Kerry Sends Letter Challenging President to Debate on War

[NNN0LHI]

John Kerry Addresses Bush/Cheney Campaign Attacks
Kerry Sends Letter Challenging President to Debate on War


February 21, 2004

For Immediate Release
Atlanta, GA –

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry gave the following statement regarding President Bush’s attacks on Kerry’s service to the country upon his arrival in Atlanta, Georgia today. John Kerry also released a letter challenging the President to a debate on the Vietnam era and the impact of their experiences on their approaches to presidential leadership. In the letter, John Kerry says, “This is not a debate to be distorted through your $100 million dollar campaign fund. This is a debate that should be conducted face to face.”

John Kerry said:
“As they did with John McCain in South Carolina in 2000 and as they did with Senator Max Cleland, they have again questioned my commitment to the defense of our country. I'm not going to stand by and let the likes of Saxby Chambliss and the Republican Party question my commitment to keeping our nation strong - I've voted for some of the largest defense and intelligence budgets in our history.

“I'd like to know what it is Republicans who didn't serve in Vietnam have against those of us who did. I'm tired of Republicans trying to divert attention from the real issues -- here in Georgia you've lost 70.000 jobs, you've got 1.3 million Georgians without health insurance -- and that's what this race should be about. These are the real issues they should be willing to talk about instead of engaging in the politics of fear and questioning our commitment to fighting for the country we fought for in uniform.

“One way or another we're going to have a debate about the future not the past. We’re not going to let them make this about a war 34 years ago, when we need to talk about the war today.

“Republicans like to question the patriotism of Democrats who question the direction of our nation. They put Max Cleland in an ad with Osama bin Laden to question his commitment to the defense of our country. This President came to Georgia to campaign for Saxby Chambliss and didn't say a word about it. Now his surrogates are at it again. Well, I don't think that politics of fear has any place in our country, and I'm still waiting for the Republicans to tell me what more Max Cleland has to leave on the battlefield of Vietnam to prove his commitment to our country.”

See Letter to Bush: http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0221d.html

[pinniped]

1. chimpy will chicken out...

claiming to have no time. No time because jerkoff is attending more 1,000-10,000 a head banana dinners.

There will eventually be one debate really late this year I suspect.

chimpy doesn't get to use a teleprompter at the debate right?

[saigon68]

11. Rove won't let him out of his sights

In a lot of ways, CHIMPANZEE McSHRUB is more dangerous than Dan Quayle.

His thugish and brutish homicidal style will be exposed if he gets angry.

[Nlighten1]

2. Beautiful.

this is how it needs to be done...public floggings

[emcglynn]

5. Wouldn't it have been nice

if Senator Kerry had challenged President Bush in regards to the current war we are engaged in.

[emulatorloo]

8. He has, regime change in Washington, being doing it for a long long while

read his speeches. The press wasn't covering them, or when they were, you might not have been paying attention. Now go back to sleep.


on edit (clarify)

[emcglynn]

13. Not when it really counted

I have been awake a long time friend. Was Senator Kerry truly shocked when Bush took the war resolution all the way to Bagdad? Who was asleep at the switch then? I will vote for the man but don't expect us all kowtow to centrist dogma.

[emulatorloo]

14. There were plenty of threads on this, however

I don't expect you to change your mind and that is cool, but Kerry did criticize GWB's unilateral war as a *first* resort from day one. Press didn't cover too much.

Of the top 4 major Dem candidates this season, current and past, it is hard for me to see Kerry as the most "centrist," given his strong rating on "liberal" causes.

[schultzee]

23. Right, We have to let Kerry know we want him to move to the left

and continue to lobby and fight really hard to move the party back left. I hate Clinton's creatiion of the centrist elephant dung.

[hang a left]

16. If you had read the post, you would have found that he did.

“One way or another we're going to have a debate about the future not the past. We’re not going to let them make this about a war 34 years ago, when we need to talk about the war today. "

That is all.

[polpilot]

20. ...Mr. President I voted for a war...but a different war...a kinder war..a

gentle war...a vote getting war...an imaginary war? Kerry has convinced 'some' that voting pro-war MEANT anti-war but I don't think he REALLY wants to tell everyone that story.

[hang a left]

28. I don't have a dog in this fight.

I was just pointing out the obvious.

[styersc]

29. With the corpses of 3,000 Americans decomposing under the rubble

of two NY skyscrapers? Talk about political suicide. The Legislature passed a resolution giving the President tools to do a job. He completely screwed up that job, in fact focused on the wrong task. Nothing more Kerry (or anyone else in the House or Senate) could have done- lots more that Bush could have done.

[diamond14]

34. That's exactly what he did: "we need to talk about the war today. "

read it again...Kerry will debate on the IMPACT of their Vietnam experiences on their approaches to today's WAR....

This will be the HISTORICAL

SILVER STAR vs. texas souffle Debate....stay tuned...bush* will have a hard time trying to scoff it off....because Kerry will HUNT HIM DOWN in every speech on every TV, until bush* agrees to debate...

and the shrub's handlers are running scared...because Kerry has now completed more than 150 debates in local and National forums throughout America, in the last few months.....which has improved his already GREAT debating skills...

and the shrub has not debated anyone, and suffers from language pronounciation difficulties and memory retention and other unbelievably crazy remarks....'the country of Africa' ???

[xchrom]

3. i wonder how bush

will ignore that.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Lets hope the media reminds Bush of the challenge every chance they get

[molly]

6. Has this hit the media blitz yet?

[0007]

7. How indecent & insensitive of Mr Kerry --- Doesn't he know that junior

is still in mourning and is in grief over Spot's untimely death?

[emulatorloo]

9. I heard on DU that Kerry would fold up when attacked by Rove Machine

Guess they were wrong.

[Stuckinthebush]

10. Me too...hmmmm

It looks like he has backbone. Perhaps Mr. Daschle could take some lessons from Mr. Kerry.

[saigon68]

12. Mr Daschle is the Dusty DINO Senator from the Badlands

He must be in real political trouble at home.

All little Tommy has to do is start trashing out CHIMPANZEE McSHRUB'S ™ military record.

[schultzee]

24. I think he is thirsting to fight Bush over his vietnam service, because

this is one thing he is angry about.

[salin]

15. Excellent response.

Well done Senator Kerry.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. Looks like the GOP stupidly took the bait

They are attacking Kerry on HIS terf! They can't win! Expect them to (try to) quietly slink away from this.

[schultzee]

26. With yellow tails between their rich behinds

[mobuto]

18. "The likes of Saxby Chambliss"

LOL, Kerry's great.

[twilight]

19. GO Kerry!!!

Even though I support Dennis Kucinich, you GO Kerry and you keep asking those questions and you DEMAND THE TRUTH!

:toast: :toast: :toast:

:dem: :kick:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. I am proud of Kerry representing us

He is a proven champion and I proudly stand behind him.

[twilight]

25. no shame in Kerry

and no shame in supporting him either. He is my #2 pick and always has been, like many other DK supporters I know, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! :D

:dem: :kick:

[proud patriot]

22. LOL ...... YEAH !

:D Hign Noon :D

[mobuto]

27. Frank Miller Republicans?

Kerry as Gary Cooper? LOL.

[not systems]

30. Right on!

I want to see this debate.

Go Kerry.

[diamond14]

43. me too...let's keep the pressure on the shrub to make this happen

we need to fully support Kerry and bring this DEBATE up every single chance that we can....

on call-in radio and TV programs...in letters to the editors in newspapers and magazines and in any kind of public pressure that we can think of...

lets work on this....force the 'texas souffle' to debate the 'Silver Star' on the WAR issue...it needs to be done...it must be done....the time is upon us....when Vietnam Veterans assume their rightful place at the pinnacle of politics....


Go Kerry....beat shrub....

http://www.JohnKerry.com

[InhaleToTheChief]

31. Bush is *required* to debate nominee, right?

I mean after the primaries, there must be debates that will happen between the two candidates, right? Bush can't just opt out of debates entirely can he?

[Buns_of_Fire]

46. There's no legal requirement for a debate

But pResident Dumbass is screwed either way he turns. He can debate the Dem nominee, and get the sound thrashing he so richly deserves -- or he can duck debates ("These National Security thingies must take precedence, and besides, there's going to be a terra attack on that day") and look like the bumbling, inarticulate, and cowardly poseur (I think that's French for GIRLY-MAN) that he is.

Rover's got to be ingesting a lot of Tums these days.

[lebkuchen]

32. How long democrats have waited for a party hopeful to get tough

with Bush's bedridden brain.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Idiots!

Vietnam, which was a Democratic war, became a Republican war when Nixon failed to get the troops out within 6 months after taking office in 1969.

The CIA-run death squads, torture, murder, forced population transfers of the hamlet program, free fire zones, and indiscriminate bombing and spraying of chemicals were all started and done under a Democratic President.

Both major parties have innocent blood on their hands in Vietnam.

Most Americans are under age 40 and Vietnam is something that is as far removed from them as Pearl Harbor was from Boomers.

If you want the Democratic front runner waste his time, and ours, re-arguing the Vietnam War, I am certain that another candidate such as John Edwards can make major inroads talking to the American people about issues that matter to them more than the history of the Vietnam conflict (which goes back to the Truman Administration).

[Kolesar]

36. Understood, but it is the old farts who vote

Retired people and middle aged people vote in the highest proportions. They remember Vietnam. They probably see the parallels to this haughty administration leading us into a quagmire in the Arab land.

Just a thought

[put out]

45. An old fart speaking. 'Scuse me.

(toot) I remember it plenty well. I knew, and know, many people damaged by the Vietnam debacle. I will vote my conscience. And that will certainly not be for the resident in the White House.

I hope our young electorate can inform themselves. It will take them effort, as our current mainstream media cannot be counted upon, unless the political tides turn.

Catch 22.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

35. BAMMM! Nice response!

[diamond14]

37. upcoming...the HISTORIC Silver Star vs. texas souffle Debate....

it's is and will be a debate about shrub's wars today....

the leadership of a texas souffle AWOL shrub vs. the leadership of a
Decorated Vietnam Veteran.....

with Kerry coming into the debate fresh off completion of more than 150 local and National debates all over the country....and improving his already GREAT debating skills...

and bush*, having hidden behind his obscenely wealthy contributors, debating NOBODY...and suffering from huge language use and abuse difficulties in even reading a speech off a telepromter...

bush* will do his best to avoid debating Kerry, especially on the shrub WARS....but Kerry will HUNT HIM DOWN, in every appearance, on every TV, in every newspaper...until shrub has no choice but to make a lame attempt to quell the issue, by debating Kerry....


GO Kerry....beat shrub

http://www.JohnKerry.com

[Malva Zebrina]

38. Falls flat

very flat.

Kerry just does not have the natural instinct to go for the jugular.

A letter? Come on--it is a letter written to a frat boy, who disdains anything formal and probably laughed at the letter sent ot him. He only knows bullying and bludgeoning as the way to conduct affairs.

What holds Kerry back is, imo , his entrenchment in the congress and the Senate. Too much of the "good old boy" club has infiltrated his demeanor.

He is a good man, no doubt, though, as they all are.

[IndianaGreen]

39. Wait for Kerry's memo on the Iraq war and PATRIOT Act

Something to fear, fer sure!

:eyes:

[Malva Zebrina]

40. OK--waiting

:hi:and it would make not a whit of difference. I will have to vote for Kerry, I think, since it appears he will win. I will vote ABB.

[pintobean]

41. Challenging * to a debate?

He needs to meet Edwards one on one first.

[Kolesar]

42. John-o a John-o, no holds barred

[pintobean]

44. lol