Kerry off the Campaign Trail

Ok, people this is a disgrace. Just check this from CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry canceled plans to campaign for fellow Democrats after the GOP began hammering him over his comments to college students about getting "stuck in Iraq."

President Bush's 2004 presidential rival -- who explained Tuesday that his comments were a "botched joke" targeting Bush -- will not appear with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Casey on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a Democratic official said.

"I would be surprised if you see him welcomed out there anywhere," the official said, "and certainly not in a race that is meaningful."

Strategists at both the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees told their candidates the flap is a distraction they don't need right now.

What's disgraceful isn't what Kerry said, it's the fact that Democrats haven't learned what he learned two years ago -- The Best Defense is a Strong Offense.

The Republican National Committee took advantage of the Kerry gaffe with an ad featuring the text of quotes from Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, Sen. John McCain and Bush, supporting U.S. troops.

A video clip of Kerry's Monday remarks follows, then the caption, "John Kerry should apologize. Our soldiers are waiting." (Time.com: John Kerry, still one step behind)

The Democratic official said the issue doesn't appear to change the impact of any races, but it may attract more GOP supporters in close Senate contests in Missouri and Tennessee.

...

Kerry's office said two House campaign appearances by the senator also have been canceled -- by mutual decision -- so as not to "allow the Republican hate machine to use Democratic candidates as their proxies in their distorted spin war in which once again they're willing to exploit brave American troops."

These include Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz, who is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minnesota. Congressional candidate Bruce Braley of Iowa also announced that Kerry would not be appearing with him.

So this unnamed "Democratic Official" thinks this might bring out the GOP vote in Missouri (Talent v McCaskill) and Tennesee (Corker v Ford)?

Both those races are a dead-heat BTW. Maybe, but only if Democrats allow these lies to stand.

Clearly the RNC agrees, they're using this issue to try an d raise last minute funds (From my mailbox)

Listen closely this election season and you'll hear the truth about what Democrats represent.

Monday, failed Presidential candidate John Kerry brazenly insulted the brave American men and women serving in our military. At a campaign stop for Democrats in California, Kerry told students that "you know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't you get stuck in Iraq."

In Kerry's cocoon of privilege, those who
serve in our military are failures who never did their homework or "made an effort to be smart."

Ridiculous, right? Bashing Kerry for being an effete liberal elitist is the straw that the GOP is hanging all thier hopes on. But that's doesn't mean that Kerry's entirely done. Not yet.

Appearing on radio host Don Imus' program, "Imus in the Morning," Kerry said Wednesday, "I'm going back to Washington. I'm going back to tackle this, you bet."

Kerry said the controversy was "swift boat stuff all over again," referring to the 2004 campaign issue about his service in Vietnam. "They shouldn't be allowed to do that," the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

He added, "I'm telling you, I'm not going to let these guys lie and smear, and they put their whole machine out to do it, and they ought to apologize."

He may not be campaigning per se - but he will be fighting directly and explicitly over this issue.

What is sad is how other Democrats have failed to back Kerry up... with the clear exception of Max Cleland:

"I think people will remember John Kerry's press conference today as the moment we Democrats stopped once and forever accepting the disgraceful smears of Republicans. John Kerry showed our Party how to fight back with the truth.

"John Kerry is a patriot who has fought tooth and nail for veterans ever since he came home from Vietnam. He has stood with his brothers in arms unlike this Administration which exploits our troops to make a political point and divide America.

Unfortunately neither Kerry or Cleland are currently running for anything. It's really a sad commentary when the only Democrats with the backbone to stand up to the blatant and incessant LIES of the RNC and Bush Administration - are the ones who have nothing to lose by doing so.

Democrats should be rallying around Kerry's words blasting the Bush Administration - not running from him. Iraq remains the biggest issue in this election. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran give Kerry a "B" rating while his uber-patriot detractors such as McCain and Frist can only rate a "D". On the issue of substantially supporting the troops with more than just words - Democrats are head and shoulders ahead of Republicans. We should commit his words to memory and have them emblazoned in our hearts, in our minds and on the tip of our lips - at all times!

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won't work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq."

In this midst of the Kerry-flap - some things are being ignored, such as this exchange between Tony Snow and Helen Thomas which took place immediately after his attack on Kerry:

SNOW:Helen.

Q Does the President owe the Democrats an apology for saying that the terrorists -- that they will appease the terrorists?

MR. SNOW: No. Let's take -- you know what's interesting, Helen, and I've said this before --

Q How bellicose was he?

MR. SNOW: I don't think it's bellicose. Look, let's listen to what the Democrats -- or let's think about what Democrats are doing in this election campaign. When it comes to winning the war on terror, what is their plan? They've not said. They have talked about withdrawal --

Q -- 101 in Iraq --

MR. SNOW: -- they've talked about a whole series of things, in terms of complaining -- looking back over their shoulders and complaining about past decisions. But when it comes to the key issue, how do you achieve victory -- they say they want to achieve it, but they won't tell you how. [V: Neither does the President] They will tell you what they oppose what the President is doing. They oppose the Patriot Act; they have opposed the Terrorist Surveillance Program; they oppose the program by which we detain, question and bring to justice the worst of the terrorists. So they have opposed all of those things, so we know what they oppose, but we don't know what they're going to do.

Q How does the President propose to win? How does the President -- 101 in October dying --

MR. SNOW: The President understands that it is difficult. This is a man who signs each and every condolence note. He is absolutely aware of the human cost. And he grieves for every family and every person that we've lost. But on the other hand, he also knows two things. First, as General Casey said last week, there is not a single military engagement that we have not won, and we don't give our soldiers credit for that.

As a matter of fact Democrats do have a plan - it's right here.

This is not something Democrats should apologize for - Republicans should. They should apologize for ignoring the evidence from the State Dept and the Energy Department discounting the aluminum tubes as tools for uranium enrichment. They should apologize to Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame-Wilson. They should apologize for lying to us about the fact the weapons inspectors were on the ground right up until "Shock and Awe", that Saddam "had not fully disclosed" (when he had), for utilizing torture in our name to generate bad information, for causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 American soldiers and possibly as many as 500,000 Iraqis all for a series of lies.

But they won't apologize until they're made to feel the same sense of loss that has affected thousands of the families across the U.S. as a result of their policies - they won't apologize until their asses are out on the street and out of office crying in shame like little David Safavian did when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff while working in the White House.

Vote these bums out! That's how we'll make them cry too.

Vyan