The John Kerry Post of the Day

My latest discovery about my favorite cheese-eating surrendermonkey-looking Ketchup King cum former Presidential candidate:

Dear Holy God. You know, normally I think Democrats are paranoid about Karl Rove, but even I'm starting to wonder if he has some kind mind-control device that makes Democrats act like idiots. Thanks to the joy of YouTube, we have the latest from the legend himself...



Here's the quote, which somehow looks even worse...

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

Seriously, I'm not sure how to react to that. Did he have an alien take over his mind or something? This is so off-the-wall absurd that Jim Geraghty may have to return to calling his old blog "The Kerry Spot" again. Phillip Klein hits the nail on the head...

What struck me about this comment beyond the obvious fact that it is insulting to our troops, is just how politically incompetent John Kerry is. Here we are, a week before Election Day, Democrats are favored to win back control of the House and possibly the Senate, so you'd think it would make sense for the party's leaders to play it safe. Republicans have tried very hard to convince voters that Democrats don't support our troops, a charge that Democrats have been countering by saying that they do support the troops, only that they oppose the war and want to bring the troops home. But in this video Kerry, the party's most recent candidate for President and one of it's most recognizable figures, is out there calling troops fighting in Iraq a bunch of morons. The RNC should run an ad featuring this video in every competitive race in the country. Just like his "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it" helped Republicans portray him as a flip-flopper, Kerry's recent remark succinctly captures what Republicans have been trying to say about Democrats all along--that they are anti-military and can't be trusted on national security.

(hat tip: Instapundit) Do I know what Kerry was trying to say? Sure, he was probably trying to insult President Bush. But one of the lessons we all learned from the 2004 campaign is that Kerry's sense of humor flat-out sucks. I submit as evidence his unbelieveably bad appearance on The Daily Show two years ago.

Of course, it got worse. The first follow up is so over the top that I had to get it from his website...

Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:

“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.”

Seriously, is Karl Rove paying this man? The right feels pretty down right now... but now Kerry's just waving red meat in front of conservatives, not to mention the troops. And hey, it's not like he's never bad-mouthed U.S. troops before... oh, wait. The worst part -- it's not even true...

In summary, the additional years of recruit data (2004–2005) sup­port the previous finding that U.S. military recruits are more similar than dissimilar to the American youth population. The slight dif­ferences are that wartime U.S. mil­itary enlistees are better educated, wealthier, and more rural on aver­age than their civilian peers.

Recruits have a higher percent­age of high school graduates and representation from Southern and rural areas. No evidence indicates exploitation of racial minorities (either by race or by race-weighted ZIP code areas). Finally, the distri­bution of household income of recruits is noticeably higher than that of the entire youth population.

John McCain wants an apology. So does the American Legion. It should be noted that Kerry's response is to tell McCain to get an apology from Donald Rumsfeld.

I'm guessing the list asking for an apology gets a lot longer before it get shorter. Hot Air and Instapundit have lots more. Meanwhile, Captain Ed has the key question...

We'll see if Kerry's peers in the Democratic Party support Kerry's description of our fighting men and women. If Democrats that have had John Kerry campaign on their behalf refuse to address Kerry's remarks or openly supports their characterization, it will expose the hypocrisy and the contempt that the Left has for the military. All of the talk of "supporting the troops" will be revealed as lip service.

More on that later. Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan, who's been hammering Bush for over two years and supported Kerry in 2004, hits the nail on the head...

What Kerry said he must apologize for. Sooner rather than later. He may not have meant it the way it came out. That doesn't matter. It's wrong to talk about the military that way - wrong morally, empirically and ethically. And the way he said it can be construed as a patronizing snub to the men and women whose lives are on the line. It's also dumb politically not to kill this off in one news cycle. Is Kerry not content to lose just one election? Does his enormous ego have to insist on losing two?

I believe the answer to that might be yes. In the meantime, let's do something good with this controversy, as suggested by several bloggers -- give some money to Project Valour.