By all accounts, the Republicans are going to get drubbed next week in the election. Fine with me, I think they deserve it. When you get to the point that you are more interested in your own power than in getting anything done, then you deserve to lose. The ironic part is that the Democrats are no better. They have spent the past 2 years dragging their feet, trying to disrupt congress as much as possible, so that they COULD get power. Maybe if they had dragged their feet more back when they all voted for the Iraq War, we would be in less of a mess.
Anywho, so the GOP is going to get stomped next week, presumably. But at the last minute, who comes in and shakes things up? Who comes in and put's his foot in his mouth? The highly coiffed, snotty Senator from Massachussetts thats who!
Good old Senator Kerry, came out Tuesday and said this to some college students:
"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. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
On it's face, this comment is a total insult to American troops. Basically saying only dumb people are in the military.
Kerry says it was a botched joke, that he meant to say:
"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. If you don't, you get
US stuck in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."
His joke, if that were the case, implies that Bush is stupid and uneducated. A quick Google search on "Kerry Bush grades" shows that at Yale, Kerry graduated with a 76% average, Bush with a 77% average.
So now Democrats are privately pissed at Kerry, and publicly mad that the GOP is exploiting the comment. Why shouldn't the GOP exploit it? If you are trying to get an edge on your opponent, you will exploit their weaknesses. Next week we will find out if it worked or not. The Democrats could be accused of doing the same thing. Senator George Allen called one of his opponents' staff members a 'macaca' which evidently is a racist slur in some communities. He apologized and said he didn't know that, but it didn't stop the Dems from trying to exploit it.
This wouldn't even be a big story if it wasn't John Kerry. First off he could have apologized 2 days ago and made it a non-story, but he refused to, which made it an even bigger story.
Plus, Kerry has a history of making disparaging statements against the military:
About 1 year ago on Iraq, he said to Bob Schieffer on 'Face The Nation':
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
And to a Senate Committee after Vietnam:
"Several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia , not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. They re-lived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals , cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Kahn, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side... We are ashamed of and hated what we were called on to do in Southeast Asia."
He later would say he was taking other peoples' word for what they said they saw, not accusing anyone.
Kerry should be commended for being a soldier in Vietnam but he should quit trying to use his service to give him a free pass to say whatever he wants.
He has a history of accusations against military personnel, and if he didn't, this story would have died down the same day.
