Dodd gave a heads up about C-Span showing John Kerry’s testimony before a Senate committee in 1971 so I was able to watch it. I had a negative, visceral reaction to it. McQ had a much stronger, more personal reaction to Kerry’s anti-soldier (yes, Kerry in opposing the Vietnam war did so in a manner that slimed and smeared every soldier who fought there) actions after he returned with his medals in hand:

Well I’m very angry as well, Becky.

I’m angry that a nation treated its soldiers the way it did 35 years ago. I’m angry that actions of John Kerry led to that dishonorable treatment. But more than that, I’m angry that now that we who were maligned and smeared by Kerry and the VVAW want to speak out about it, people like you want us to shut up. 

Well we’re not going to shut up. 

We kept quiet about it for all those years and we’re damn tired of living with the lies Kerry and others told about us. We’ve as much right to speak as John Kerry. And we’ve got as much right to tell you and others he was full of crap as any other citizen of this country. 

Its not just YOUR country. Its OUR country as well. And this is about how OUR country treated us because of the lies people like John Kerry and the VVAW spread.

When Kerry grows the balls to stand up and tell the Vietnam Vets that he was wrong, he lied and he portrayed them falsely and that he’s sorry for doing so, then perhaps, some real healing can begin.

Until then, I agree with John O’Neill … he’s unfit for command.

Since I’m not a veteran, some will say I have no standing to comment on McQ’s remarks. But as a citizen, I agee with him.

Tags: John Kerry

John Kerry is running an ad here in Missouri about how George Bush doesn’t care about healthcare but John does, and so much so he has a plan. The plan sounds wonderful of course – something for everybody, but it does have one big problem. The plan requires legislation to be passed for it to be implemented, and John Kerry is running for President, an office that can only veto legislation. I suppose it’s bad form to point out that Kerry has been a Senator for almost 20 years and so has had ample time to try to get this plan passed yet somehow has managed to propose nothing in his long yet unmentioned Senatorial career. I suppose it’s too bad that big John has been so busy this year to show up for votes, let alone do all the hard work in actually crafting legislation, but once he’s President apparently then he’ll have time he needs to work on legislation.

Now John Kerry isn’t alone in this odd habit of politicians who run for executive offices; just about everybody who runs for President or Governor runs on a legislative agenda. Even the Libertarians do this, although they mainly talk about the laws they’ll repeal, not pass. When candidate George Bush was running for President, he made tax cutting the main message of his campaign, and after his election he had to work with Congress to get tax cuts passed — ones to be honest that were not exactly what he first proposed but what he was willing to accept.

Our lack of understanding is shown in other races, where for instance we vote for members of the House or any state office based on abortion when the only people who matter on that subject are US Supreme Court justices, and the President and Senate since they select and confirm Supreme Court justices. And that doesn’t include all the platitudinous promises politicians dish out — like how they’ll lower crime without providing details (a colorful costume complete with cape usually springs to my mind) or they’ll be good for families — usually through shared values or some such, although they never explain if I’m supposed to adopt their values, or they’ll adopt mine, or if it’s even sanitary to be sharing values.

The problem isn’t the politicians, it’s the electorate that keeps voting for the politicians. We’re the ones who lap up all these feel good but can’t be implemented promises. The perversity of the electorate doesn’t end there. The one thing all Americans can agree on is that our Congresspeople should work tirelessly for our interests while other peoples Congresspeople should work for the common good (which surprisingly enough is amazingly similar to our interests).

Tags: John Kerry

Maybe I’m easily impressed, but I think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth laid the best political trap for John Kerry I’ve ever seen. Hannibal would be proud.

Step one was to document and gather affidavits and write a book so that there was a wealth of credible material to draw from.

Step two was to put out an ad attacking Kerry’s service. Believe them or not, Kerry and the media have reacted by being outraged that anybody would crap on a combat veteran like the SBVTs did. The fact that they were combat veterans every bit as much as Kerry was immaterial. “How dare you impugn him! He fought and bled for his country!” Let’s face it, this is a strong defense.

Step three was to spring the trap. If you think the SBVTs were surprised by the reaction, you haven’t been paying attention to their second ad where they recount how John Kerry crapped on every Vietnam combat veteran after Kerry returned from Vietnam. The art of political Aikido in action is beautiful to behold. All that anger for Kerry gets turned around and used against him. “How dare he impugn his band of brothers, men who fought and died for their country.” The narrative becomes: if you thought you were mad at us when we said Kerry was a braggert, how should you feel when Kerry said all of us vets were rapists and murderers?

And what has to really hurt is that Kerry’s attacks are all in the public record. Kerry is his own accuser; the credibility of the SBVTs doesn’t matter on this attack. In a move of sheer brilliance, the SBVTs put on ex-POWs to testify to the emotional toll his accusations of atrocities took on them. What’s Kerry going to do — attack an ex-POW? McCain would lead the countercharge personally.

Kerry has only himself to blame for this. If he had run on his political record and his vision for the future, none of this would have come up, let alone matter. But by insisting that his actions 36 years ago mattered, that they were significant qualifications for office, he cannot insist that his actions 33 years ago don’t matter and are significantly disqualifying for office. I mean if he isn’t the same man he was 33 years ago, he sure isn’t the man he was 36 years ago. What was he thinking? How could he have forgotten?

Tags: John Kerry

John Kerry has come out against bringing troops home after he came out for it. Why the straddle? President Bush has announced that we will reduce troop strength in Germany and South Korea in move that has long been anticipated. In his opinion, Bush is going to screw it up. If Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow was Clinton’s campaign theme song, Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better is Kerry’s. [Thanks be to Dodd for the links]

Here’s what gets me — Kerry is complaining about withdrawing troops from two countries that have, shall we say, issues with America and with American troops on their soil and are at peace. He’s worried that it raises questions about our commitment. His plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq, where Iraqis are fighting and dying along side our soldiers, doesn’t raise questions, it answers them about our commitment in the negative. He wants to keep troops in two countries where they aren’t fighting, but remove them from a country where we are fighting our enemies, including al-Qaida. That’s better how?

The case for removing them from Germany is a slam dunk. Germany is threatened only by its runaway welfare state. Of course, when I think back on the proud history of Americans fighting alongside Germans against tyranny, oops, we never have. We fought against German mercenaries in the revolutionary war, against the Kaiser in WWI, against Hitler in WWII, and they declined to fight with us in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Oh, they’ve sent forces after the shooting has stopped — a few thousand here and there. But then we’ll still leave one of our new Brigades behind — a couple thousand troops to fly the flag and reassure the Germans that if the French ever do attack, we’ll at last fire shots in anger together.

We’ll still keep troops in Korea, but reducing the number and moving them to positions where they don’t get annihilated in the first North Korean artillery barrage seems like a good idea to me and increases our freedom of action while reducing tensions with the locals. And isn’t part of Kerry’s foriegn policy to get foreigners to like us again?

Last night I happened to catch Norm Coleman on the Daily Show. He pointed out that debate is good for democracy, but that by and large we don’t have them anymore in this country – instead we have partisan bickering (my words, not his). When Jon asked him why, Norm said because of this and gestured to include the show. Jon made the joke “Comedy Central is responsible?”, but Norm had made his point — if politicians are reduced to brief soundbites on TV, all they can do is bicker.

And that’s all that is going on here. We’ve gotten to the point that politicians will say anything to win, and then say and do whatever it takes to stay in power. This isn’t the fault of the politicians, it’s the fault of us, the American people, for putting up with this kind of politics. We have the ultimate power – to demand that politicians be responsive through the vote, to demand that the media be responsive through the viewership. We just need to use it.

Tags: John Kerry

John Kerry came to town the other day. The Boston Globe reports the following exchange on the plane coming here:

“Kerry also underlined that he would begin trying to broaden his base of voters. At one point on the plane, Kerry said he hoped to woo hockey-mad Michigan voters by lacing up his skates and playing a scrimmage with some members of the Detroit Red Wings before the state’s Feb. 7 caucuses. Yet in states such as Missouri, where the citizenry is less rabid about passing the puck, Kerry acknowledged that he needed to come up with some other way to connect with voters.
“I guess I’ll ride a bucking bronco or a bull or something,” Kerry joked. “I’m game. Whatever they got.”

I guess John has got us confused with Texas. Here’s a tip to all the politicians blowing through St. Louis before the primary – if you want to fit in and make a connection, just tell us what high school you went to. It’s really that simple.

Tags: John Kerry