John Kerry: a "No Apologies" Democrat (3/14/04)
by Dean Hartwell
Recently, presidential candidate John Kerry, unaware of a microphone, called Republicans “the most crooked…lying group” he had ever seen. Some Republicans have demanded that he apologize.
Kerry refused to do so.
It’s a good thing. He had it right.
The Bush Administration began with the lie that the will of the people had been carried out. Thousands of Florida voters, most of them pro-Democratic, had their names removed from the voting rolls. Thousands of votes went uncounted. And, Al Gore received more popular votes than Bush.
Bush has often declared that he is a “uniter, not a divider.” But he appointed the divisive John Ashcroft to be the Attorney General. Bush also declared shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001 to the world that each nation was “for us or against us.” As if that wasn’t enough, he and his Republican cronies attacked Vietnam veteran who lost three of his limbs there for being soft on national security.
In one sense, Bush has united a group of people: the Democrats, who are coming together for the purpose of defeating him.
In making his case for his war against Iraq, Bush spread lies about weapons of mass destruction and connections between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. He repeatedly told the nation that we had to go to war because Iraq posed an imminent threat to our nation. He falsely declared an end to the war in a made-for-television campaign commercial.
Which brings us back to the campaign between Kerry and Bush.
Several Republicans complained about Kerry’s comment. Senator Rick Santorum, who has made homophobic statements, said it was “outside the bounds” for presidential candidates. The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, called it “name-calling.” His Republican colleague, Jack Kingston of Georgia, called Kerry “Ted Kennedy on a South Beach diet.”
This concern over name-calling is amusing. Not long ago, Republicans called President Clinton all sorts of names, falsely accusing him of an assault and pursuing bogus Whitewater-related allegations against him. They also did not hesitate to call him a liar and have never apologized for any of these comments.
Strangely, the Bush team alternates between calling Kerry a liberal and a “waffler.” If they told the truth, they would be consistent. It raises the issue of whether truth matters to them.
We are in for an onslaught of name-calling for the next eight months. The Republicans are already trying to link Kerry to former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, for whom he served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts twenty years ago.
Kerry should keep fighting back. The Republicans have shown that running for office means never having to say you’re sorry.