Zuckerman on Colbert thinks Kerry would have been a worse President.

[onehandle]

Who the Hell can say this with a straight face?

Says Bush is the worst President since Jimmy Carter.

Says he voted for Bush in 2004, but is not a Republican.

Says he's been friends with Kerry for thirty years.


This billionaire need to be locked up in a rubber room.

[Pirate Smile]

1. That was one of the worst slams on Kerry I've ever heard.

What an asshole!

[ginnyinWI]

3. and what did Colbert do?

I'm glad I didn't see it--these kinds of things get me so mad!

[Pirate Smile]

4. He didn't defend Kerry. I think he moved on to something else.

It was kind of a shocking statement, especially when it was prefaced with him saying he had "known" Kerry for 30 years and that was why he thought Kerry would have been worse then Bush, along with saying Bush was an absolutely horrible President.

Be glad you didn't see it.

[ComerPerro]

6. Colbert was in character, so he wouldn't have defended Kerry

he defends Kerry passively, through his character, by letting his Republican guests make total asses of themselves

[Pirate Smile]

8. Oh, I know. I'm not upset with Stephen. He is doing his thing. I would

not expect any differently. It was also a bit of a surprise, at least to me and maybe to Stephen too. Where do you go after such a slam? I'd just move on which is what he did and all he really could do while staying in character.

[ginnyinWI]

24. I agree--don't blame Colbert.

It says more about the guy who spouted that vile slam, doesn't it. Good of Colbert to just move on and not try to make a joke or something.

[AlCzervik]

2. I'd put Mort on my "You're dead to me board" but he's already on there.

[Pirate Smile]

5. He took him off that board at the end of the show - like Mort had

somehow redeemed himself.

x(

[AlCzervik]

7. if Kerry was his friend for 30 years i can only imagine how he treats

his enemies.

[Pirate Smile]

9. I don't think he said they were friends, just that he had "known" him.

I may be wrong but that is my recollection.

I assumed it was with Zuckerman as a journalist and Kerry as an activist/veteran turned politician.

I can't imagine they would be friends, not after that kind of statement.

[IndianaGreen]

10. Kerry would have been worse than Bush in an anti-matter universe

where up is down, right is wrong, good is bad, evil is holy, and Hitler would have been a Catholic saint.

[Cha]

30. Like the "1984"

shite that zukerman was trashtalkin'?

[TankLV]

11. I guess the good in all this is that we all agree that BUNKERBOY IS THE

WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY.

No longer hiding any talk about how "great" he is.

They all agree he's bad - but the debate now shifts to just how bad.

I like to look for the good news in this.

[Mojambo]

12. The only way Kerry could have been worse

Is if he had personally driven down to New Orleans and spent a week shooting it's citizens in the face.

And even then it would be close.

[VOX]

13. The Chimp & his handlers have set the "worse" bar so goddamned high...

How would John Kerry have been worse? How??? It's simply not possible! * is so impossibly, out-there, excessively bad, that anyone **NOT** under the sway of the PNAC Boys could have done way better. And with his decades in the Senate, Kerry has already shown that he's highly possessed of honest, capable leadership qualities. There's no way that Kerry, a statesman if ever there was one, and even if manacled with a right-wing congress, could *not* have done better!!!!

As for Zuckerman pulling the stunt of squeezing in a retroactive smear at Carter: Fuck you, Zuck! Carter inherited an 8-year post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, let-'em-eat-cake GOP mess. Inflation was already running away on Nixon and Ford (Wage-price freeze, anyone? Whip Inflation Now (WIN) buttons, anyone? Shortages of power, water, beef, gasoline, etc. -- all before Carter got into office). There's no way to turn that kind of sinking ship of state about very quickly.

At least Carter used diplomacy. At least he brought the powers together and hammered out an accord. He's also a Nobel laureate -- how are those legitimate, admirable accomplishments in any way comparable to the neocon, make-your-crony-rich dungheap that The Chimp has made of this country????? :shrug: :grr:

[Kolesar]

14. President Carter's policy on human rights changed the world

sigh

[CTyankee]

16. Right on!

Zuckerman is either insane or he is bored and trying to stir up controversy.

[Cosmocat]

20. The same sound machine that makes Reagen ...

a GREAT president, makes a very solid president like Carter into a running joke ...

Go back and look at the energy plan Carter laid out ... Jesus Christ ... IF our country had adopted his energy policy, we be in SUCH a better place today ... But, the first thing Reagan did when he moved into the white house was rip the solar pannels off the roof ...

And today ... Reagan is a GREAT president, and Carter is a joke ...

HARD to be proud to be an american right now ...

[karynnj]

23. I loved that Kerry in his energy speech at Faneuil a few weeks ago

spoke of Carter's (and Gore's) efforts and contrasted each of them with what has happened since Bush left office on things like CAFE standards. He quoted someone - that these were the years "the locusts ate". Imagine if we would have kept the energy efficency goals of the Carter years. Imagine no SUVs and certainly no tank like Hummers. (Oddly with them all out of the mix, we'ld be safer on the roads.)

link to Kerry speech:

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2006_06_26.html

Not long ago, in the face of record gas prices, a volatile Middle East, and hostile rhetoric from a fundamentalist regime in Iran, a President of the United States asked “Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?”

His name was Jimmy Carter – and that steamy summer of 1979 seems as familiar today as the question he raised then. Almost twenty seven years later we face another summer of record gas prices, raging violence across a volatile Middle East, renewed rhetoric of hate from a fundamentalist regime in Tehran. Our national neglect has made the quarter of a century since then what Winston Churchill called “years the locust has eaten.” Today we endure another summer of record gas prices; we witness the violence raging across a volatile Middle East; and we hear the rhetoric of hate from a hostile government in Tehran.

George W. Bush now says that “America is addicted to oil.” His preferred policy has been to feed the addiction; his attitude on greenhouse gases is to let them increase; his energy alternatives are token; again and again his approach to crisis is to denigrate the environment. Mr. President, the people know the truth: America is not addicted to oil because it wants to be. Washington is addicted to oil because that’s the way powerful interests want it to be

[bobbieinok]

42. on TON at NPR a few weeks ago, they had a major discussion

of New York's efforts to become energy independent .... In an hour-long show with comments from leading scientists about the need for alternative energy sources, etc, THERE WAS NOT ONE MENTION OF CARTER'S EFFORTS although there was praise for the alternative energy money in W's energy plan. (Don't most people think this money is a PR ploy, a joke compared to reality??????)

The media, public speakers, live in a truly different world.

[karynnj]

15. If Zuckerman believes in PNAC

and believes in Bush's spreading democracy, then he would be correct that Kerry would have rejected that goal and changed course. (Which is why many of us greatly prefer Kerry to Lieberman. I thinl Zuckerman is a Lieberman Democrat - so it is no surprise he prefers Bush to Kerry.

He may also be in denial that HE was wrong backing Bush, especially as he went out of his way to vote Bush, rather than party. I suspect that it may have a lot to do with Israel and his acceptance of the idiotic concept of remaking the middle east by force. As Bush is clearly bad, the only way he didn't make a mistake is to argue Kerry would have been worse - though it is near impossible to think of how he could have been if he wanted to be bad!

This says more about Zuckerman than about Kerry.

[SOS]

25. Zuckerman boosted phony Bush claims in US News and Daily News

In “The High Price of Waiting,”, Zuckerman claimed that the failure of the U.S. to immediately take out Iraq’s Saddam, will "cause the danger from his regime to grow". (03/10/03, USN&WR)

Zuckerman also falsely claimed that Saddam has “a robust nuclear-weapons program documented by U.N. inspectors.”

Zuckerman’s NY Daily News falsely reported that Saddam and Osama Bin Laden are “blood brothers.” (03/07/03)

Zuckerman was a leading booster of the Iraq disaster and is now standing behind his published lies and his vote for Bush.

At least John McLaughlin moved Zuckerman where he belongs, to the right side of his set next to Tony Blankley.

[karynnj]

28. With those views, it is no shock that he is not pro-Kerry

I also seriously doubt he ever was a friend of Kerry's or agreed with Kerry's political philosophy.

[underpants]

17. Someone posted here before the election that the super elite would never

let Kerry win. The poster (sorry I didn't bookmark the thread) at least claimed to run in the same type of circles as Zuckerman and Kerry and claimed that he knew that THEY would never let Kerry win. I keep thinking about this and the Ohio vote and how quickly Kerry quit-was he told that it would never be allowed to happen? Is this just crazy conspiracy crap? OR is Zuckerman just saying basically the same thing?

[karynnj]

22. What Kerry knew was that the gap in votes

counted for him and those counted for Bush was far too great to be changed in a standard recount.

He also had to know that the party - would not stand behind him to argue a more ambiguous claim of voter suppression and cheating. Clinton was critisizing Kerry within days - at a point where simple decency should have caused him to keep his mouth shut. (Clinton seemed to not be too keen on Kerry. Consider Clinton put his book out in late June 2004, taking oxygen and tv time from Kerry when it was needed especially as a few weeks were lost with the deification of Reagan then. His book also credits McCain before Kerry on the work of the committee headed by Kerry and Bob Smith (though it is far more common that McCain or McCain and Kerry get credit. In fact, Clinton seemed to only slightly prefer Kerry to Weld in 1996. He has an odd comment about Kerry's long term work on youth violence being commendable though there was no votes in it - which says more about Clinton's values than Kerry's.)

Kerry also knew that the media that was biased against him as he ran would ridicule and crucify him if he fought it. (Although Kerry did say he would have fought if he had real proof that he had won.

My guess is that the PNAC stuff divides the Democrats, so some formerly reliable "liberals" or moderates were pulled to Bush's side. Lieberman is a politician who may be an example of this, while Joe Klein and Zuckerman may be media pundit examples. (Even in my family, a very liberal brother-in-law is adament that we had to go to Iraq, because Saddam was evil and funding Hamas. (This may have been thrown at me because I am a convert to Judaism - he is Christian.) The PNAC stuff is idealistic and is a cause people can believe in with passion. Kerry did make it clear in 2004 to these people that he did not think it was right to go to war for this reason.

[blm]

39. The same powers horrified that BCCI was exposed and that MORE books would

be opened by Kerry when he took office.

And you may be right - I heard that Kerry was told BEFORE the voting that the DNC would not be behind another drawn out recount. Terry MacAuliffe would do whatever Clinton wanted, so I wonder if it's Clinton who made that decision.

[LittleClarkie]

41. I think it more likely he was set up by those he thought were on his side

but weren't.

As for Mort, I don't think he really knows Kerry. I think people like Jim Wasser know Kerry. And he told me that he thought Kerry would not only make a good president, but a great one.

[saltpoint]

18. If I could divorce a president, I'd swiftly divorce this one. Bush sucks.

He's a failed adult and a miserable president.

I think John Kerry would have accomplished more in two hours in the White House than George W. Bush will have in 8 years.

Zuckerman's full of it.

[monarch]

19. Unfortunately Bush has "accomplished" more--

all of it in the wrong direction. Think of how long it will take to put our fiscal house in order, to get over our "greed is good mentality," to get our judiciary back to its proper role, to patch up our relationships with our allies, to let our citizens travel overseas without being ashamed to show a US passport. There is so much more. Just make your own list.

[saltpoint]

21. You're right. Bush's "accomplishments" have been for the dark side.

And there are a hell of a lot of them.

We can get a good start, though, on reversing them on Nov. 7th.

[monarch]

27. Actually, I'm hoping that we start on August 8th

by voting for Lamont in the Democratic primary in CT

[saltpoint]

29. August 8th works for me, too!

:applause: :dem:

[Cha]

26. "Friend" doesn't Disparage

friends like that on tv. With friends like that who needs back stabbers?

Friends don't lie about who would have been a "worse president".

The Friend seems to living in a world of denial that can't seem to bring himself to admit that voting for george little freakshow bush wasn't just such good idea..I don't care how greedy you are that you get your rightful bush tax cuts.

[wisteria]

31. Zukerman knows nothing about what makes a good President.

I am pissed that he would even make this snarky little comment at all.Are we to assume that we are to be happy we still have Bush around? Excuse me, but what qualifies him to make this determination? F*ck him,he knows nothing. Colbert should now have on a guest that refutes what this jerk was saying or even Kerry himself.

[Mass]

32. Colbert did nothing. He was playing his role in the show.

Zuckerman is a neo-con and an hypocrit (he was stating the other day he did not know what the Swift network was in order to justify the attacks on the NY Times !!!) . He certainly does not like Kerry. No surprise here.

[wisteria]

33. I realized that and changed my post slightly. Thnx for pointing it

out to me though. The original post seemed to suggest that Colbert was in agreement.

[ProSense]

34. The lengths to which some people will go to justify their hand

in installing a man who is a complete and utter failure as "leader"! OMG, own up to your failed judgment, utter stupidity, greed or neo-con posture! Zuckerman and his ilk are cowards. People with courage admit they were wrong, not these guys. Ranks right up there with Morton Kondracke, Max Booth and all the other idiots who seem to believe Bush simply hasn't gotten the right level of cooperation in his attempt to conquer Iraq and reign supreme.

[bunkerbuster1]

35. And we're surprised by this, why?

Of course Mort Zuckerman is going to say this. Jeesh.

[kwolf68]

36. Worse than Bush?

So had Kerry been elected we'd all be extinct now?

[rucky]

37. Let's find out for sure & let him take office ASAP. n/t

[karynnj]

38. I'll go for that test

I'm sure that if given 6 months he can improve the % of people in other countries who don't hate us.

[blm]

40. Zuckerman is a corporatist - probably very familiar with BCCI dealings

and part of the RW media that was used to cover up for Reagan and Bush throughout that period.

If Kerry got into office, they knew he'd open the books on all of it, and how would the media come out looking for their lack of due diligence?

[kskiska]

43. Hard to believe Gloria Steinem dated him

Controversially, she had a four-year relationship with Mort Zuckerman, a Republican property and publishing magnate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1391841,00.html

[depakid]

44. As if he has any credibility

Does anyone even read US News and World Report anymore?