NYT:Kerry Attacks Bush Officials Who Received Draft Deferrals

[DeepModem Mom]

Kerry Attacks Bush Officials Who Received Draft Deferrals
By JODI WILGOREN

Published: April 17, 2004


PHILADELPHIA, April 16 — Campaigning here in the swing state his wife still calls home, Senator John Kerry on Friday made some of his most pointed and personal attacks yet on the Bush administration, raising questions about top Republicans' lack of military service while highlighting his own.

Mr. Kerry did not specifically attack President Bush, whose service in the National Guard has been the subject of much debate, but he called Vice President Dick Cheney as well as Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's political guru, people "who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had a chance."

Mr. Kerry also referred to the "twisted ethics and morality" of "these people in the White House today," citing attacks on his fellow Vietnam veterans John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, and Max Cleland, the former Democratic senator from Georgia.

"I'm tired of these Republicans, who spend so much time denigrating Democrats and other people's commitment to the defense of our nation," Mr. Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, told thousands of students at the University of Pittsburgh.

"I went," added Mr. Kerry, a decorated Navy combat veteran. "I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism and how asking questions about the direction of our country somehow challenges patriotism, because asking questions about the direction of our country is patriotism."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/politics/campaign/17KERR.html

[MaineDem]

1. This is one issue the GOP doesn't "own"

Keep it up, JK!

Rememeber how much the GOP played up Clinton's student deferrals. They don't have a leg to stand on with this issue.

[Manix]

2. ...hammer the SOBs John!!

[lostnfound]

3. I'm not sure this helps anymore

I'm thinking about those who voted for Bush once who are thinking about changing their vote this time. They prefer to think that the reason for changing their vote has to do with what Bush has shown himself to be in office..incapable of the job..not what Bush has always been.

Soundbytes for the media, make Kerry come across as 'negative campaigner'.

But maybe I'm wrong.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Most GOP voters from 2000 have had no clue that the NeoCons...

...consisted of people that had gone out of their way to avoid being drafted. A solid percentage of those voters are vets, former servicemen, and current servicemen. How do you think they will react to the publicly touted knowledge that their leaders are major-league chickenhawks? How many will look very hard at the comparisons between those people leading the NeoCons and John Kerry, Vietnam veteran?

IMHO, the more information they know about the NeoCons, the better it is for us.

[Isere]

9. I think you are right on this one..

I heard Kondracke on Faux News absolutely pitch a fit about this! He was nearly apoplectic with anger at the idea of Kerry questioning the patriotism of the repugs.

He actually said "Republicans never question the patriotism of Democrats."
This is a complete falsehood, but it doesn't matter in the La-La Land of the TV.

I think Kerry can find much better points to make without going this route. I hope he does. It's too much of a distraction.

[robbedvoter]

17. Oh, no! kerry made wingnuts angry? Let's ring our hands and hide under

the table.
Kerry says all the right things here. Keep it up! :-)

[pretzel4gore]

12. maybe the media is a criminal run business?

a ministry of propaganda warring on the public interest and using public money/airwaves...
the bush crims are literally soaping issues constantly, getting them through attention spans...
if the busheviks allowed to control anything, the best idea is let them loose....they literally dooming themselves: when kerry comes in, he's a cop representing victims (the human race) and using billyclub etc kerry round up the principals, especially the gang of mediawhores who 1)carefully tried destroy pres clinton 2)enabled bushinc to stage coup... Covered up the 3)domestic terror operation 911 4)murder of paul wellstone, lawmaker 5) murder of 200 plus innocents on flight 587, to drown out publication of NORC results ie bush never won any election...
then there's iraq...

[saigon68]

4. Cheney as well as Karl Rove are Hypocritical DRAFT DODGERS

When you are safe at your office in Amerkia it is easy to formulate a course of action that kills thousands of kids from Iowa, Watts, Tennessee and Harlem

[yelladawg]

5. chickenhawks to the front

It's time we got a candidate to wrap himself in the flag.

"I will bleed until my veins run dry to put a Nam Vet in the White House"

[underpants]

6. Lott, Hastert, and Delay too (Leave Rush out of it)

Rush isn't actually in government so I would leave him out of it.

Hastert-got deferral because of bad knee-went back to college and wrestled

Delay-~"All the good jobs were taken by blacks" (loose quote)

Lott-cheerleading

[DeepModem Mom]

8. LOL! "Lott -- cheerleading"

And Cheney -- something like "other priorities"?

[Hand]

18. Yeah... cheerleading...

And for whom? For the SEGREGATED, WHITE-ONLY UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI! (Which, BTW, is famous for its cheerleaders, its shameful history, and NOTHING else.)

Racist arsehole.

:mad:

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

10. Didn't Kerry apply for a deferral and get turned down?

I seem to remember hearing that somewhere. If it's true, then it'll be all too easy for the repugs to throw this back in his face.

[Prodemsouth]

13. Honk, Honk, Wrong Answer totally false-

n/t

[Spazito]

14. The bottom line is: he served, they didn't!

Many of the young men that died in Vietnam requested a deferral, didn't get it and did their duty, as did Kerry. They are opening a can of worms by going at him on this as he will continue to fire back as he just did in Philidelphia.

[SnohoDem]

11. Great!

It's about time someone spoke up loudly and clearly on this issue. I'm really glad it's Kerry doing so.

[Gothmog]

15. Great-stick it to the chickenhawks

The neocons are all chickenhawks and cowards. What Bush did to Max Cleland is disgusting.

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. Wash Bush a part of the Cleland smear?

I don't guess I realized that. I thought it was just Saxby Shameless.

BTW, I went to school with Saxby's son -- he was a frat boy who always had a bag of grass. Too bad I got no hard proof, not that it would really cause any Repugs to think twice about Saxby's values anyway...