flipflop kerry: in his own words
His Background
Vietnam: When I met him, he was wearing a shirt with a picture of his sailboat on it. I told him I had a small 27 feet sailboat in Okinawa, he remarked 'Oh I never sail on anything less than 135 feet'. I'm better than you are! nah nah nah. Hal Cranmer
Mar 18, 1986: "For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans..." Senate floor statement
"(John Kerry) has never indicated to anyone that he was Irish and corrected people over the years who assumed he was" -- Kerry spokeswoman Kelly Benander said in Feb, 2003
Aug 27, 2002: Having been asked if he would ever considered getting a bigger car?" Kerry shoots back, "No, but I have thought about cutting all your fucking legs off at the knees." Yet another 'presidential caliber remark'. www.johnkerry.com (top)
Government and Politics
Feb 18, 1970: “I’m an internationalist. I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”
He wanted “to eliminate CIA activity completely." The Harvard Crimson
Jan 30, 1992" (in regards to the Clinton presidential campaign)" I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning." blah blah blah "We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?" congressional record
Jan 6, 1996: "I think we can reduce the size of Washington." "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country." Washington Times
Apr 3, 2003: "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" Boston Globe This comment was made less than a month after saying: "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."
Jan 28, 2004: “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.” “CNN Live,” 1/28/04
Between 1985 And 1990, Kerry Accepted Over $120,000 In Special Interest Honoraria. “Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show … In 1985, Kerry’s freshman year in the Senate, he supplemented his $75,000 salary with $19,480 in speaking fees. The next year the fees grew to $22,725.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
Kerry Accepted Thousands From Large Corporations Like Chevron, Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Allied Signal And Textron For Speeches. “For instance, oil giant Chevron paid him $2,000 in 1986 for participating in a round-table discussion. Large financial companies, among them Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, also paid to hear Kerry speak, as did the Chicago Board of Trade and defense contractors such as Allied Signal and Textron.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
“Kerry Also Spoke For Pay To The National Restaurant Association ($1,000 In 1985), The National Association Of Independent Insurers ($1,000 In 1986), The American Bankers Association ($2,000 In 1986) And The National Association Of Manufacturers.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
Feb 1, 2004: "The only people that have contributed to my campaigns [for Senate] are individual Americans. Now are some of those individual Americas lobbyists? Yeah, sure." Responding to Dean's criticisms
Feb 3, 2004: “John Kerry has not taken a dime of PAC money during his four Senate elections or during his presidential race. PACs contribute a huge chunk of the money given to politics. Corporate PACs have given $1.2 billion to campaigns and parties since 1990. Not one dime has gone to John Kerry.” (Kerry Press Release, 2/3/04) <choke> Kerry Ranks 92nd Out Of The 100 Senators In Contributions From PACS And Lobbyists. I must quit reading these while drinking my coffee....
Feb 29, 2004: In response to a question about his being labeled the most liberal senator, Kerry said: "Labels are so silly in American politics,"; he declined to say whether he considered himself a liberal. "I think it's the silliest thing I've ever heard." He said labels like that don't tell the whole story.
He followed this comment about "labels" up with the following response to another question: "Is this president a legitimate Republican or conservative? Because there's nothing conservative about driving deficits up as far as the eye can see. There's nothing conservative about trampling on the line of division between church and state in America," he said. "This administration is extreme, and I believe we're offering America mainstream, American values." Hmm.. I guess if it's a negative label on a republican, it's exempt from his earlier statement..... Democratic Debate
Mar 2, 2004: "[Ex-]President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second" American Urban Radio Network
Mar 8, 2004: "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 this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy' -- things like that" Interesting... since he has been on public view almost every day since he started running for president. Maybe someone remembers seeing him on European, Middle East or other foreign travel during that period. Maybe someone remembers seeing or reading about foreign heads of state meeting with him when they visited Washington during the last many months. NOT. Washington Times
Mar 9, 2004: Kerry's campaign has already put together a legal response team that will research each specific voting precinct that had difficulty counting the votes in 2000. "We're going to pre-check it, we're going to have the legal team in place," Kerry explained. "We're going to take injunctions where necessary ahead of time. We'll pre-challenge if necessary." Send in the demoncratic lawyers! [ insert favorite lawyer joke here ] Anyone want to bet whether they attempt to block the votes from our overseas servicemen & women, like they did in Florida the last time around?? gopusa
Mar 10, 2004: The republican critics are "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen." myway
Mar 11, 2004: "There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative" I think he means "vast right-wing conspiracy".... Kerry, at Capitol, Slams Republican 'Attack Squad' (top)
Iraq War
"Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition ... to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war. We should reinstate the draft." letter from Senator John Kerry to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, dated January 22 [1991]
And at the same time, he wrote this:
"Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf." Senator Kerry to Wallace Carter, January 31 [1991]
Feb 23, 1998: "Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so. That is a threat to the stability of the Middle East. It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis. It is a threat even to regions near but not exactly in the Middle East." The Disgrace of John Kerry by Kevin Willmann Saturday, April 05, 2003
Oct 9, 1998: "We urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others.
Oct 10, 1998: "We know from our largely unsuccessful attempts to enlist the cooperation of other nations, especially industrialized trading nations, in efforts to impose and enforce somewhat more ambitious standards on nations such as Iran, China, Burma and Syria, that the willingness of most other nations — including a number who are joined in the sanctions to isolate Iraq — is neither wide nor deep to join in imposing sanctions on a sovereign nation to spur it to `clean up its act' and comport its actions with accepted international norms." Senate Floor Speech Try to figure out what he just said there!
Oct 9, 2002: "I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force-- if necessary-- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." Senate Speech
Oct 9, 2002: "The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation."
Oct 9, 2002: The Iraqi regime's record over the decade leaves little doubt that Saddam Hussein wants to retain his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and to expand it to include nuclear weapons. We cannot allow him to prevail in that quest. johnkerry.com speeches (Thanks Scot!)
Jan 23, 2003: "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."
Dec 2, 2003: Did I expect George Bush to fuck it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did. Now that's what I call presidential! www.johnkerry.com
Dec 15, 2003: "Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror, and therefore any advance in Iraq is an advance forward in that..." (top)
Marriage
2001: Two years ago he signed a letter with other congressional colleagues urging the Massachusetts legislature to drop a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual nuptials. "This is an unconstitutional, unprecedented, unnecessary and mean-spirited bill," Yahoo! News Wed, Feb 11, 2004
Sep 16, 2003: "My argument is that marriage is a union between men and women as defined through centuries. End of argument. Period. I don’t make procreation or any other argument about it. It’s just the way I’ve seen the issue". Kerry's Conundrum by Chris Bull in The Advocate (top)
Social Security
Sep 25, 2003 I will never privatize Social Security. I will never try to extend the retirement age for Social Security. And I will not cut any benefits for Social Security. Presidential Debate (top)
Vietnam
In his 1985 memoir about the war, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap wrote that if it weren't for organizations like Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Hanoi would have surrendered to the U.S.
Newsmax: Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 10:25 p.m.
Apr 1971: "I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others in that I shot in free fire zones, used harassment and interdiction fire, joined in search and destroy missions, and burned villages. All of these acts were established policies from the top down, and the men who ordered this are war criminals." William Fullbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee
While in command of Swift Boat 44, Kerry and crew operated without prudence in a Free Fire Zone, carelessly firing at targets of opportunity racking up a number of enemy kills and some civilians. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers.
"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry later said about the dead baby. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening."
Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy in Vietnam put civilians at such high risk. www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com
1971 War Protest: ''This administration forced us to return our medals...These leaders denied us the integrity those symbols supposedly gave our lives.'' Several years later, a reporter noticed Kerry’s Purple Hearts on his office wall. He admitted that the medals he threw on the steps were not his own, but instead were given to him by two other men. The Disgrace of John Kerry by Kevin Willmann Saturday, April 05, 2003
April 23, 1971: "I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement
Later some "veterans" who participated in Winter Soldier were exposed as impostors. Newsmax Feb. 11, 2004 7:09
In December of 1992, not long after Kerry was quoted in the world press stating "President Bush should reward Vietnam within a month for its increased cooperation in accounting for American MIAs," Vietnam announced it had granted Colliers International, based in Boston, Massachusetts, a contract worth billions designating Colliers International as the exclusive real estate agent representing Vietnam.
That deal alone put Colliers in a position to make tens of millions of dollars on the rush to upgrade Vietnam's ports, railroads, highways, government buildings, etc. C. Stewart Forbes, Chief Executive Officer of Colliers International, is Kerry's cousin. Kerry was portrayed in The New Yorker as a proud Vietnam veteran and "war hero" who, as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, dared to take on and defeat the "mendacious POW lobby."
In its 1993 final report, the Select Committee determined that live U.S. prisoners of war were left behind in the hands of the Vietnamese after the end of the war. Blood Money, if you ask me!
Kerry now says he is proud of his service in Vietnam and that the country should “celebrate the nobility of young Americans” who were willing to die for their country. Was He Lying Then Or Is He Lying Now? By Notra Trulock February 13, 2004 I guess we should just follow the example you set after your Vietnam experience. JFK, you're a real piece of work!
*** Maybe it was LSD??? *** Asked if he had accused his fellow soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam during his April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry told CNN's Judy Woodruff: "No, I was accusing American leaders of abandoning the troops. And if you read what I said, it is very clearly an indictment of leadership. I said to the Senate, where is the leadership of our country? And it's the leaders who are responsible, not the soldiers. I never said that." <choke> I just gagged! Newsmax, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004
Abortion
Jun 7, 2003: "The Republicans want to criminalize the right of women to choose, take us back to the days of back alleys, gag doctors and deny families the right to plan and be aware of their choices - we Democrats want to protect the constitutional right of privacy and make clear that at the center of this struggle is our commitment to have a Supreme Court that will protect the equal rights, the civil rights, and the right to choose in this nation." Keynote Speech to Massachusetts Democratic Issues Convention Jun 7, 2003
Jun 20, 2003: "I am prepared to filibuster, if necessary, any Supreme Court nominee who would turn back the clock on a woman's right to choose..." FoxNews
Nov 7, 2003: Do you support the ban on partial-birth abortions recently signed into law? "I don't support the President's law because it doesn't allow the exception for situations where the health of the woman is at risk. I believe this is a dangerous effort to undermine a woman's right to choose, which is a constitutional amendment I will always fight to protect. " Concord Monitor / WashingtonPost.com on-line Q&A (top)
Civil Rights
Nov 5, 2003: "I have always fought for the right of people to be able to be treated equally in America. Long before there was a television show or a march in Washington. In 1985, I was the sole sponsor of the Civil Rights Act to make sure we enforced that in America. I am for partnership rights. I am for civil union. I am for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I am for the hate crimes legislation" Democratic Debate
Jan 25, 2004: "Our country is defined by the rights we protect, and those of us who fought for freedom and put our lives on the line defended the right of people to do things that we disagree with. I would not be pleased to see someone burning the flag because I love the flag, but the Constitution that I fought for preserves the right of free expression." Associated Press policy Q&A (top)
Crime
Jan 25, 2004: "I oppose the death penalty other than in cases of real international and domestic terrorism." Associated Press policy Q&A, "Death Penalty" Jan 25, 2004 (top)
Economy
Dec 3, 2002: "And to encourage investments in the jobs of the future - I think we should eliminate the tax on capital gains for investments in critical technology companies - zero capital gains on $100 million issuance of stock if it's held for five years and has created real jobs -- and we should attempt to end the double taxation of dividends." City Club of Cleveland Speech
Oct 27, 2003: "I'm going to do what Clinton did. I'm going to cut the deficit in half in the first four years. Clinton's plan was to balance the budget in 10 years, not the five Governor Dean says. The reason we decided not to do it in five was because it required extraordinary cuts in the things we just talked about doing investing in the city of Detroit, investing in our schools, investing in health care, making our economy move." Democratic Presidential 2004 Primary Debate in Detroit
Jan 11, 2004: Do you agree that the economy is recovering? "It's a recovery for the people in the corporate boardroom. It's a recovery for corporations, to some degree, by compacting, by increasing productivity. But if you go across America, it's not a recovery This recovery is a recovery for those people who have stock. It's a recovery for those people who are able to walk away with the highest salaries. But workers have only seen a three-cents-an-hour increase in their wages." Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum (top)
Energy
Jan 22, 2002. The following contradictions occur in the same speech on the senate floor:
"America take note: if we enact the entire Bush energy plan we will find ourselves twenty years from now more dependent on foreign oil -- than we are today." blah blah blah and then: "...we must enter this debate understanding that for 30-50 years in the future, like it or not, we will continue to have major dependency on fossil fuels."
"During the 1970s, America created the Corporate Average Fuel Economy -- or CAFE -- program to increase auto efficiency. This was the right decision." blah blah blah and then "our vehicle fuel efficiency is worse now than it has been in twenty years." (top)
Farming
Jan 6, 1996: "I think we can reduce the size of Washington," Kerry said. "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country." Washington Times, Jan 16 2004 (top)
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