Apparently, in "time of war" especially, *Bush and Cheney can speechify all they like to the military, but not our guys. This is infuriating! Anyone know anything more about this?
(I'm posting just the 2 questions from the briefing that relate to this, but the transcript is by a private company that makes it sound like a federal offense to even quote from it--HOW can such vital information for the public be privatized like this? I know, I know...)
On the web:
http://www.defenselink.mil/cgi-bin/dlprint.cgi?http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040728-1043.html Presenter: Lawrence Di Rita, PDASD(PA) and Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz, Director for Operations, JCS Wednesday, July 28, 2004 12:00 p.m.
<snip>
Q: Larry, does the Pentagon still have a directive or rule or whatever you call it technically that prohibits political campaigning on military bases or the use of the U.S. military for political campaigning?
MR. DI RITA: I don't think the rule is quite as expansive as you just described it. But basically, when a political candidate -- as I understand it, and we can provide more specific detail for you -- when a political candidate appears at an installation for some kind of official activity, if the installation commander is aware of it and has made the installation available to that candidate, the candidate can't do media queries and he can't be -- I think the ruling is specifically he may appear on camera and in photographs but he may not make a statement or respond to media queries while on the installation; he or she, I should say.
Q: So they can make essentially their stump political speech as long as they don't engage the media? Is that the difference?
MR. DI RITA: They may not make a statement or respond to queries while on the installation.
Q: They can't make a speech?
MR. DI RITA: Right. That's the policy.
Q: Because there were a couple of speeches yesterday, one by the vice president and one by John Kerry, which clearly appeared to be statements, at least, if not political speeches.
MR. DI RITA: The prohibitions do not apply explicitly to the president, the vice president and the speaker of the House. They've got official responsibilities that, particularly in a time of war, the president is going to go to military installations, and so will the vice president, and the speaker is certainly encouraged to do the same thing.
I can't speak to any specific issue that you're raising, but my understanding is that an event that occurred yesterday was in accordance with our procedures.
Q: Including John Kerry?
MR. DI RITA: I think that's specifically what somebody has advised me, that it followed the procedures. <Note: it was subsequently clarified that Senator Kerry was not on a military installation – his appearance on 27 July was in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, not at the Norfolk Naval Base.>
Q: Hmm. Okay.
<snip>
Q: But just a -- and to go back to the president and the exemptions for the president and vice president --
MR. DI RITA: And the speaker of the House.
Q: -- and the speaker, who obviously have official capacities, but the speech by Vice President Cheney yesterday sounded very much like a campaign speech. So there are no restrictions on the kind of official statements they can make.
MR. DI RITA: The vice president -- this is a country at war. The vice president of the United States went to a military installation to talk about the country at war. And I believe, to the best of my observation of what he did yesterday, it was not only appropriate, it was the right thing to do.
Q: Well, he didn't say vote for Bush-Cheney in 2004.
MR. DI RITA: I think he did the right thing.
<snip>
Just MHO, but Mr. Di Rita sounds pretty political here. Comments?
OOPS--just edited to add a note that was in the original transcript but got omitted because it was in brackets--at the end of the 1st questioning--stating that Kerry's speech in Norfolk wasn't on base.