech in the Senate on 9 Oct. 2002)
"It's a tragic day in the lives of everybody when abortion is looked on as an alternative to birth control or as an alternative to having a child. I think that's wrong. It should be the very last thing if it has to be anything, and I say that not just because I'm opposed to abortion but because I think that's common sense...I think the question of abortion is one that should be left for the states to decide." (Oct. 1972 in interveiw with the Lowell Sun)
"I have a message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the big drug companies that get in the way, the big oil and the special interests who now call the White House their home. We're coming, you're going, and don't let the door hit you on the way out!" ("While Senator John Kerry regularly promises to stand up to 'big corporations,' his campaign has taken money from executives on Wall Street and those representing the telecommunications industry, which is under his purview in Congress." - New York Times, 31 Jan. 2004)
"There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals." (Kerry on NBC's Meet the Press, April 18, 1971)
“We have a president who has developed and exalted a strategy of war — unilateral, preemptive and, in my view, profoundly threatening to America’s place in the world and to the safety and prosperity of our own society. Simply put, the Bush administration has pursued the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history. . . . The Bush administration should swallow its pride and reverse course.” (Kerry in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in December 2003)
"Oh yeah, don't worry, man. Thank you. We're gonna keep pounding, let me tell you. We're just beginning to fight here. These guys are, these guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group that I've ever seen." (Kerry about Republicans in front of an inadvertantly open microphone on 10 Mar. 04. He is already beginning to crack. Keep it up, Republican attack machine.)
"The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military and a presumed 'window of vulnerability', which we now know not to exist." (Kerry in 1984. In retrospect it seems Reagan's judgement was better.)
"I've met foreign leaders, who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, 'You gotta win this one, you gotta beat this guy.'''
"We're going to pre-check it; we're going to have the legal team in place. We're going to take injunctions where necessary ahead of time. We'll pre-challenge if necessary."
(Kerry in March 2004 at a fundraiser in Hollywood, Fla.)
"Should the resolve of our allies wane, the United States must not lose its resolve to take action." (Kerry in 1997)
"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." (Kerry on 16 March 2004 about the war in Iraq)
He began his political career by protesting against the war in Vietnam while still on active duty as an officer in the Navy (Moratorium march on Washington, 15 Oct. 1968). Later he threw someone else's medals at the Capitol, encouraging the leaders of North Vietnam and betraying U.S. soldiers still fighting in Vietnam. With the money from his first rich wife he financed his campaign for the Lieutenant Governorship of Massachusetts, and as such he supported Governor Dukakis' prison work release program which put Willie Horton back on the streets to recidivate. This wasn't a good program, as Al Gore pointed out in his unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination in 1988.
Kerry's lifetime rating by the American Conservative Union is 5 (on a scale of 1 to 100) which puts him on the far left of an already leftist party.
During his 19 year career in the Senate he has a perfect record voting against pro-life legislation and for more gun control. He repeatedly voted against modernizing our weapons systems, and he voted 12 times against pay increases for the military. That's consistency for you.
Voted NO on mandatory prison terms for crimes involving firearms (May 1994).
Voted NO on Amendment to prohibit flag burning (Dec. 1995).
Voted NO on prohibiting same-sex marriage (Sept. 1996).
Voted NO on school vouchers in DC (Sept. 1997).
Voted NO on allowing personal retirement accounts (April 1998).
Voted NO on deploying missile defense as soon as possible (Sept. 1998).
Voted NO on the charges against Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice (Jan. 1999).
Voted NO on denying federal funds to schools which discriminate against the Boy Scouts (May 2001).
Voted YES on McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill (March 2002).
Voted NO on drilling for oil in Alaska (April 2002).
Voted NO against Bush's tax cuts (May 2003).
Voted YES to compliance with the Kyoto Treaty on global warming (Oct. 2003).
He is a full-throated participant in the filibuster against Bush's nominees to appellate courts.
But give Kerry some credit. He did vote for the Iraq war resolution, although he voted against funding the war because he wanted France and Germany on board too. But wait, didn't he vote in 1991 against the first Gulf War? Oh yes, but he said he only did that in order to give Bush, Sr. time to get more domestic support. |
