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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-04-18

Kerry On Russert

Or, as I like to say, a cure for insomnia.

I watched about the first 30 mins of the interview this morning--I didn't have the stomach for any more. But a couple of things stuck out. You can read the transcript yourself here--its much better than listening to the drone.

Kerry:I was the one who pointed out they failed to use our forces effectively in Afghanistan. We had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora. Rather than deploy the 10th Mountain Division or the 101st Airborne or the Marines, rather than use the best military in the world to go kill the world's number-one terrorist, what did we do? This administration held them back. They sent the Afghans up into the mountains who a week earlier had been on the other side, and they let him escape.


So, rather than enlist our allies and trust their knowledge of the area and share intel and bring them along. . .we should have been unilateral and pursued with all vigor our own ends and to hell with them. Interesting position, Mr. Senator.

Russert: You "voted to authorize military action but has accused President Bush of rushing into war, [but he] said he will cease his complaints once the shooting starts. `It's what you owe the troops,' said a statement from Kerry. `I remember being one of those guys and reading news reports from home. If America is at war, I won't speak a word without measuring how it will sound to the guys doing the fighting when they're listening to their radios in the desert.'"

Are you concerned that you're sending the wrong message to the troops by not showing solidarity in terms of the war in Iraq? And have you broken your pledge?

SEN. KERRY: No, I haven't. Because, number one, I did adhere strictly to that through the period of the success of the war, when we finally had taken control of the country.

A word leaps to mind: WEASEL.

RUSSERT: The Boston Globe reports that your commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Grant Hibberd has suggested that you perhaps didn't earn your first Purple Heart and question whether you should have left Vietnam after six months. In order to deal with those kinds of issues, when I asked President Bush about his service in the Texas Guard, he agreed to release all his military records, health records, everything. Would you agree to release all your military records?

KERRY: . . .I know what happened. And the Navy 35 years ago made a decision and it's the Navy's decision and I think it was the right decision.

[full disclosure: there is some cutting and pasting there, but I think its largely insignificant]

So, just to be clear, Senator: a decision that one branch of military made 35 years ago about your record is sufficient for you and you accept that decision. So would you now go on record encouraging your subordinates to accept the decision of the Air National Guard regarding honorably discharging a young George W. Bush, and tell them to stop questioning his service?

The more I see of this guy, the less I like him--and I was pretty well-disposed to dislike him before. Really, I hope there are a number of debates so the public can see what a jerk this guy is.
Posted by: Michael / 4/18/2004 10:42:00 PM

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