Kerry's remarks
Wednesday November 1, 2006
Kerry is a doof, okay? He really is. I was talking just now to a colleague who spent some time on the campaign trail covering Kerry in 2004, and she said that he cannot give a simple answer, that he...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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I think it's fair for the Republicans to pile on Kerry about this in response to the way Democrats pile on Republicans whenever one of them says something that someone takes in the wrong way, whether or not that is what they said or meant. Dems are telling Kerry not to campaign for them, and Hillary is now criticizing Kerry, too: "'What Sen. Kerry said was inappropriate,' she said. Asked if Kerry should apologize, [as] President Bush and other members of both parties have said, Clinton said "I heard he said he was sorry.'" What Kerry meant has been lost to what the Republicans imply he meant, and the Dems are doing their best to get away from the issue, and get away from John Kerry. It's great political comedy theater.>
The Republican pile-on is one thing, but what about the Democrat pile-on? You have a good point, Rod, and I think the Democrat Party would do well to pick up on that say run with it. Instead, they're playing the same game as the Republicans. IMO, that can only add to the fear that the Democrats somehow will blow this election opportunity, like they've done so many other times in the past.>
Andy, there is no such organization as "the Democrat Party.">
Kerry has been trashing those who serve in the military for at least 35 years (and from his 1971 viewpoint, I guess his remarks made factual sense to him). So I am led to believe that he meant exactly what he said (even if he didn't mean for it to come out the way it did, without even having Mel Gibson's excuse). And he said what he said at a political event, in an feeble attempt to gain political advantage.
Worse yet, he has the nerve to blame others for pointing out his very words. But, hey, those who want to believe will swallow his blame-shifting -- hook, line and sinker. As we see here.>
Thank you, Jason. Imagine what members of the Republican Party would do if Democrats started calling them Publicans instead of Republicans? If the shoe fits, eh?
(Yes, I realize, Republicans don't want to use the correct grammar for a very understandable reason. Democratic has a positive connotation, which is why we now hear "the Democrat this and the Democrat that.")
This is a pet peeve of mine (can you tell?) because I think it is a symptom of the general incivility in public life. (BTW: I am currently a registered Republican.)>
Crunchy,
I foresee that a Christian conversion is not the only conversion you will experience in your life. I have read your blog long enough to make the following prediction about your future. You will ultimately be forced by your principles to make common cause with the Democrat party. I don't suggest in the same way as David Brock, who, apparently, saw the light in a Damascus Road experience, but the bottom line is that you will wake up in their camp. I understand that there are multitudes of conservative Democrats so you should find common cause. Unfortunately their voices do not receive much publicity. Doubtless in some future election you will have opportunity to withhold your Democrat vote. Good luck. I predict we are all going to need it.>
If a populace can look at the evidence before them about how the party in power has misused their trust and allow something as petty and grade-school as this to sway their vote cause them to support such gross malfeasance...
...well then that populace deserves whatever the hell it gets.>
Interesting words coming from someone who was more than happy to join in the pile-on on Mel Gibson (if you want to look at the stupid remarks of someone even less earth-shaking than John Kerry). For Christ's sake, Rod, a journalist should know - this is what always happens: a famous person says something flamboyantly stupid, the press and opposition pile on, a month later it's largely forgotten. Why the holy horror all of a sudden?>
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I didn't think John Kerry was saying that our soldiers in Iraq are stupid. Rather, I thought he was suggesting George W. Bush is stupid!
I think the implication was, if one isn't educated and well-informed, one makes foolish decisions like sending troops to a quagmire in Iraq.>
It's a shame that Kerry apologized for speaking the truth. That's what really lets the Democrats down.>
Soldiers respond hear.>
Here's what bothers me the most about this. I don't care what he MEANT to say. That's all well and good, but WHAT he SAID was offensive and an insult to every serviceman and woman on active duty and their families. Yet the media pundits are bending over backward to as much as issue that insincere apology for him.>
This is another distraction. It's been a long time since I've seen the eyes of Bush sparkle with such glee.
Kerry isn't up for reelection. His words, when taken at face value, were so outrageous that there's really nothing to discuss. I believe him when he says that he meant to bash on Bush and not our troops.
I really think that there are more important issues to discuss than whether Kerry should apologize.
Oh, he did apologize. Did he mean it? Who cares? He's not even up for reelection. I'm not voting for him in any future primary, and I don't get a vote in MA, so there's not much I can do about John Kerry sucking on the stump.>
GIITTV: H.L. Mencken once said something to the effect that democracy is the belief that the people should get what they want, good and hard.>
I happen to agree with Rod on Kerry getting unfairly attacked by the Bushites (new word putting a biblical bent on a burning issue).
Unlike Rod I respect and admire Kerry. Last election I voted FOR Kerry and not against Bush. It's worth noting that you'd have to cross probably a couple of statelines and at least two national borders to find someone who likes Bush less than myself.
My criteria for admiring Kerry is personal and based solely upon my own life experiences. I'm a two tour Nam vet. I was young. And more importantly I've been involved with a group of WWII veterans for ten years or so.
These men are still joined at the hip due to their experiences sixty plus years ago. Their bond was so great that it transferred over to their spouses. Widows came to the reunions with the same tone of committment and appreciation for the group.
The adhesive agent in this group was one man. Capt Elmer (Bud) Hale of Oklahoma. Bud was a small framed man when big framed men had a definate advantage socially and especially in a military setting.
His love for his men and theirs in turn for him might best be defined by a moment in a cafeteria in Laughton Oklahoma some years ago. I had set up a video camera and had taken statements from the men and widows one at a time.
As we were winding down I asked one of the men to go get Bud. No one who knew him called him anything but Bud. He had a way of glaring at you for calling him anything else that informed you that you'd crossed a line you never ever wanted to cross again.
I had the camera off to one side focused on the chair the interviewee was sitting. Each person would first keep glancing up a the camera but eventually the conversation would be between us and they'd forget the camera was there.
Bud never looked at the camera. He just glared at me. He had a glare to die for. One could go into paint removing equipped with just that look. Every answer was a yes or a no and the glare.
That was until I asked him why he didn't stay in the service after the War. About half of his men had as a captain up for major he was on an inside track.
"Because of the men" he said with tears softening that glare. "If I could have kept the same men I'd have stayed in forever."
What made that moment for me was the five late seventy to early eighty somethings choking back tears standing behind him out of the camera's view.
He had finally spoken what they all knew all along. He'd always showed them that he cared. Christmas forty four when they'd been over ran in the Battle of the Bulge, it was cold and miserable and they were just thankfull to be alive. Every man said it was one of the best Christmases ever. Bud had rat holed little things from care packages from home all year. Christmas morning every man got a Christmas present. It might have only been a pack of Juicy Fruit. But that pack of Juicy Fruit defined "it's the thought that counts."
During the Swift Boat debacle I saw the same look and loyalty in the men who served with Kerry in Viet Nam. None of the detractors had been there with them or had served under him.
Anyone who has served knows the most vulnerable person in a unit is the leader. The one thing they must have to be effective is respect. The fact that no one who had served under Kerry stood up to testify against him was the ultimate example of their respect. One has to remember that these circumstances were more dire and under literally life and death situations. The men whose life had depended upon Kerry's judgement testified to his capability under pressure in the worst of circumstances.
I'm also a two tour Nam vet. At fifty eight I only have a couple of regrets about my life that I occasionally dwell on. Most of those are about women I loved either too much or not enough. But I do wish I'd been like Kerry when I was young and had stood up against the War when I got home.
My only consolation is I was at that stage in my life where I knew almost everything and understood hardly anything at all.>
I don't know how Kerry could have meant anything other than what he said. He has maligned the character of the military many times before. He has contempt for them. I have no idea how one can claim he was talking about the stupidity of Bush. If he meant to say, "stay in school, so Bush doesn't draft you in his stinkin' war," then say so. He didn't.
I have no idea as to any position of the Democratic Pary that could appeal to a "conservative." That's not to say that the GOP meets conservative principles in any measure--particularly these days...but, no way to the Dem party.>
And it is also true, that while Kerry firmly put both feet in his mouth, that Republican leadership is lacking in veterans. There are a lot of chickenhawks though. Cheney, Hastert, Chambliss, Lott, Delay, Ashcroft, Rove, Mehlman, and many other chose not to serve.
And it is also true that since JFK only Carter and Bush43 have had more military exerience than the losers. No combat commander has won since JFK.>
It's all just a distraction. The two parties need to stop trashing each other. They need to stop and realize that they are elected officials with jobs to do. That is to serve their communities. They are wasting time and money on this type of stuff. I wish they would just sit down, stop being so divided and petty and solve some problems. I wish more Americans would stop getting tangled in these distractions and start demanding that our elected officials do what they are paid to do.>
That's all well and good, but WHAT he SAID was offensive and an insult to every serviceman and woman on active duty and their families.
Ha! Such utter BS.
What he said was true to the core - both "what he said" and "what he meant to say."
Study hard, kids. It's the poor and disenfranchised that have no where else to go that become fodder for rich man's folly. Anything you can do to avoid that is GOOD.>
I posted this on another thread, but what the heck, since it's relevant here:
Good grief. I not only think that Kerry meant what he said, but I agree with it. If these kids don't work hard to get good grades, they may find that they have few other career options but joining the military. And then they might very well get stuck in Iraq.
I have had several students who have joined the military in order to get money for college. That is why many young people join the military. Not all, of course, but very many, if not most. For many of them, military service is one of the few -- or perhaps the only -- option they have to get a higher education and job training. I'm sorry if the self-styled flag-waving patriots don't like to hear that, but it's the case.
Just look at the commercials that the military puts on television to attract recruits. From "Be All That You Can Be" to "An Army of One" to whatever they're using now, the emphasis is on military service as a means of personal growth and professional development, not selfless service to one's country.
My father graduated from high school in 1950, the same year North Korea invaded South Korea. Of course, this was in the time of the draft. He had already been accepted to college, so he had a deferment. He told me that in his locker in college he kept a poster of a tank on a battlefield, to remind him daily of, in his words, "what would happen to me if I didn't get good grades". After graduating in 1955 (the engineering program took five years, with co-op jobs), he got his letter from the president, as he put it (i.e., he was drafted) and served his two years. But by then the Korean War was over, of course.
So yes, if these kids don't work hard and get good grades, many of them might very well find that they have few other options for career training and advancement besides the military. And then they may very well get stuck in Iraq. If some people conclude from this that I "hate the military", too bad. So sue me.
PS -- I just remembered, the current Army recruiting slogan is "Army Strong". Better than "Army Weak", I guess. ;-)>
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