Politics The Last Honest Conservative
posted by November 1 at 11:25 AM
onJohn Derbyshire at National Review Online:
John Kerry is awful, and anything we can do further to degrade his political prospects is worth doing. But really, I saw a clip of him making the much-deplored remark, and it was obvious that the dimwit in Iraq that he referred to was George W. Bush, not the American soldier. It was a dumb joke badly delivered, but his meaning was plain. My pleasure in watching JK squirm is just as great as any other conservative’s, but something is owed to honesty. There’s a lot of fake outrage going round here.
Via Sullivan.
Yes, there’s a lot of fake outrage going around—and it’s spreading.
Photo via Drudge.
UPDATE: Kerry says sorry.
Comments
And then there's that miserable Cheney cocksucker...from AP:
"The White House took the unusual step of releasing in advance comments Vice President Dick Cheney was making later today at a Montana campaign rally, in which he scolded Kerry for taking 'another swipe at the U. S. military.'
'Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it,' Cheney said in a line meant to recall Bush's skewering of Kerry in their 2004 race for saying he had voted for war funds before he voted against them."
Bleh.
fake outrage is right. but, in this day in age, you can't give them anything to distract the voters. And that is very difficult, because the voters are all too easily distracted. Kerry F-ed up by giving them something to talk about besides Iraq.
That's sort of like saying, "I was for waterboarding, before I was against it"
or
"I was for shooting that guy in the face before I was against it"
or
"I was for you going and fucking yourself on the floor of the U.S. Senate before I was - oh, wait. I was never against that".
Matt Dowd and Dick Armey, too.
The good news is that no matter what Kerry intended, at least we know how fresh Therese Heinz must be living with that giant douche.
The problem is that whether or not the outrage is fake (and it is), Kerry played the game badly, giving the Rs something to work with a week before a critical election. He could have minimized the story and the damage, but his responses made it worse.
fucking blog ate my brilliant first post.
If anyone should know about fucking up words in a speech, it should be Bush. Isn't he the one who said something like "terrorists are always looking for ways to kill Americans, and so are we."? We laugh and mock him, maybe see the irony, but we don't pretend that's what he literally meant.
Cheney's zinger is actually pretty good, but he's still a grade A douchebag.
Kerry shouldn't get too much blame. Sure he fucked up by fucking up the line, but he was probably tired from zooming all around the country campaigning. I thought his response is great. Basically he said "Fuck you, you lying pricks." and headed back to DC to lay low.
If we're lucky, this will stop Kerry from running in '08 and fucking the whole thing up again.
About what you'd expect, since Derb is a limey weenie ... I've been carrying a lantern through the howling wind & the pouring rain of this septic city, lo these many years, looking for an honest left-wing liberal progressive 'Crat, & I haven't found one yet. Score for honesty: Conservatives, 1; 'Crats, 0. Case closed.
As for making something out of nothing, four words: Joe Wilson Valerie Plame. Or: Rush Fox. Or: Mark Foley.
Merry Fitzmas, dickheads.
Him> Unfortunately, logic does not apply here. Haven't the past 6 years taught us that the Rs can do pretty much anything they want, but the Ds have to be PERFECT all the time? Anything less and the election will be close enough to steal.
republican party reptile> huh? You gotta be shitting me.
Okay, that pic is funny.
Was that sign made by Halliburton?
One wonders if US troops could get away with making partisan fun of, oh, a Republican so close to an election. Bush announced today that Rumsfeld stays for the rest of his term. Any troops got a problem with that? Most likely. Going to see any carrying signs mocking Rumsfeld? Unlikely.
Dan-
If you click on the photo at Drudge, it's linked to a radio station in Wisconsin. I had to copy and paste the url, and then the photo is not on the radio station page that I can find.
http://www.620wtmj.com/
We are fucked.
I believe it's illegal for the troops to publicly criticize or mock their superiors.
Unfortunately, logic does not apply here. Haven't the past 6 years taught us that the Rs can do pretty much anything they want, but the Ds have to be PERFECT all the time?
Heh. Replace "Rs" with "men" and "Ds" with "women" - it's an interesting parallel.
And, this is all about how the average stupid voter will interpret Kerry's comment, or how many voters can be convinced to interpret it the way the neocons want them to, but there is a real, serious issue behind what Kerry said. I'm sure there are many people in the armed forces who are there purely because they want to serve their country, but I'm guessing most are there because they have no other option. The reality is, avoiding having the military be the only dignified option IS strong motivation to do well in school, etc., and we should really be addressing whether or not this is a fair situation.
dan - why write anything at all, why not just repeatedly post a link to andrew sullivan's blog? you're like an rss feed.
All this does is remind people bout Iraq.
There's no way to spin that as a botched punchline. How do people like Dub and Kerry graduate from elite schools? He just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Um, Sully, isn't the purpose of a weblog to LOG the stories and things you find on the WEB?
@Keshmeshi: It is only illegal for Commission Officers to insult or make fun of their superiors. They can't even crtitize what they are told to do, otherwise they can get thrown in jail. Enlisted soliders, on the other hand, can. But they are severly limited and if they did, I am sure their chain of command would find a way to punish them.
@Noink: So true. Sad, and very upsetting, but true.
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