Ted Re...Oh, please....political suicide......yeah, right! And the wizard gave Bush a brain!
Still trying to work the GW is stupid angle I see. What is the matter? All of your war scare tactics falling apart, and you are back to that. Perhaps you think I am the only one who thinks Kerry has seriously hurt himself.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030408-36190180.htm
Republicans say Kerry broke vow not to attack Bush
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who said both Iraq and the United States "need a regime change," broke his vow not to politically attack President Bush while the country is at war, Republican officials charged yesterday. Top Stories
• Strike targets Saddam
• Saddam foes set to form council
• Allies see signs of deadly agents
• Mogadishu lessons help foil Saddam's strategy
• Soldiers make themselves at home
• Ehrlich surprised by budget successes
• CDC to brace for mystery illness 'epidemic'
At the same time, New York City's former Democratic mayor, Ed Koch, warned Mr. Kerry that he "is going to end up on the garbage heap" for what he said.
Mr. Kerry publicly promised last month that he would not make any campaign charges against Mr. Bush once the shooting starts if his words could be seen sending the wrong signal to U.S. troops who are fighting and dying in Iraq.
"I remember being one of those guys and reading news reports from home. If America is at war, I won't speak a word without measuring how it'll sound to the guys doing the fighting when they're listening to their radios in the desert," Mr. Kerry said in a statement that appeared in the Boston Globe on March 11.
Mr. Kerry, who fought in Vietnam when many Americans were protesting that war, said, "It's what you owe the troops."
Asked to respond to Republicans' latest charges, Kerry campaign Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did not address the senator's promise. Instead, he issued a deeper apology for Mr. Kerry's remarks, saying that "Senator Kerry intended no disrespect or lack of support for our commander in chief during wartime, and Senator Kerry is not criticizing the war effort."
"But the point of this campaign is, obviously, to change the administration of this government," Mr. Gibbs said.
The senator has been sharply criticized by Republicans, such as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, as well as radio talk shows for attacking the president in the midst of the war. Even some Democrats have begun to criticize him for his remarks.
"I think Senator Kerry is going to end up on the garbage heap because of his quote attacking the president and, in effect, by using language, which was, we need a regime change here at home, and that the president, in effect, has embarrassed us by the way he has conducted himself internationally," said former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.
One of Mr. Kerry's chief rivals for the nomination, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, said the senator used a "poor choice of words."
Mr. Kerry shot back at his Republican critics last week, saying they were "attacking anybody who speaks out strongly by questioning their patriotism."
But Republican Party officials stepped up their fire yesterday, saying the issue had nothing to do with patriotism but everything to do with judgment.
"We're not accusing him of being unpatriotic. He went back on his word not to go negative in his campaign while our troops are getting shot at in Iraq. He's clearly putting his political ambitions ahead of the foreign policy of the U.S. against Iraq," said Jim Dyke, chief spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
"His willingness to say what he did reveals a lack of principles and judgment to be president," Mr. Dyke said.
But as much as Mr. Kerry wanted to put the issue behind him, he was on the defense yesterday. "This is a democracy. We could be at war a year from now. Would we put the election on hold?" he said in a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"Let's not have a lot of phony arguments here about what we can and can't talk about," he said.
In a political speech in Petersborough, N.H., on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry told supporters, "What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States."
Mr. Kerry has made controversial remarks before that have gotten him in trouble. In 1997, he called for expanding NATO's no-fly zones to cripple Iraq's air defenses, saying the Iraqi army was so weak that "even the Italians" could defeat them.
The remark infuriated Italian-Americans, including Massachusetts state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci, who said Mr. Kerry's remark was "degrading, disgusting" and urged him to apologize to the state's 1 million Italian-Americans. Mr. Kerry did. |
