Kerry Takes Bush to Task on his Veteran’s Day Speech

[kerrygoddess]

Kerry Takes Bush to Task on his Veteran’s Day Speech
November 14th, 2005

John Kerry took Bush to task on his Veteran’s Day Speech, on the Senate Floor today. In a fiery rhetoric, Kerry blasted Bush today, on the lies he spewed in his speech, last Friday — from the rush to war based based on faulty intelligence data, to the spin Bush put on Kerry’s own statements, John Kerry pinned Bush on the carpet.

The following is the text of John Kerry’s Floor Statement:

MR. PRESIDENT, Veterans Day is sacred - or it is supposed to be. Veterans Day is a day to honor veterans, not to play attack politics. The President, who is Commander in Chief, should know and respect this.

Veterans Day originally marked the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, when the guns of World War I, the war to end all wars, finally fell silent. Instead of honoring that moment, instead of laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, instead of laying out a clear plan for success in Iraq, the President laid into his critics with an 11th hour rhetorical assault that dishonored America’s veterans and those serving today, even as he continued to distort the truth about his war of choice.

Perhaps most striking of all is that his almost desperate sounding Veterans Day attack on those who have told the truth about his distortion was itself accompanied by even more distortion.

Does the President think that the many generals, former top administration officials and Senators from his own party who have joined over two thirds of the country in questioning the President’s handling of the war in Iraq are all unpatriotic too? This is America, a place where we thrive on healthy democratic debate. The President does not have a monopoly on patriotism, and this is not a country where only those who agree with him support the troops and care about defending our country. No matter what the President says, asking tough questions isn’t pessimism, it’s patriotism. And fighting for the right policy for our troops sends them exactly the right message to the troops: that we take the decision to put them in harm’s way seriously, and that our democracy is alive and well.

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1145

[texpatriot2004]

1. Yes he did n.t

[texpatriot2004]

6. "...and not just a campaigner in chief..." Go Kerry nm

[texpatriot2004]

7. I love the phrase re *'s "war of choice" n.t

[babylonsister]

2. K&R so everyone can read these marvelous words! And

kerrygoddess, you are fast! Thanks! :toast:

[EVDebs]

3. Sen Dodd is on CSpan2 now continuing the whoop-ass !

Amendment to be presented and exit strategy mentioned.

[thefloyd]

4. Thank God

Show America the God damn truth

[still_one]

5. and other democrats in congress better jump on board NOW!!!

[ProSense]

8. I tried to pick out my favorite part: it starts

with Mr. and ends, well, with well.


Kerry rocks!

[BikeWriter]

9. Saluted and recommended!

:patriot:

[jenndar]

10. He did a great job

in taking the administration to task, and reminding us how we were misled into this mess. I know not everyone will agree with me, but I really feel that our Senators shouldn't have to apologize for the administration's egregious lies.

[yellowcanine]

11. Kerry gave the smirk in chief a little history lesson as well. Good. We

need more of that from all Dems as well as Independents and moderate Repubs. It has been way too long in coming but better late than never. If Kerry had shown this kind of fire and truth telling last year he would be President today.

[politicasista]

12. It's the Corporate Media stupid!

[LisaLynne]

13. This is great.

From all the slathering the pundits and the "sources in the WH" were doing about how the Repubs were going to "hit back", I got the impression they thought everyone was still cowering in fear and they could make a couple of idiotic insults and be done with it and everybody would love * again. Not so.

[texpatriot2004]

14. I loved that part about the same Rethugs concerned over a

President lying about an affair will surely be concerned about a pResident lying about this war.

[garthranzz]

15. What a great speech from the real, duly elected President!

Two quotes worth memorizing:

How are the same Republicans who tried to impeach a President over whether he misled a nation about an affair going to pretend it does not matter if the Administration intentionally misled the country into war?

our troops in Iraq deserve ... a Commander in Chief, not just a Campaigner in Chief.

[ginnyinWI]

16. K & R n/t

[frogmarch]

17. WONDERFUL!

Reading the speech in its entirety brought tears of joy to my eyes.

GO SENATOR KERRY!

[IndianaGreen]

18. The Worst Speech of Bush's Presidency

I was totally disgusted with dictator Bush's use of a solemn day to remember our veterans for a cheap partisan attack on his critics. Our budding tyrant, and untreated sociopath, blamed everyone for his own failures.

Published on Sunday, November 13, 2005 by The New Republic
The Worst Speech of Bush's Presidency
by David Kusnet

For speechwriters drafting a presidential address for a patriotic holiday such as Independence Day, Memorial Day, or Veterans Day, there are three rules: Don't be wordy; don't be wonky; and, most important, don't be partisan. In his Veterans Day remarks today at the Tobyhanna Army Depot near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, President Bush and his staff broke all three rules, producing a strident speech that went on for almost 50 minutes, included a lengthy comparison of "Islamic radicalism" and "the ideology of communism," and concluded by attacking "some Democrats," while taking an implicit shot at "my opponent during the last election." It may have been the worst speech of his presidency.

At a time when Bush would benefit from sounding cheerful, forward looking, and above partisan politics, just as Ronald Reagan did during his second term even in the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal, Bush instead sounded like Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson during the worst days of the Vietnam War, although neither is remembered for flubbing a speech on a national holiday. It's as if Bush was reading from a cue-card that proclaimed, "Message: I'm embattled and embittered."

When a president speaks angrily and defensively for almost an hour, he might well be extemporizing, but that clearly was not true of this president and this speech: We know this because while the address may have seemed interminable, it was not ungrammatical, and it subjected listeners to a lecture about a bewildering array of personalities and events, including "Al Qaeda's number two man, a guy named Zawahari"; "his chief deputy in Iraq, the terrorist Zarqawi"; the Syrian democracy advocate Kamal Labwani; and "the Mehlis investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister."

There is a time and place for such a detailed explanation of world events, but it is a formal speech at a major academic institution such as Georgetown or West Point -- not a commemorative occasion such as today, when the president should speak as the leader of the entire nation.

Moreover, Veterans Day is certainly not the venue for a president to attack the opposition party or single out a defeated opponent, as Bush did today. Towards the end of his speech, Bush declared, "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." He criticized "some Democrats and antiwar critics" for "claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war." Then he did something that no president in recent memory has done: He took what could be read as an implicit shot at the man he defeated, explaining, "Many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in Congress this way." Bush then quoted Kerry's statement defending his vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq -- essentially holding Kerry up for ridicule, since Kerry is now a war critic. Do you remember Clinton criticizing Bob Dole in 1997; or Reagan criticizing Walter Mondale in 1985; or even Nixon criticizing George McGovern in 1973? Of course not -- second-term presidents tend to co-opt, not condemn, defeated opponents.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1113-21.htm

[jenndar]

20. Thanks for posting this.

I think a lot of people agree with the NR on this one, and it's nice to see it in print.

[fedupinBushcountry]

19. Kicking for

Truth to Power !!!

:kick:

[DearAbby]

21. Standing with tears in my eyes and wildly

:applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause:

[EVDebs]

22. The Levin Amendment is coming and the R's in Congress will HAVE to deal

with it ! An exit strategy is needed NOW and should have been in effect before the dogs of war were unleashed.

[kerrygoddess]

23. It was awesome!

I'm hoping to get a video copy ...

[DearAbby]

25. I want a video copy of this too, the words of the text of this speech

makes my skin tingle. WHAT AN AWSOME SPEECH! This man should be President...oh wait ;)

[kerrygoddess]

27. He's...

[emulatorloo]

24. kick n/t

[Mass]

26. K & R \nt

[wheresthemind]

28. Video?

[Old and In the Way]

29. Well, the gauntlet has been thrown down.....

"The bottom line is that the President and his Administration did mislead America into war. In fact, the war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history."


I guess you can't say more clearly than this. So what's the logical consequence to misleading the nation into war? That's a high crime against this country. Treason President Kerry?

[kerrygoddess]

33. Indeed it has...

:kick:

[politicasista]

30. Kick

Go Kerry! :kick: :yourock:

[TankLV]

31. Thank you Kerrygoddess.

I guess some are finally around when "the big tree falls in the woods" now!

I am truely lifted in spirit by what is FINALLY BEING REPORTED what Kerry is saying!

Nice the whore media are finally jumping OFF the repuke bandwagon!

[laugle]

32. Kudos to Kerry on this one, the sight of Bush

spewing out all that political hate and anger made me want to puke.

"My dad Bill" whom I wrote about here on DU last veterans day, was who I thought about, his heroism and suffering in prison camp and the Bataan death march. And all the brave men and women who fought for our country with honor,
past and present.

And to have this draft dodging, alchoholic, never do well criminal besmerch that sacred day is too disgusing for words.

Thanks for the thread, as always you are up-to-the minute on Kerry.

Have a nice Thanksgiving, gobble, gobble.

[Stockholm]

34. Wow I have never read a speech from Kerry

with this sort of language. I think Bushco managed to piss him off?

Man you have some good people for 2006/2008.

[zann725]

35. Yeah! And Keith O. "covered" part of it on Countdown.

Plus Keith also showed prolongd last-year campaign footage of Kerry & Edwards during Countdown's segment #5 on Monday about Bush's low approval ratings.

It was amazing seeing such extensive footage of JK on MSM. Particularly the footage of the JK campaign trail. He absolutely "radiated" with Integrity. Just a little MSM footage of JK, and that need to see daily MSM "coverage" of him is revived.

I so miss seeing him daily on TV (except CSPAN). We must all write Keith O., and tell him to show more JK footage in future. What people see...what is repeated...again and again, the public tends to want more of. Let's work on that image!

[kerrygoddess]

36. Will be posting a video and audio soon! N/T

[Mass]

37. Audio file here.

http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/home.cfm

[_dynamicdems]

38. Where is our media?

This should be all over the news. And they are largely ignoring it. Is this the new blacklisting? Just ignore and marginalize and hope he goes away. Well, it is not going to happen. Senator Kerry is not going away and neither are we.

This is something I wrote to Tweety yesterday. It will be ignored but it felt good to do:

"Aside from a few snide comments, the media (including Hardball) has primarily been ignoring the work that Senator John Kerry has been doing this past year. This is not going unnoticed by the viewing public and many of us have adjusted our viewing habits accordingly.

There are thousands of us out here who want to hear important news, whether or not the newsmaker is currently popular in "punditland." When a United States Senator makes as strong a statement against the policies of a sitting President, it is news. When the senator happens to be John F. Kerry, who ran against President Bush in last years election (and who was recently criticized by the President in his Veterans Day speech), it is huge news.

Please refer to the text of Senator Kerry's speech today in the Senate and treat it accordingly: as news."

[Blue_In_AK]

39. I love John Kerry...

I don't care what anybody says.

[kerrygoddess]

40. Video and Audio Links

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1157

There's also a Word Doc link in the blog post for those who would like to print the speech.

[milkyway]

41. Wow! That was as strong and direct a statement I've heard from Kerry.

I just read the full text--an amazingly powerful speech, without any above-the-fray posturing. Kerry gets down and personal, calling bush out on his bullshit. Kerry's statement is the definitive blueprint for the Dems to follow.

[kerrygoddess]

42. Windows Media Player Link

There were requests for a WMP link. Here's the link compliments of JK's office -
http://democrats.senate.gov/av/kerry/111405_kerry_floor_sm.wmv