The Swift Boating of John Kerry Continues

Apparently, the swift boating of John Kerry has not ended.

The Republican party, and it's right wing smear machine, desperate to turn their fortunes in the right direction, have latched onto an out of context sentence from a recent Kerry campaign stop. In classic fashion, they have used this poorly delivered sentence to put words in the former presidential candidate's mouth and have attempted to muddy the already muddy water of this congressional election season.

This is the sentence trumpeted by the disgusting right-wing media: "You know education - if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Looks kind of bad doesn't it? Sounds like Kerry is saying our troops are uneducated morons? Well, if the liars on the right wing were to disclose to their zombie audience the words preceding the clumsy ones above, it would be clear that Kerry was not talking about the troops, but rather about George W. Bush. In fact, Kerry preceded the above statement with various jibes at George Bush's lack of sense and was suggesting that, as a result, Bush has become "stuck" in Iraq. The truth is that John Kerry was not referring to the troops at all-but, as we know, the truth is the enemy of the right.

What is truly amazing is that the very same slime balls that are harping on this out of context Kerry statement have repeatedly ignored or defended TRULY reprehensible statements and jokes by Republicans, and even Bush himself, the most egregious of which being Bush's WMD joke at the Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner a couple of years ago. The dinner traditional features an opportunity for the President to get his funny on, and for Bush this meant peeking under furniture in the Oval Office and saying "Nope, No weapons over there", he peeks under some more furniture and says, "Maybe under here". The members of the press laughed gleefully as the chickenhawk, draft dodging president joked about not finding WMD in Iraq while the very troops he deployed to Iraq were at that very moment killing and dying for his lies.

Now, the very same president who joked about not finding WMD while troops were dying, and just recently called the invasion and occupation they continue to die for a "comma", has the nerve to come out and blast John Kerry for denigrating the troops, even though he did no such thing. Amazing huh? Then there's John McCain, who has come out and urged Senator Kerry to apologize. Somehow I doubt that McCain, the supposed maverick of the Republican Party, doesn't know that Kerry's statement has been taken out of context. After all, McCain defended Kerry when he was under attack from the Swift Boat Liars, calling him a good "friend", and was Kerry's partner in an effort to investigate and bring home troops still missing in action from Vietnam. So, one would think that John McCain should know better than anyone that Kerry would never label the troops, of which he was one, as a bunch of uneducated idiots. If this doesn't prove that these people have no shame I don't know what does-and that goes even for so-called principled mavericks like McCain.

But, most of all, the attempts to smear Kerry, and in turn the Democratic Party, defies logic. Does any rational person believe that a prominent Democratic senator like Kerry would say something so egregious about the troops less than a week from the most important congressional election in decades? Well, the right-wing smear media believes that the American people are so stupid they will believe these lies. The question is, if this thing gains any traction, will the Democratic Party allow this thing to bite them in the ass or will they fight back. To his credit, Kerry has fought back, refusing to apologize for something he never said. Bravo!! At a press conference yesterday Kerry said:

"Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy.
If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the President and his failed team and a Republican majority in the Congress that has been willing to stamp - rubber-stamp policies that have done injury to our troops and to their families."