Andrew Sullivan sees Bush's real "character" in lies against Kerry

[beachmom]

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/11/the_kerry_gaffe.html

He's calling it the Kerry Gaffe Backfire:

Maybe this story isn't over. I've been thoroughly persuaded by John Derbyshire and Christopher Hitchens that John Kerry's words were indeed a botched joke. The clincher for me was the actual prepared text, which I confess I hadn't seen till I watched the Daily Show (where I tend to get the news these days) last night. The actual text was that if you didn't work hard, "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

snip

So the debate over what Kerry actually meant is now over.

Now what do I next remember? I remember that the president vehemently went after Kerry, as did McCain. Now, when a president decides to do such a thing, his staff have examined the upsides and downsides every which way. They are paid to know any possible backfire for the remarks. And Rove is very smart. So this much I now know: knowing full well that he was deeply distorting Kerry's meaning, the president used the quote full-bore to impugn Kerry's commitment to the troops - and to help turn the base against the Democrats.

I know it's politics. I'm not naive. But it's also revealing about someone's character that he could authorize and exploit such a thing. Most fair-minded people will have to concede that, in retrospect, this was a very, very, very low blow. It hadn't sunk in for me till last night how low. In retrospect, this incident says much more about Bush than about Kerry. I'll bet I'm not the only one mulling that over this morning.

[Phredicles]

1. Nicely said - recommended.

[Tellurian]

11. McCain is hanging by a thread..

hoping by virtue of seniority, he will be chosen the GOP 06' nominee.

John, Cluephone:

The GOP will overlook your devotion supporting the vicious lies and propaganda they generated,
about Dem candidates, even though you knew full well it wasn't true, you silently went along with it.

They will handily pick an 'unknown' to fill your de facto spot without batting an eyelash!

And don't forget you're own 'suicide watch' warning, when the Dems takeover Congress.

You can probably get a job lobbying for Wallmart or some such corp..anything else will exemplify
a higher moral ground, than what you've been doing since you were released as a POW captive.

[JoMama49]

14. McCain is just as dumb as the rest of them -- his statement

proves it. Anyone who could kiss ass the way he does after they went after him in 2000, doesn't have one speck of self-respect -- no wonder he looks so bad.

[Tellurian]

17. Yes, It's pitiful..

he's lowered himself to their level after he endured so much, to settle for so little.

[blm]

29. McCain and Hillary siding with Bush's lie on this will backfire on both

eventuually.

Because it is STRATEGISTS who came up with the idea that a dropped pronoun could be used to attack Kerry.

Because STRATEGISTS think WE are stupid, just as BushIn believes the public is stupid.

http://thepremise.com/archives/11/03/2006/556

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?
>>>

[blm]

2. I see Sullivan is finally opening his eyes about McCain, too.

.

[beachmom]

4. Actually, it was the torture "compromise" that completely

demoralized Andrew about McCain. He blasted McCain on Bill Maher a week ago for being weak on the torture bill.

[MADem]

18. Took him long enough. Has he decided that the Catholic Church will never

come around, yet, or is he still delusional on that score? Those "one day, if I'm a good boy, and magic happens and the priests all smile, and the Pope gets a divine message, they'll love me" exercises were pathetic.

I can remember his tiresome stumping and cheerleading for the war. Easy for him to say, since he never would have to serve....

[bullimiami]

3. the news media that promulgated this lie also had access to the prepared text

so they knew, or should have known, what they were doing.

it is truly a right wing conspiracy.

[liberal N proud]

6. That fact and the fact that they are the ones riding the dead horse proves there is no liberal media

This is such a blatant swift-boat tactic and you would think that America would see through this paper thin attack on someone who isn't even running for office.

[beachmom]

7. There's also the lazy factor -- Andrew is, after all, a member of

the MSM. I sent him an e-mail with what the speech text was supposed to be on the day it happened. Yet he said he didn't figure it out until last night. He does receive too many e-mails to read, but that kind of in a nutshell is what happens. These reporters don't do their jobs -- it's part RW conspiracy stuff but equal parts laziness, too. They have preconceived notions and don't bother to get all of the facts.

Luckily, Jon Stewart was able to persuade him. How pathetic is that that the FAKE NEWS gets the truth and delivers it to journalists and pundits!

[bullimiami]

10. i believe news media is provided with advanced copies of the text.

they should have all had it already. its not laziness. its criminal.

[HuffleClaw]

16. hear hear

pretty obvious one too, the way the networks dogpiled on that 'story'

[Karenca]

5. k and r. .n/t

[CBHagman]

8. What Sullivan does not mention is that Bush went after McCain.

What needs to be remembered is how dirty Bush's fight was against McCain during the 2000 primary. Apparently the Bush campaign's actions in South Carolina set new lows for sheer ruthlessness and mendacity. Don't take my word for it; numerous articles have covered the sordid business.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/02/parsing_the_polls_unmasking_th.html

Perhaps the most well-known example of push calling came during the 2000 Republican presidential primary fight between then Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain -- following the latter's stunning upset victory in the New Hampshire primary. After New Hampshire, the South Carolina primary became a key battleground where the Bush campaign fought to stop McCain's momentum and both sides pulled out all the stops. That included a series of phone calls to GOP primary voters dishing dirt on McCain including the (false) allegation that he had fathered an illegitimate black child.

This ought to have put paid to the fiction that George W. Bush's was ever any such thing as a unifying figure, an affable politician, a good Christian man whose heart was changed by Jesus.

[beachmom]

12. Yeah, but now McCain works for and carries water for that Devil

So who's worse, I wonder.

[CBHagman]

13. Yeah, I have my theories about that.

Theory number one is that McCain's presidential ambitions cause him to swallow (unfortunate choice of words, that) what was done to him and make nice with the current GOP leadership.

Theory number two is that the Bush camp has blackmailed McCain.

Either way, McCain is fully aware of what Bush is and what he's capable of, and so yes, McCain's choice is an immoral one.

[blm]

19. One thing McCain can't do is lie to Kerry's face. Kerry knows ALOT about

McCain's trigger points, and many times kept him from breaking down during the many months they spent together working on Vietnam normalization.

McCain talks about it in his book - preBush days.

Think about THAT - McCain's AUDIO BOOK where he praises Kerry for keeping him from breaking down and leading on Vietnam. Game, Set, Match.

[KKKarl is an idiot]

27. I will go with both your theories

But I think the biggest one is the fact that he is afraid of loosing his leadership role in the Senate. So whatever he can do to keep the Republican majority works.

[emulatorloo]

9. Wow, Hitchens is being honest too?

<snip>

I've been thoroughly persuaded by John Derbyshire and Christopher Hitchens that John Kerry's words were indeed a botched joke.

<snip>

[Disturbed]

15. The RW Fascists have no shame and are desperate.

They will grab onto anything floating in the icy water because their ship has hit the iceberg full on.

[opihimoimoi]

20. I hope Sullivan caught yesterdays KO's Comment....that sez it all.

[ContraCommando]

21. I might just be me

But I’ve noticed that the media have significantly laid off this story in my area, thanks in part to a fake news program on comedy central. Pathetic. These people defame Kerry’s character, using terms like “arrogant” to define him, all day and then drop it after they realize they fucked it up; a bit like accusing some guy of being a rapist on the front page and then running a retraction the next day on page 18 section b.

How lazy and/or stupid are journalists in this country? Or are the MSM just tools for Bush?

[applegrove]

22. Yes. So true.

[zulchzulu]

23. Welcome aboard the Reality Train, Mr. Sullivan

If you look into the Chimp's eyes in the past few days, you can see the fear coming on. His shame and his impeachment will be firmly on display by this time next year.

I can see why he is so afraid and desperate. Caged and cornered he will be....soon. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers will smile from above.

[inthebrain]

24. I said a looooong time ago

Sullivan was headed down the path Mrs Huffington followed not so long ago.

Tends to be the result when folks stop looking at people as numbers.

[rosesaylavee]

25. McCain is a different

person than he was 6 years ago. I would not be surprised to find out in a few years that *co had something on him or threatened his family. Nothing he has said in the past 3 years has made sense. He even contradicts himself. Something is not right there.

[glitch]

26. I suspect the same. I also remember back in the 92 election Ross Perot

saying Bush threatened his family and everybody scoffed, including me. That episode looks a lot different to me now.

[rosesaylavee]

30. Isn't it odd that Ross has had nothing to say for the past 6 years? n/t

[glitch]

31. Yes it is. And he used to be very talkative too...nt

[rosesaylavee]

32. Do you think its because he doesn't

have an opinion about what Jr. is doing? Uh. No. Something there too I bet.

Wish I could read the tell-all book due to come out in 2010 about all this crazy stuff now. Hope we have most of this turned around by then.

[glitch]

33. What tell-all book? Why wait? That kills me! Me too about the turn-around. :) nt

[rosesaylavee]

34. Did you see this thread yesterday on McCain?

Maybe I have given him too much credit for being a thinking, feeling human being.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2924376

[blm]

28. That seems the only REASONABLE explanation because nothing else adds up.

.

[gulliver]

35. This revealed Bush's character for all to see.

Sullivan is absolutely right. It makes me angry just thinking about it. Bush's act was the act of scum. Anyone who looks at the evidence will now know that.

Now ask the next character questions. Would someone willing to do something as gut-churningly low as what Bush did to Kerry do other gut-churningly low things? How about keeping troops dying in a war just to avoid admitting he fucked up? Is that Bush? His lowest-ever-by-a-president political attack on Kerry makes it a legitimate question.