Kerry Blasts McCain's "Iraq War Mindset"

[Hissyspit]

Source: The Atlantic

Kerry Blasts McCain's "Iraq War Mindset"

Remember when John Kerry and John McCain were allies? Friends? Potential ticket-mates? Comity, no more.

"What John McCain has done in his comments** ... is that he has fully embraced willfully, openly, fully embraced the failed, tragic policy of the Bush Administration over the last seven and a half years," Kerry said on a conference call today. "He's really defending a policy that is indefensible. He's proving every day that he doesn't understand Iraq, or the Middle East, or the war on terrorism."

McCain is embracing " George Bush post 9-11 war of choice strategy," of which he is "Washington's biggest supporter." McCain "failed to learned the lessons of 9/11. He is the candidate of the Iraq War mindset, a mindset that completely misunderstands and dangerously underestimates the threats of the 21st century."

** = Actually, these were comments offered by McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann, who said on an earlier conference call that Obama, in commenting on terrorism here, was a "perfect manifestation" of the pre-9/11 mindset. Richard Clarke, the former NSC official in charge of counterterrorism, dismissed the binary choice between treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter or a military matter, and Kerry noted that every Democrat in the Senate voted for war in Afghanistan. Both Clarke and Kerry insisted that Obama's approach to terrorism was comprehensive and not limited to any branch or single function of government: law enforcement, military, intelligence gathering.

Read more: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/kerry_blasts_mccains_iraq_war.php

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[babylonsister]

1. Kerry is on fire! Here he's blasting him on energy/climate change:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3471139&mesg_id=3471139

[speedoo]

2. The John Kerry we are seeing to day would have won the 2004 election, easily.

Yes, I know Kerry probably did win if it were not for election fraud. But today's Kerry would have put the election out of reach for theft.

[biermeister]

3. did ripvankerry just wake up????

where has this guy been for the last 7 years

[karynnj]

4. Where have you been?

He was always here - he never went away. He has been the toughest critic there is on teh Bush administration.

[biermeister]

6. Kerry reaped at least $2.6 million

151 Congressmen Derive Financial Profit From War

by Ralph Forbes
OpEdNews.com

Blood money stains the hands of more than 25% of members of the U.S. House and Senate

Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.

According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMBWatch.

Congressmen gave themselves a loophole so they only have to report their assets in broad ranges. Thus, they can be off as much as 160 percent. (Try giving the IRS an estimate like that.) In 2004, the first full year after the present Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers-both hawks and doves-invested between $74.9 million and $161.3 million in companies under contract with the DoD. In 2006 Democrats had at least $3.7 million invested in the defense sector alone, compared to the Republicans’ “only” $577,500. As the war raged on, so did the billions of profits-and personal investments by Congress members in war contractors, which increased 5 percent from 2004 to 2006.

Investments in these contractors yielded Congress members between $15.8 million and $62 million in personal income from 2004 through 2006, through dividends, capital gains, royalties and interest. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who are two of Congress’s wealthiest members, were among the lawmakers who garnered the most income from war contractors between 2004 and 2006: Sensenbrenner got at least $3.2 million and Kerry reaped at least $2.6 million. (more)

http://progressivenewsdaily.com/?p=4377

[karynnj]

7. This was posted and debunked long ago

First, among the "companies with contracts with the DoD are Pepsi, Microsoft, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson - and likely Heinz.

Second, this number is from the Senate disclosure forms that show all the companies he and Teresa have holdings in. If you look at any (I found the 2005 one on-line) Teresa has lagre holdings in companies like Microsoft, IBM and J&J, those most of her assets are in government bonds. Kerry's own assets are mostly from 3 family trusts, that he inherited when his mother died. He has no control over the trust - he is just one of many beneficiaries. All other Kerry assets are in blind trusts.

People went through John and Teresa's finacial records in 2004 - there is nothing there.

Here's the 2005 report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/congress/fin_dis/2005/k000148.pdf

Here's the 2006 report:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/congress/fin_dis/2006/k000148.pdf
(Have fun)


Here is a concise summary of his 2004 disclosure:

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., ranking Democrat, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Earned income: $158,100.

Honoraria, all donated to charity: None.

Major assets: Four trusts, $430,000-$2.56 million.

Major sources of unearned income: Dividends and interest from trusts, $10,800-$29,600.

Major liabilities: Credit card debt, $15,000-$50,000.

Gifts: None.

Narrative: Kerry inherited three of his four trusts in 2002, after the death of his mother, Rosemary Kerry. His wife, Teresa Heinz, is heir to the Heinz food fortune and her wealth is estimated at more than $500 million. Her holdings include millions of dollars in stocks in companies like H.J. Heinz Co., Microsoft, Anheuser Busch Co., General Electric Co., Proctor & Gamble and IBM. She also is an owner of the Thyme Square Restaurant and the Flying Squirrel charter airline.

http://www.political-news.org/breaking/11937/senate-financial-disclosure-statements.html

Note that Senator Kerry's entire assets are at most the amount they claim he earned - the amounts are actually mostly from Teresa's very conservative portfolio. They are twisting the fact that THK is extraordinarily wealthy - ignoring that they have separate finances. In 2004, nothing there were no identified conflicts of interests.


Then consider Kerry's actions - he has been a leader in wanting the war to end.

[politicasista]

5. K&R

:kick: