Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Quote of the Year

"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. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
- Senator John Kerry, pompous scumbag, insulting our troops who are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and reaffirming once again how lucky we were he was not elected Commander-in-Chief in 2004.

See the video here. This will be played much more often than the "I voted for it before I voted against it" clip.

17 comments:

Victoria Dehlbom said...

That is outrageous! He should not be serving the government in any capacity.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Scum always floats to the surface where it becomes visible. I guess Kerry finally broke off of the back of whatever bottom feeder he was attached to.

Ray Lindquist said...

This IS the October Surprise the GOP needed. This will cost them (The Rat's) VERY dearly. I predict the GOP will gain seats this time around both in the house and the senate.

Unknown said...

Th bigger fool is the man who votes for these arrogant, elitist asses like Kerry.

Unknown said...

Are you kidding? I love John Kerry, the big crazy Boston lunkhead!!

He couldn't have done more damage to the Democratic Party if he had been a paid underling of the Republicans. Your comments attest to that fact. In fact, I'm convinced he's a double agent working for Karl Rove.

Now, if we could only get Michael Dukakis to put on a tanker's helmet again.....

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Misinterpretation? Out of context?Hardly. Not even, in fact. He said exactly what he is quoted here as saying while giving his speech, and only later did he come out with the "intended" version of the speech.

We've seen this pattern in Kerry's behavior before: Kerry voted for the war, so the fact of the matter is that he is directly responsible, just as the administration is, for us being there. Now, he is trying to distance himself from the war that he voted to authorize since it has proven difficult, just as he is trying to slink away from the bad consequences of his remarks after the general public got wind of them.

He might have an easier time walking away if one of his feet were not in his mouth.

"Cut and Run Kerry" does have a nice ring to it, and it certainly fits.

April E. Coggins said...

Hey Hector, I think you should read the quote again. Remember, John Kerry was not caught off guard by the press, he was making a planned statement to his anti-military supporters. It's going to be difficult to turn this into more Hate Bush spin. In fact, I didn't hear Bush mentioned at all. I am amused by the Dems attempt to sell the public on what John Kerry REALLY meant to say. I have never seen you on this blog, would you happen to be doing Dem damage control? I would also like to point out that calling us "fools voting their self-interests" is not helping your cause.

Uncle Bubba said...

Heckter

"riposte" "schadenfreude" ???

Where are you from ?

The German Fencing Team is on some other blog.

Unknown said...

A Democratic congressman told ABC News Tuesday, "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2619383&page=2

In other words, Kerry has managed on the eve of what could be a watershed election to remind pretty much everyone what it was they didn't like about the Democrats, and especially what they didn't like about him. It might have made more sense just to say he was sorry — for once to get ahead of a mistake, instead of trying to compensate for it the next time.

Karen Tumulty, Time

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1553167,00.html

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

If Kerry intended to target Bush with his remark, then he should have named the President directly, which he very clearly did not. "Implied referal," real or not, is simply coming after the fact, after he got stung.

Now, as for his words, what came out of his mouth can be said to have caught Bush in its net, but it was wider than that: the implication was that ANYONE who is in Iraq is there due to a lack of intellectual prowess, so to speak, which includes many capable and accomplished scholars who volunteered to fight. The halls of our university are graced by many of them - do you think they won't miss the implications of that utterance?

So what we now get from Kerry - who voted for this war - is that if you are there, you're less than intelligent. So I say it again: this is coming from the guy who voted to go in. If we move the focus back to just the politicians and off of the troops, then Kerry ought to realize that he's in fact speaking in to a mirror with his statements, if he is still willing to back them.

April E. Coggins said...

Hector: Is this an example of what you are trying to rewrite?

From USA Today:
"Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said his comments at Pasadena City College in Southern California were distorted by "assorted right-wing nut jobs." He said he was trying to make a joke about Bush and his team's preparations for the Iraq war."

Hector, I am curious about your self-interests?

Unknown said...

Perhaps we are judging our Homeric friend's Weltanschauung too harshly.

I'm sure that if he is so distressed by callous political manipulations of unfortunate situations, he will certainly go around town and destroy all the recent mailings from Peter Goldmark that attempt to link Cathy McMorris to Mark Foley.

Until the Rats are willing to disavow opportunistic negative campaigning, they must content themselves to drink from Kerry's goblet of hemlock.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Oh no... Tom mentioned the goblet of hemlock.

I CANNOT RESIST!

"I drank what?!" -- Socrates

I put that on every syllabus I write. :)

April E. Coggins said...

Oh Hector. How do you balance so many strawmen? It makes me tired trying to keep up. I guess that is why I get paid to do what I do and you are paid to do what you do.

If you ever want to return to have an actual discussion and can manage to stay on topic, without the red-herrings, strawmen, and other distractions, please do. You might be a fascinating person.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Actually, hector, being former 1st Cavalry mechanized infantry myself, I don't think these remarks will be received as "REMFs just up to their usual."

We're talking about one of the people who makes the decisions about what happens to those of us who have put our lives on the line at the front line. And as I've already said, what came out of his mouth is not what those of our profession appreciate hearing from one of our "leaders," a statement that he has yet to truly apologize for. This stubborness is evidence of belief and conviction, not the humbleness that should follow an acknowledged mistake.

Uncle Bubba said...

Obviously a great deal of folks don't agree that demeaning our troops is a minor issue.

As for ideas on Iraq the Democrats are masters at expressing outrage without coming forth with solutions.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

No, cougster1, this is about the big picture; it is one topic within it, and debating it, from whatever angle one supports, is part of am all-encompassing view about this war. Your criticism in this regard is therefore unfounded and is itself a true distraction from the issue at hand. It says that you can't answer back, so you'll just toss out a stumbling block and feign moral superiority and victory.

As for the war, try this: we stay until the Iraqi Army can stand on its own, we get them up to speed as fast as possible, we introduce a capitalist ethic coupled with a secular code of civil ethics into Iraqi society so as to make them more interested in trade than war, and in the meantime, we cheer our soldiers on as they kill as many of the enemies of such ideals as they can find.

Those are reasonable, constructive goals, and they take into account the situation that was created by our entire nation - not just our President and Senator Kerry (who, again, is also responsible for us being there owing to his vote to go in). The whole idea of just getting out is one borne of a weak character, a belief that one should quit when the going gets rough, no matter what the value of the end goal. We ought not be a nation of cowards.