Kerry Slams Bush's "Dangerous Gap In Credibility"

[DrFunkenstein]

For those old enough to remember, credibility gap is a direct reference to Tricky Dick himself without coming out of left field like Graham's impeachment jibe.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry said on Wednesday President Bush suffers from a "dangerous gap in credibility" on national security and questioned if the United States was safer since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"It is clear that a dangerous gap in credibility has developed between President Bush's tough rhetoric and timid policies which don't do nearly enough to protect Americans from danger," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery at a veterans' hall in the Bronx.

"And with each passing day, Americans are learning that we also face an intelligence gap. Americans should be able to trust that what the president tells them is true," the four-term Massachusetts senator said.

Kerry and the other Democrats vying for the right to challenge Bush in 2004 have toughened their criticism of the Bush administration over Iraq amid accusations the United States exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons to justify going to war.

He said Bush had "stalled" investigations into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, and the administration "gave presidential sanction to misleading information and is still trying to conceal what happened."

Kerry voted last fall to authorize the war in Iraq but has been critical of Bush's diplomatic efforts to build support for it and his handling of the aftermath.

He also attacked Bush's dedication to safety at home, saying he was "big on bluster and short on action" for failing to provide police and firefighters with the resources needed to respond to domestic attacks.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030716/pl_nm/politics_kerry_dc_2

[DrFunkenstein]

1. Bush 'Trafficked in Untruth' on Iraq - Kerry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry said on Wednesday that the Bush administration had "trafficked in untruth" about Iraq trying to acquire uranium, a justification given for the war to oust Saddam Hussein.

The Massachusetts senator said in a speech here that Americans face "an intelligence gap" over the claim, which was included in President Bush's State of the Union address in January.

In that speech, Bush said that Baghdad sought uranium from Africa to make nuclear weapons. It has since been learned that the intelligence reports were partly based on forged documents.

"We need an independent commission with a mandate to investigate the truth about any intelligence mistakes, any political interference with our intelligence agencies, and a State of the Union message that trafficked in untruth at a time when at least some in the administration knew it was wrong," Kerry said.

Kerry made his remarks as CIA Director George Tenet faces questioning at a closed Senate hearing on Wednesday. Tenet has accepted responsibility for the CIA approving Bush's speech.

"Americans should be able to trust what the president tells them is true -- especially when it comes to the life and death decisions of war," Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, told a crowd of about 150 supporters in a sweltering Veterans Memorial Hall in the Bronx.

The White House, under intensifying pressure over the issue, said it believed electoral politics were behind the attacks as Democrats battle to see who will run against Republican Bush in 2004.

"The president is remaining focused on his priorities for the American people," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "I think the American people recognize that some are more focused on elections and in possibly even rewriting history."

The main reason given by the United States and Britain for going to war was that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and there were signs it was restarting its nuclear weapons program. Baghdad fell to U.S. forces in April, and no such weapons have been found.

[DrFunkenstein]

2. Kerry Faults Bush on Homeland Security

NEW YORK - Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry stepped up his criticism of President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday, saying the commander in chief has neglected homeland security problems while forging blindly into Iraq without a peace plan.

"Just as we did not have a viable plan to win the peace in Iraq after the capture of Baghdad, today we still do not have a real plan and enough resources for preparedness against a terrorist attack here in the United States," Kerry told about 100 supporters at a veterans' hall in the Bronx.

The Democratic presidential candidates have maintained a steady drumbeat of criticism of Bush since the White House admission last week that a line in the State of the Union address alleging Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa was suspect and should not have been included.

Kerry unleashed his harshest rhetoric at the president in a city where the threat of terrorism remains fresh in New Yorkers' minds.

The Massachusetts senator questioned whether the nation was safer today than before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, saying the Bush administration has shortchanged police and firefighters by denying them equipment and support.

"We cannot afford to leave the front lines of home security without the resources they need any more than we can afford to leave our soldiers vulnerable to attack in Iraq," said the decorated Vietnam War veteran.

Kerry, who proposed an initiative to put 100,000 more firefighters on the job, while restoring a program to put 100,000 additional police on the streets, said, "We should not be opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in New York City."

Kerry's strong criticism drew an equally harsh rebuke from several Republican quarters, including the White House, the Republican National Committee and a handful of New Hampshire military veterans.

Ed Gillespie, the incoming chairman of the RNC, and several veterans who participated in a conference call with reporters arranged by the New Hampshire GOP also criticized Kerry for politicizing war and national security issues.

Their comments come months after several Democrats had suggested in May that Bush had politicized the war with his landing on an aircraft carrier to announce an end to major combat in Iraq.

Kerry called for an independent commission to find out what mistakes have been made in the intelligence-gathering process, and he accused the administration of stalling investigations of the Sept. 11 attacks. Officials involved in the independent probe have complained that government agencies have been slow in providing data.

"It is a long way from 'speak softly and carry a big stick' to a president who says 'bring 'em on' and 'dead or alive' — then leaves front-line defenders without the numbers and without the equipment they need to wage the war on terror," he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030716/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_security_7

[blm]

9. "politicizing war?"

Hell...BushInc has politicized EVERY ASPECT of war and national security even BEFORE they stole the White House. Remember "Help is on the way"....sheesh what a bunch of incompetent hypocrites.

[DrFunkenstein]

10. I Knew That Aircraft Landing Would Haunt Bush

Only I didn't think the "Mission Accomplished" would be the catch. I thought it would be the flight suit. I dreamed of posters of him in the (ahem) snug flight suit with the letters "A-W-O-L" scrawled across. The image of Bush as conquering hero is just ripe for a thousand ironies.

How about Plan B - Juxtapose Bush on the aircraft carrier with a shot of Cher on one. If I could turn back time... Ugh, I can't imagine which images is more upsetting.

[DrFunkenstein]

3. US occupation in Iraq must end: Kerry

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry called for an end to the US occupation of Iraq and criticized the administration's use of now discredited intelligence as a basis for launching the war.

"I fought in Vietnam, and half the wall -- half the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) wall -- is filled with the names of people who were there because leaders were filled with pride and wouldn't make the right decisions," Kerry told NBC television.

"We need to get the sense of American occupation over with. We need to protect our troops. And that means that pride should not prevent this administration from going to the United Nations and doing what they should have done in the first place," he declared Wednesday.

Kerry also criticized US President George W. Bush's use in his January 28 State of the Union address of the erroneous claim that Iraq sought to buy nuclear material from Africa.

Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet has taken responsibility for that claim and was to testify before a congressional panel investigating the matter later Wednesday.

"Remember the old saying, Harry Truman's saying, 'The buck stops here'? Right now, apparently, the buck stops at Langley (CIA headquarters). And there are a lot of questions about the political input to this intelligence," Kerry told NBC's "Today" show.

"We have to see what happened."

The US senator for Massachusetts, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, also criticized the administration's efforts leading up to the war in Iraq, launched on March 20.

"I made it very clear that their diplomacy leading up to the war was inadequate," Kerry said.

"I said I thought the president should have even done more diplomacy before he went to war. I said to the president, 'Mr. President, don't rush to war. You need to build the large coalition necessary in order to win the peace.'

"And I said very clearly, winning the war was not what was difficult, it's winning the peace," Kerry said. "And I don't think the president put a plan together to do that."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030716/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_weapons_politics_1

[blm]

4. Doc Funk...

did you see mediawhoresonline issue yesterday? There was a great article from Oliphant featured and MWO defended Kerry's consistent stance on Iraq, and took the press to task for implying differently.

[DrFunkenstein]

5. Very Impressive

Strangely, there is not a peep from all the people here who "blast" Kerry for not being forceful enough. These are three major articles carried by the international newswires that every major news source in America carries, all with Kerry making devastating (but not hot-headed) attacks on Bush.

In any case, the Oliphant piece was equally forceful.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/194/oped/Pride_truth_and_war_according_to_Kerry+.shtml

''The Bush administration has a plan for waging war but no plan for winning the peace. It has invested mightily in the tools of destruction but meagerly in the tools of peaceful construction. It offers the people in the greater Middle East retribution but little hope for liberty and prosperity.

''What America needs today is a smarter, more comprehensive and far-sighted strategy for modernizing the greater Middle East. It should draw on all of our nation's strengths: military might, the world's largest economy, the immense moral prestige of freedom and democracy - and our powerful alliances.''

Increasingly common words today, but Kerry spoke them more than six months ago, two months before the war began. Like others, I gave him guff then for seeming to fudge his support for the use of force; but also like others I failed to see the power of his thinking about the link between conflict and aftermath. On this, Kerry was more than prescient; he was speaking with the clarity expected of presidents.

Last week, Kerry also brought the perspective of his military service into play - not as boast but as useful experience. It helps, he said, to see the need for truth ''from the perspective of those in the field who are taking fire even as they do not know friend from foe, who have no idea when they will come home.''

More pointedly, Kerry made his case for truth not solely for the country's sake and its standing in the world, but ''most of all for the young people in uniform who cannot be protected from enemy attack by an announcement, no matter how well-staged, that hostilities are over.''

If Kerry discusses domestic affairs with this force and clarity, he will win his party's presidential nomination next year. This is a remarkably wide-open, multi-candidate race in which content and message will win.

That is why Kerry's ability to cut through the fog and use his gifts and background to speak clearly and forcefully about Iraq is of more than passing interest.

The challenge, as he put it succinctly to me, is to ''punch through'' on domestic issues in the same way. He has the policy material to do it; now the message must follow.

[blm]

6. I'm glad Oliphant owned up

tp the "guff" he gave Kerry. Mediawhores and Daily Howler stuck by Kerry and early on destroyed the charge from some in the media and other candidates who claimed Kerry was "waffling" on Iraq, when he was actually demonstrating ambivalence and nuance. Desirable qualities in a thoughtful statesman.

Doc, since I can't c+p right now, can you grab that comment from mediawhores on the Oliphant article?

[DrFunkenstein]

8. Wowee-Zowee

Media Hookers: Kerry's Pre-Iraq Invasion Comments Not Only Prescient
"He Was Speaking with the Clarity Expected of Presidents"

http://www.mediahorse.com/ar071403.htm

Many of the media whores will continue to pretend to find contradictions in Kerry's support for the Iraq resolution and his warnings before the invasion and criticisms after. But they are appearing more ridiculous by the day, as the truth becomes clearer to American voters: the problem is not a resolution - it is that an untrustworthy, incompetent fraud occupies the White House.

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Jeepers freepers, an incompetent fraud! So the hookers find little problem with supporting a resolution to enforce unfettered inspections, aye? The problem was with criminally screwing up the context of that enforcement? With bungling the invasion and post-war scenario with no allies and no plans for winning the peace? Damn you George Tenet! Damn you to hell!

Um, not to mention Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice, Fleischer, and Commander POTUS himself...

[blm]

11. Yep...

and I don't get how so many are fooled by the "blank check" rhetoric.

[RogueTrooper]

7. This was picked up on the BBC's Newsnight programme

Kerry led the segment. You can watch it here ( left hand side of the page )
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm