Who the heck is this John Solomon character? (AP reporter)

[brentspeak]

I've skimmed thread topics over the past year with Solomon's name mentioned, mostly in reference to some sort of forced effort on his part to link Democrats to the Republicans' Abramoff scandal, but I never really examined them very closely.

But today, AP has run a John Solomon article on Kerry's statements, with the reporter claiming that Kerry's quote the other day "mirrors" something he said when he was running for Congress in 1972.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061102/ap_on_el_ge/kerry1972_army

Here's Solomon: In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

He was "less apologetic" -- THAT'S objective reporting? Were his comments on this issue even controversial? This is like when the Republicans say things like, "Well, while there's no proof he hired a hooker, he didn't deny hiring a hooker, now did he?"

Here's Kerry's 1972 quote that John Solomon says "mirrors" Kerry's recent blundered joke, and that Kerry has been "less apologetic" about:

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people further from control over military activities," he wrote.

I've been doing research on conservative "news" agencies, and how they sponsor weekend "training" sessions for both aspiring and active journalists. You'd be surprised by how many thousands of reporters and editors who are employed in the mainstream media have actually attended these PAC-funded "training sessions". Does anyone know if Solomon himself is a former attendee of one of these kinds of things?

[brentspeak]

1. kick

[brentspeak]

2. more kick

[Gabi Hayes]

3. he's the same lazy hack who has the hardon for Harry Reid

sourcewatch has a list of his GOP-driven hit pieces on Reid.

he's a real POS/POWork