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John Kerry to S.F.Chronicle Editorial Board: Bush lied! He did what he said he'd do!

Mar 5, 2004 1:22AM PST
Seriously!

IT'S AN ODD campaign gimmick, but Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., often tells voters that he was "misled" and that's why he voted for an October 2002 resolution authorizing military force against Iraq.

Kerry says he believed the resolution tied President Bush to promises to build an international coalition, to work with the United Nations and only go to war as a last resort. A disappointed Kerry now says Bush failed in all three venues.

Kerry's story only works if you don't know that the resolution didn't bind Bush as Kerry said...

When Kerry met with The Chronicle Editorial Board on Friday, I had the chance to ask the senator how he could have expected Bush to behave differently in light of what Bush had said.

Kerry's answer reminds me of the angry customer in the Federal Express ad, who, clad only in a towel and a loofah mitt, calls a company to complain that FedEx delivered his package as scheduled, which he should not have expected, and by the way it inconveniently interrupted a "complicated exfoliation."

Kerry's answer was that Washington insiders believed that Bush didn't mean what he said. "I think that you had a hard-line group (then Pentagon adviser) Richard Perle, (Deputy Defense Secretary) Paul Wolfowitz and probably (Vice President ****) Cheney. But when Brent Scowcroft and Jim Baker (former advisers to the first President Bush) weighed in, very publicly in op-eds in the New York Times and the (Washington) Post, the chatter around Washington and (Secretary of State Colin) Powell in particular, who was very much of a different school of thought, was really that the president hadn't made up his mind. He was looking for an out. That's what a lot of people thought."

What about what Bush said to the U.N.? That was "rhetorical," Kerry answered. And "a whole bunch of very smart legitimate people" not running for president thought as he did. "So most people, actually on the inside, really felt that (Bush) himself was looking for the way out to sort of satisfy Cheney, satisfy Wolfowitz, but not get stuck." Kerry continued, "The fact that he jumped and went the other way, I think, shocked them and shocked us."
(Say what? pfc)

Kerry also downplayed the importance of his Iraq vote when he told The Chronicle, "Moreover, we didn't give (Bush) any authority he didn't have. (President) Clinton went to Kosovo without Congress. Clinton went to Haiti without Congress."
(And we're still in Kosovo...and still in Bosnia...and we're back in Haiti. BTW, does anyone remember any Democratic outrage at these actions of Bill Clinton? How about the 1998 resolution authorizing force against Saddam? Didn't think so...pfc)

And: "What we thought we were doing was getting him (Bush) to a place where it would be harder to go to war."

The scariest part is that Kerry looked as if he believed what he said. He had noted that all of his fears of where Bush might err turned out to be right. At the same time, Kerry asserted that his vote for military force made it "harder" for Bush to go to war.


Seems that the only person being untruthful here - mostly to himself - is John Kerry, and that's what is truly scary, IMO!

Discussion is locked

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If people just listen to Kerry's own words...
Mar 5, 2004 2:34AM PST

they would immediately notice something rather significant.

If his lips are moving he is LYING!

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Sounds like Kerry is either deluded or an idiot.
Mar 5, 2004 2:38AM PST

Really reassuring in a major party's candidate for the Presidency!

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Re: He did what he said he'd do! -- Your post totally misrepresents Kerry's points
Mar 5, 2004 2:53AM PST

Hi, Paul C.

Bush said that war would only be a last resort, and that there'd be international cooperation. Bush then takes that to mean Britain, Australia, and some hangers-on -- the intent of the resolution was a truly international coalition as in Gulf War I. Further, Bush et al. kept raising the bar on what "cooperation" with the inspectors meant. Youre post is clearly intended to try to do to Kerry what Romney's "I was brainwashed" statement about VietNam did in destroying his campaign against Nixon. Hopefully the American public won't be played for fools yet again, but only time will tell.

-- Dave K.
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Did you read this piece?
Mar 5, 2004 5:01AM PST

Also from Ms. Saunders' column:

A month before Kerry's "yes'' vote, Bush went to the United Nations and said the following: "Saddam Hussein has defied the United Nations 16 times. Not once, not twice -- 16 times he has defied the U. N. The U.N. has told him after the (Persian) Gulf War what to do, what the world expected, and 16 times he's defied it. And enough is enough. The U.N. will either be able to function as a peacekeeping body as we head into the 21st century, or it will be irrelevant. And that's what we're about to find out.'' (Emphasis mine)

President Bush said that at the UN, Dave. There's no way Sen. Kerry (or you) can say that he (or you) was somehow blindsided by the invasion of Iraq. The President spoke a month before Sen. Kerry voted for the resolution, for God's sake! He can't possibly say that he didn't know that we might act without UN sanction if the UN failed to step up to the plate and accepted its responsibility to enforce its previous 18 resolutions.

At best, Sen. Kerry is being completely disingenuous. At worse, he's either being completely dishonest (real bad, IMO), or displaying the intellectually laziness as the Bush haters so like to attribute to the President (even worse).

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Re: Did you read this piece?
Mar 5, 2004 12:46PM PST

Hi, Paul C.

I gave it the attention it deserved. IOW, I scanned enough of the first paragraph to identify it as partisan republican drivel, then addressed some particular points in what you chose to post.

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Sounds about right for an educated scientist...(research? What is that?)..(NT)
Mar 6, 2004 1:36AM PST
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Re: Did you read this piece? P.S. OTOH, I did
Mar 5, 2004 12:49PM PST

carefully follow the debate and wording of the resolution itself when it was introduced (and unfortunately passed) those many months ago -- and there's passing little relationship between that resolution and Ms. Saunders' revisionist exegesis of same.

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Not so, but your post indicates you are trying mind reading again...
Mar 5, 2004 5:12AM PST

If you READ the article Paul had represented it quite accurately.

It is you who are not doing so.

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Rule number 11. You did have 10 didn't you Bo?
Mar 5, 2004 5:13AM PST

11. When confronted with unpleasant or uncomfortable history, rewrite it to fit the interests of the Democrat Party and/or its nominees.

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I only had 6, KP
Mar 5, 2004 6:39AM PST

4 of which I swiped from Neal Boortz. You modified #4 and I have seen some others suggested.

Someone needs to compile them all and periodically repost them so we don't forget.

Along with things like;
When you see that your candidate is a sleaze and cannot win, jerk him and substitute another after the deadlines have passed (the Torricelli Rule)

Bo

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No, Kiddpeat, yell Nixon....
Mar 5, 2004 9:32AM PST

He yelled "Nixon" this morning. Wow, a 2 Nixon day, and the day is not over yet.

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Do I have a bid for a Watergate?
Mar 5, 2004 1:58PM PST

There must be one there somewhere.

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You read minds, Kiddpeat...
Mar 6, 2004 1:17AM PST

You read minds, Kiddpeat. It's now the next day, before noon, and he switched to "Watergate" in the Martha Stewart thread. Well, when he was talking about the problem being lying, obviously he would ignore the last administration and run to something over 3 decades ago.