Interesting this ST Propaganda article on the front page top fold on the right: ~~ GOP rips Kerry over Iraq quote;
he fires right back (Jennifer Loven again....)
Let's hope Hoof in Mouth Kerry keeps on talking till Election Day...Rove couldn't have done a better job himself..... Note about halfway down the article what his aides said that he said~~~ Of course, they didn't say when that statement was prepared....BEFORE Kerry opened his mouth, or afterwards when the aides were trying to plug the dike.... Yep, FREE speech is a WONDERFUL thing!
ST: "GOP rips Kerry over Iraq quote; he fires right back"
Kerry apologizes for "botched joke," says he meant no offense to troops
By Jennifer Loven
The Associated Press
seattletimes.nwsource.com
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kerry apologized today for "a botched joke" about President Bush's Iraq policies that led Bush and fellow Republicans to accuse him of insulting U.S. troops. Some Democrats in close races assailed Kerry, while others called the flap a ploy by the GOP to alter its fortunes in next week's midterm elections.
"Of course I'm sorry about a botched joke. You think I love botched jokes?" Kerry said during an appearance on Don Imus' nationally syndicated radio program. "I mean, you know, it's pretty stupid."
Kerry, D-Mass., said he meant no offense to troops when he told a college audience Monday that young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they don't make it through the educational system.
On Wednesday, he said, "You cannot get into the military today if you do badly in school." But he also said the White House was purposely twisting his words and asserted that it is Bush who owes troops an apology for a misguided war in Iraq.
What he said:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
What aides said was in a prepared text:
"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."
"I'm sorry that that's happened," he said of his earlier comment. "But I'm not going to stand back from the reality here, which is, they're trying to change the subject. It's their campaign of smear and fear."
At issue is Kerry's speech to a group of California students on Monday, where he said people who don't study hard and do their homework would likely "get stuck in Iraq." Kerry said he mangled the delivery of a line aimed at Bush — according to aides, language which was originally written to say "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."
But Republicans seized on it as evidence of troop-bashing by the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee. The Republican National Committee released a Web ad, to be e-mailed to GOP activists and state party officials, called "Apologize."
The White House took the unusual step of releasing in advance comments Vice President Dick Cheney was making later today at a Montana campaign rally, in which he scolded Kerry for taking "another swipe at the U. S. military."
"Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it," Cheney said in a line meant to recall Bush's skewering of Kerry in their 2004 race for saying he had voted for war funds before he voted against them.
GOP Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam veteran and possible 2008 contender, said he wasn't sure "how you could construe" Kerry's comment as a joke.
And White House spokesman Tony Snow said Kerry's apology on Imus didn't pass muster. "He's insisting on pointing fingers at the president," Snow said. "Just say you're sorry. It's not hard."
The fiery exchange evoked memories of the bitter 2004 Bush-Kerry contest, and injected last-minute fireworks into a taut race between Republicans trying to cling to control of Congress in the Nov. 7 voting and Democrats striving to win it back.
With each party looking for any advantage in a campaign expected to turn in large measure on the unpopular war in Iraq, some Democratic candidates joined Republicans in calling on an apology from Kerry, who scratched some campaign appearances for Democratic candidates.
"Whatever the intent, Senator Kerry was wrong to say what he said," said Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., running for the Senate in Tennessee.
Meanwhile, Kerry spokesman David Wade confirmed that the senator no longer would appear at a Philadelphia rally on Wednesday for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Casey.
"I'm coming back to Washington today so I'm not a distraction," Kerry told Imus.
Kerry was frantically seeking to contain the damage — to his party next week and his own potential repeat run for the White House in 2008. He and some Democrats viewed the fracas as a key test of a lesson learned in the 2004 race — that he responded too slowly when hit with unsubstantiated allegations about his Vietnam war record from a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Kerry's office released a supportive statement from retired Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, the first female three-star general in the Army and a supporter of his 2004 bid against Bush. "When it comes to Iraq, he's right to stand up against baseless attacks, and right to keep fighting for a better course for our troops and our country," she said.
Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat leading in late polls in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, said Republicans are merely trying to change the subject. "The people who should apologize are George Bush and Mike DeWine for sending our troops into battle without body armor and without examining the cooked intelligence," he said.
Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Vietnam, said, "The Republicans are so desperate that they'll take anything and try to make the most of it."
And the head of the Democratic party also downplayed Kerry's remarks. "Bloopers happen," Howard Dean told reporters in Burlington, Vt.
Bush, campaigning in Georgia Tuesday night, said Kerry's statement was "insulting and it is shameful" hours after his spokesman, Tony Snow, unleashed a harsh attack on the Massachusetts senator.
Kerry responded Tuesday with a harsh statement and in a hastily arranged news conference in Seattle: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."
Also Tuesday, a new controversy erupted in one of the key, and nastiest, Senate campaigns: the re-election bid by Republican George Allen of Virginia.
Allen faced criticism from Democrats over taped footage showing his supporters tackling a student who approached him at an event in Charlottesville, Va., and accused him of spitting on his first wife.
The incident involving Allen occurred when Mike Stark, a University of Virginia law student who operates a liberal blog, approached the senator and loudly asked, "Why did you spit at your first wife, George?" according to The Associated Press.
Allen was married to Anne Waddell from 1980 to 1984; after the divorce, he remarried.
Three men wearing Allen stickers grabbed Stark, removed him from the hall and threw him to the ground. |
