JOHN KERRY AND HIS HARVEY THE RABBIT FOREIGN LEADERS:
John Kerry is caught in a lie. And it is an obvious lie, and it is hurting him.
Hugh Hewitt
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Kerry and his allies have made credibility a central issue in the presidential campaign, repeatedly accusing George W. Bush of lying in order to push the country into war. Of course the president did no such thing, and no serious analyst argues that the WMD data was fabricated by the Bush team, because every Western intelligence service believed that Saddam possessed stockpiles of WMD. So too did Bill Clinton, and so did John Kerry. The effort to shred the president's credibility on the "yellowcake" paragraph in the 2003 State of the Union address is simple propaganda, and not very effective propaganda at that, especially when the very real and now dismantled WMD programs of Libya are added to the mix.
But Kerry put the credibility ball in play, and now the
issue is coming back to haunt him. Last week Kerry
unequivocally asserted that he had "met" with foreign
leaders and that they had told him they were hoping for
his triumph in the fall. As recorded by the pool reporters
traveling with him, here's what Kerry said at a fundraiser
in Florida last week:
"I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this
publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, 'You've got
to win; you've got to beat this guy. We need a new
policy.' Things like that."
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CNN quickly discovered that Kerry hadn't met with any
foreign leaders since declaring for the presidency, but
elite media seem prepared to issue Kerry yet another pass
(after the ones he got for proclaiming his desire to be
the country's "second black president," and the one
bestowed after branding Bush as "crooked" and "lying.)
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But Joe Citizen stood up at a forum at which Kerry
appeared this weekend and demanded answers as to whom
Kerry had met with. Kerry doubled down on his lie, first
by snarling that it wasn't any of the questioner's
business, and then by denying he said he'd met with any
leaders. This last bit was the clear attempt to maneuver
away from the lie Kerry told last week, and lawyers
recognized it immediately as a damaging admission that the
first proclamation was a lie.
George Stephanoupoulos summarized the threat to Kerry on "This Week": "This could be a problem for Kerry....When you go through the records it turns out he hasn't traveled abroad since 2002 and he's only been in the same city as a leader of a foreign government once in the past year and he's had to equivocate what he's meant on that."
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Equivocate? He's lying about it.
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Secretary of State Powell raised the stakes on Fox News Sunday: "But if [Kerry] thinks it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names."
And the White House added to the challenge today. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today Kerry was "making it up," with reference to Kerry's Harvey the rabbit leaders. "Either he is straightforward and states who they are," McClellan said, "or the only conclusion one can draw is that his is making it up to attack the president."
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Kerry and his team have made credibility an issue in the
campaign, but now they are exposed as liars, and on a
major issue of whether there are foreign leaders confiding
in Kerry that they hope Kerry wins in November. Joe
Citizen, who was booed down by Kerry loyalists and
interrogated by Kerry about his voting record in 2000 in
response to a completely appropriate question about an on-
the-record statement Kerry made, acted where elite media
wouldn't. Joe Citizen's name is Cedric Brown, a signmaker
from Pennsylvania, and he's not going to let the media lie
down for Kerry. Good for Cedric.
Perhaps the Beltway Bigs can learn a little about
aggressive reporting from the signman from the Keystone
State. If Kerry lies about big things like meeting with
foreign leaders, what won't he lie about? Answer: Nothing.
There is a credibility gap in this campaign, and it is a
Democratic problem. |
