John Kerry on the Libby Indictments in CIA Leak Case

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry on the Libby Indictments in CIA Leak Case
October 28th, 2005

John Kerry issued the following statement on the indictment of Scooter Libby on 5 counts (one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury in the CIA leak probe) today:

“Today’s indictment of the Vice President’s top aide and the continuing investigation of Karl Rove are evidence of White House corruption at the very highest levels, far from the ‘honor and dignity’ the president pledged to restore to Washington just five years ago.

“A chief architect of the war in Iraq, Scooter Libby, sworn to protect this country, used access to national security information not as weapons against our nation’s enemies, but as weapons against someone who dared to ask tough questions of a dishonest policy. Then they tried to cover it up rather than come clean with the American people, even as the President falsely claimed his Administration was cooperating with investigators. Not only was America misled into war, but a Nixonian effort to silence dissent has now left Americans wondering whether they can trust anything this Administration has to say.

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=979

[Strawman]

1. Nice statement. We should say "Nixonian" on TV

Twice as many times as they say that thing they keep saying that I won't repeat.

[Coexist]

2. Nixonian!

giggle.. giggle.. snort.. giggle.

[ginnyinWI]

6. Nixonian: great framing

It calls up a host of negative inferences. With * we now have both a Nixon-style quagmire in Iraq and a Nixon-style corrupt WH.

[jillan]

3. the last paragraph in Kerry's statement

“Today, almost on cue as bad news struck, the President delivered another rhetorical blast on the war on terror. But the war on terror is not a convenient political distraction, it’s a war we have to win. And to win the war on terror, we can’t afford to have senior administration officials playing political games with national security. The President needs to get serious about addressing our nation’s problems, starting by cleaning out the corruption in his Administration and then addressing the situation in Iraq, soaring gas prices, and a still sluggish economy.”

That's MY president!

[kerrygoddess]

4. He also made a statement

on Bush's speech today - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=978 and refered to the indictments in that as well.

[blm]

8. Corruption - Corruption - Corruption!!!!! That's the key word for any Dem

discussing the Bush White House.

Please, John...this is where you excel....please have a team in place this time to push it through with you. You and Dean can do this.

[politicasista]

5. Go Kerry!

:kick:

[BikeWriter]

7. Nixonian, I like it!

[Seabiscuit]

9. It's a beautiful thing to watch a grown eunuch grow a set of balls...

three years late and a dollar short, but what the heck. Still a beautiful thing to behold.

Now if only John would go back and tell Tim Russert that if he had known then what he knows now he would have voted against the IWR. (I'm not holding my breath).

[WildEyedLiberal]

10. What a horrible thing to say

Kerry showed more courage in facing down some of the most treacherous elements of the Right (Nixon, Reagan, Bush I) throughout his career and investigations into government corruption than any other man. His position on Iraq has been consistent. You don't have to agree with it, but don't post ad hominem insults about him not "having balls" - especially in reference to a man whose courage is there for anyone to see. I'm sure you don't want to be associated with the Rove character smears of last year, do you?

[SeanQ]

12. Compare and contrast Kerry's statement to Deans

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's at least saying something. But there is so much more he should be saying but isn't. For just one example, if he's going to mention energy and gas prices at all, why not point out Exxon's gross, record breaking single quarter PROFITS (> $9000000000 - 9 billion), which they made while overcharging at the pumps and while Bush does NOTHING.

I live in MA. Kerry is not a bad guy. But he is not the kind of leader we need. But he has, perhaps because of his long professional career as a Senator, who practices careful diplomacy and measured words, completely filed off his fangs. He has no bite. He may well fight the good fight, but he apologizes half the way. He is too much a gentleman to go toe to toe with this administration, and that is what we need now.

We are in a fight for our lives, for the well being of our country. Hit them hard and kick them when they are down. Keep kicking until they can only twitch and plead for the day you let up.

And NO, that does not mean you need to cheat or behave like them. It just means you call a lie a lie, loudly, clearly and in plain language. Again, compare and contrast Dean's statement to Kerry's. Reading Kerry's statement, I could only think, "that's nice" and wonder at all the telling points that could have been scored, or at least attempted, but weren't.

(forgot to spellcheck)

[karynnj]

15. I prefer Kerry's statement

I love the eloquence mixed with very strong language: misled, false, corruption, Nixonian - You like Dean's style, I like Kerry's There is no wrong or right. Kerry's points are actually made with great strength as well as style. I found Dean's boring.

[Mass]

16. We need all sorts of style of statements to reach all sorts of people

Some will react better to Dean's statement, some to Kerry's, some to Kennedy's,...

What is important is that the message is coordinated and the themes the same.

The Democrats these last few weeks have been doing a heck of the job saying the same thing. This is the important part.

For the rest, each of us will prefer one statement or the other. This is not that important.

[WildEyedLiberal]

17. Which statement of Dean's to which statement of Kerry's?

And I don't agree that we should choose our leaders based on who is louder and more belligerent. That's the job of pundits, like Michael Moore (and even those of us on DU), but it's not what a leader SHOULD do. It's what the Republicans do, but that doesn't make it something we should emulate. If we become as bitter, angry, and divisive as them, then we have already lost.

[Mass]

20. delete

[TayTay]

44. And once again, a chance for Dems to unite

becomes a friggin pissing contest. We all need to get on the same page and stop making kindergartenish complaints about who idiotic trivia.

Kerry made a great statement. So did Dean.

Now, was that so hard. Hey, even Rockefeller stepped up to the plate and remembered that he has some oversight abilities at Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and called for that next set of hearings. Maybe he'll even read Kerry's letter about investigating the DSM. (And can all Dems, from Dean on down, get on board with that one, please. It took balls to call for that. It would be nice to have all Dems united in investigating this fraud of an Admin. All Dems.)

End the friggin pissing contest. It is a waste of time, brain-power and effort.

Oh and I live in MA too and I don't think Kerry is 'too much of a gentleman' to fight. I read his stuff and have followed his career and that is simply not true. He has told various and sundry Rethug Admins to 'bite me' on a continuing basis.

[Mass]

11. Uh, may be you can get informed and know that Kerry already said that

yesterday, and the day before.

But of course, keeping informed is more difficult than ranting.

[ginnyinWI]

13. you don't need to hold your breath

He said it on Letterman over a year ago! But even if he would not tell Russert what you want him to, that doesn't mean he's pro-war.

As has been stated on DU thousands of times by now, I imagine, Kerry voted for the plan Bush put forth to the Congress (war as a last resort), and then Bush turned around and broke faith with what he said he'd do.

But back to the present: let's give the guy some credit for what he's doing now, and leave it at that!

[Seabiscuit]

14. Oh, brother... some people...

I was just stating the obvious, clearly confined to the Iraq war issue.

Funny how the obvious sends some people into kiniptions (sp?) of denial and facetious outrage.

Kerry until now has been a total wimp about Iraq. That's a fact, regardless of Kerry fans' spin here on DU. Had he not been a wimp about it during the election campaign he would have absolutely trounced Bush in the election.

And don't lecture me about the Tim Russert interview. He has NEVER directly contradicted what he originally told Russert about his IWR vote.

And I'm not holding my breath that he will.

[WildEyedLiberal]

18. That is an opinion that is not any more of a "fact" than my "spin"

In fact, one could argue that your opinion is less valid, as you dismiss anything Kerry has said about Iraq as "wimpy."

You're entitled to think that, I guess, but I'm entitled to disagree strongly, and point out instances in which you are wrong, without being accused of "spin."

[Seabiscuit]

28. Wrong. It's a fact. He wimped out on Iraq and failed to distinguish

himself from Bush except to say he would have done a better job of invading Iraq, IOW, he'd be better at doing something very, very wrong.

[WildEyedLiberal]

49. The definition of "fact" is not "your opinion." Sorry. nt

[politicasista]

22. Nobody is in denial

He was one of the few vocal critics of this war BEFORE and SINCE the invasion. Yet, people continue to believe the corporate media spin.

At a time when the party needs unity, there are people who choose to eat their own rather than get behind the messenger. The latter is not helpful or healthy for us. You can help lead, follow, or get out the way and let people who want to take back the country in 06 take it back.

Are you bitter cause someone "other" than Kerry should have said what needed to be heard? Thanks for the Rovian talking points.

[Seabiscuit]

27. Oh, yeah, he was vocal all right...

BEFORE the Iraq invasion: he argued against the IWR on the floor of the Senate and then quietly voted FOR it.

BEFORE the Iraq invasion: he began campaigning for President and said NOTHING against the invasion.

SINCE the invasion, and during his presidential campaign he drummed up about 5 different excuses for his IWR vote, not one of which made any logical or historical sense. And during his debate with Bush he agreed that he and Bush looked at the same intelligence and came to the same conclusion. He couldn't distinguish himself from Bush during the debates on Iraq except to claim that Bush didn't prosecute the war as well as he would have. In essence, he claimed he would have done a better job of doing something really, really wrong than Bush did.

SINCE the election he welched on his promise to fight for every vote in Ohio. Then he went into hiding for several months, only to emerge in late winter to spring of 2005 with a new message, entirely different from his previous messages: that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, and not just handled poorly by Bush.

Sorry, I have no respect for Kerry. No, I was being facetious. I have nothing to be sorry for. I voted for him in the end as I bit my tongue and swallowed stomach acid. He has proven to be nothing but a "career" "politic" politician, clearly beholden during his election campaign to the DLC and the interests of the war profiteers.

He let the entire country down, unlike Patrick Fitzgerald, someone you can really trust.

I'm all for the message he's now belatedly delivering, and as I said, it's a beautiful thing to behold that he's now delivering it. So I'm not the one trying to divide the party. Kerry already accomplished that in 2003-2004. His messages are blowin' in the wind, as he will say anything he thinks might sell from one month to the next. I would never trust him with the future of our democracy. The worst thing that could happen to this country is if Kerry won the Democratic presidential nomination again and lost to Jeb Bush or some equally despicable neocon in 2008, which he'd probably do, since he long ago lost this party's core voters like myself. I won't vote for him again. If that scenario plays out, I'll withold my vote, and probably leave the country, because it won't even resemble my country any more.

[Freedomfried]

51. I agree completely.

[blm]

21. That's abhorrent. I think you are incredibly inattentive when it comes to

what Kerry has said and done.

Cripe...you didn't even know your own candidate's exact position and its history and had to pretend that Tom Oliphant was the one who had it wrong.

sheesh.

[Seabiscuit]

29. Ah, there you are.

Up to the usual smears and distortions.

I never said anything about Oliphant having it "wrong". I merely mentioned I'd just skimmed his article enough to notice he was championing Gephardt in the Iowa advertisement battles with Dean.

I followed the primaries and general election as closely as anyone on DU. So don't smear me that way, with that kind of phony self-righteous prick talk.

[blm]

35. sorry, but you were the one who didn't even know about B-L or that

Dean supported that version of the IWR. You just got mad at me because I pointed out something you should have known.

No need to blame Oliphant who was only pointing out the fact that Dean supported Biden-Lugar version of the IWR before he became the antiwar candidate.

it's just a fact, not a smear or an aspersion on anyone, except maybe the media who rarely bothered with accuracy throughout the election cycle.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MH1]

31. Well, the statement you seek has been made.

If you read or listened to his Georgetown speech Wednesday, you should remember this:

The country and the Congress were misled into war. I regret that we were not given the truth; as I said more than a year ago, knowing what we know now, I would not have gone to war in Iraq. And knowing now the full measure of the Bush Administration's duplicity and incompetence, I doubt there are many members of Congress who would give them the authority they abused so badly. I know I would not.

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=952

[Seabiscuit]

47. Well, thank you. At last an honest correction. I stand corrected.

And good for Kerry. Even though he didn't specifically say he'd change his vote if he had the chance. As I said earlier, it's a beautiful thing to see a grown eunuch grow a set of balls.

Question: It's now October 28, 2005. Why the hell did it take him so long to acknowledge the obvious when most of us here on DU knew better well over 3 years ago????

[Laurab]

43. Kerry said exactly that

a couple of days ago in a speech to Georgetown University, I believe. I will try to post a link, but have never done so, so don't know if it will work. Here is the operative paragraph - if Tim Russert can read, perhaps he has seen it:

"The country and the Congress were misled into war. I regret that we were not given the truth; as I said more than a year ago, knowing what we know now, I would not have gone to war in Iraq. And knowing now the full measure of the Bush Administration’s duplicity and incompetence, I doubt there are many members of Congress who would give them the authority they abused so badly. I know I would not."

Link if it works:

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2005_10_26.html

[Seabiscuit]

48. Well, not quite "exactly":

He didn't say: "If I knew then what I know now, I would have voted against the IWR." It reads as if he's talking about other people. Can't he admit his own mistake????

And what's this crap about "as I said more than a year ago (he never said anything of the kind more than a year ago - a bold faced lie) I would not have gone to war in Iraq." Hell, he never went to war in Iraq. He just voted to give Bush a blank check to do so.

More obfuscation and dodging the bullet from Kerry.

Why can't he ever address that issue candidly and honestly????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Excuse me, but color me udderly fed up with that two-faced wimp.

[Mass]

50. From his speech Wednesday

"" And knowing now the full measure of the Bush Administration's duplicity and incompetence, I doubt there are many members of Congress who would give them the authority they abused so badly. I know I would not."

Could you factcheck before attacking people for telling the truth?

[Seabiscuit]

52. Thank you - I've located it.

It's kind of buried in a large page of words, but yes, that little tidbit emerges from that link if you look hard enough.

I was merely responding to the quote that was provided, which fell short of the words you cited.

[BuyingThyme]

19. Hey John, want to say something special: Be the first wimp to call

for Cheney's resignation.

Do you think for a second that Al Gore would still hold a job in this situation?

The Dems have to stop ignoring the people who are destroying our country. Get your fat assess of the couch and do the work of the people!!!

[Name removed]

24. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mass]

39. Thanks, moderator.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MH1]

40. Kerry has called for Rumsfeld's resignation.

I believe he was first to do that. And possibly still the only one. He has called for Rumsfeld's resignation repeatedly, and reiterated it on Hannity and Colmes Wednesday night.

He may very well be the first to call for Cheney's resignation.

[WiseButAngrySara]

23. K and R! n/t

[savemefromdumbya]

25. Nice one

the man who should have been President

[Tiggeroshii]

26. Nixonian.

I guy like that should run for president ;-)

[Jack_Dawson]

30. Whatever JK

The fire in your belly comes a year too late.

[bunny planet]

33. great statement from JK. 'Nixonian' indeed.

[TahitiNut]

34. I don't wonder "whether (I) can trust anything this Administration says"

I've NEVER wondered! Only people with their asses impaled on their pointed heads would "wonder"!!

[Dr Fate]

36. Pretty much speaks for me, except I would have used the word "lie".

n/t

[politicasista]

37. Another positive Kerry thread turning into a flamewar

Go figure. :(

[Mass]

38. No, a lot of thoughtful comments and 1 person looking for a flamewar.

[texpatriot2004]

41. Thank you Kerry and Kerry Goddess. nm

[zulchzulu]

42. Happy Fitzmas, kerrygoddess!

BTW, this part is going to be in the epilogue of the documentary I've been working on...coming soon!

[Independent_Liberal]

45. Nixonian... Couldn't have said it better myself John!

:)