I have a new nickname for Senator Kennedy: Mr Dolittle Doublespeak. I recently issued in the comments of my recent diary a challenge to Kerry supporters to refute the "dolittle" part and defend his record as stated by factcheck.org. My previous diary and other info is here:
http://mikepridmore.dailykos.com/story/2004/2/2/164815/5887
Kerry Exaggerates Role in Some Key Legislative Battles
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=134
Kerry (D-MA) Inaction Kills Human Rights Legislation
http://www.gb4hr.net/Pages/Kerry%20Stalls%20Human%20Rights%20Legislation.htm
Now I am issuing a challenge to refute the doublespeak part.
There are five instances here that show the possibility of doublespeak. His comments about the south, about affirmative action, his letters to a constituent about Gulf War I, his sponsorship of the Syria Accountability Act and his special interest money.
1. The south
http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i2scdebate.htm
Even more, Kerry had an outbreak of Dean syndrome, emphatically asserting that he had never said things that he actually had said.
Brokaw asked him, "How can you come South, given what you said about the Democrats making a mistake in spending too much time worry about the South..."
Kerry interrupted, claiming, "I never said Democrats made a mistake. I never said that all."
Sorry, John, but not only do we have this quote, as reported by ABC News:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_south_040126-1.html
"During a town hall meeting on the Dartmouth campus, Kerry noted that former Vice President Al Gore would be president if he'd won any number of other non-Southern states in 2000, including New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Ohio.
"Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South," Kerry said, in response to a question about winning the region. "Al Gore proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state, including his own."
...but there is also a video of you saying it right there on the ABC News page.
Oops.
By "everybody" it is clear Kerry means every Democratic presidential candidate, which he even made clearer by then talking about the last one, Al Gore.
"I never said Democrats made a mistake. I never said that all."
"Everybody always makes the mistake..."
2. Affirmative action
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/062103.shtml
In 1992, for example, Kerry announced he was going to launch an initiative on race, crime, and the problems of urban America. He gave the opening speech of a promised series at Yale University, warning about the costs of a "culture of dependency. . . . We must ask whether [social disintegration] is the result of a massive shift in the psychology of our nation that some argue grew out of the excesses of the 1960s, a shift from self-reliance to indulgence and dependence, from caring to self-indulgence, from public accountability to public abdication and chaos," the former antiwar protester said.
The civil rights movement, Kerry warned, had evolved into a legalistic and divisive struggle over affirmative action quotas that alienated white voters. "The truth is that affirmative action has kept America thinking in racial terms," he said.
http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i2scdebate.htm
But there is something even worse in this if you look exactly at the exchange. Brokaw said:
"Back in the 1990s, you expressed some reservations about affirmative action as it's currently constituted. You said that it represented a culture of dependency and that we have to reexamine that."
Back in 1992, Kerry said about affirmative action, as affirmed by multiple sources, such as the Boston Globe, that the cost of it was the creation of a:
"culture of dependency. . . . We must ask whether [social disintegration] is the result of a massive shift in the psychology of our nation that some argue grew out of the excesses of the 1960s, a shift from self-reliance to indulgence and dependence, from caring to self-indulgence, from public accountability to public abdication and chaos."
This is exactly what Tom Brokaw asserted he said. Brokaw didn't say that Kerry was against affirmative action. He simply say that, "back in the 1990's," Kerry had said that affirmative action, "represented a culture of dependency." Kerry exactly had. Brokaw said that Kerry argued back then that "we have to reexamine that." Kerry exactly had, saying, "We must ask," whether there has been, "a shift from self-reliance to indulgence and dependence."
But when presented with exactly what he had said, Kerry, once again, emphatically denied he had ever said what he had exactly said:
"Actually, Tom, that's not what I said."
3. Gulf War I letters.
The Senator's answer to this has been that it was a staff mix-up and that he always opposed the first Gulf War. It seems an odd mix-up to me for someone who claims consistency on the issue.
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/062103.shtml
Still, Kerry's views could be fickle, even on foreign policy. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Kerry suggested that the United States needed to give Saddam Hussein enough diplomatic "wiggle room" to leave Kuwait without losing face. He then voted against the congressional resolution authorizing military force, but became an enthusiastic supporter of the war as the allied coalition drove to victory in early 1991. His position was so nuanced that his office couldn't keep up with the changes, at one point mistakenly mailing out letters to his constituents that appeared to take both sides in the debate.
http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=1261
Consider this "Notebook" item from TNR's March 25, 1991 issue, which ran under the headline "SAME SENATOR, SAME CONSTITUENT":
"Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition ... to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war."
--letter from Senator John Kerry to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, dated January 22 [1991]
"Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf."
--Senator Kerry to Wallace Carter, January 31 [1991]
http://jasonfromwaltham.forclark.com/story/2004/1/22/1801/68576
October 23, 2003
4. Syria.
This one seems to me to be about both leadership and consistency. It is inconsistent because Senator Kerry derides the Bush administration's foreign policy but IMHO here he seems to be furthering it.
<Full name and address removed for privacy>
Dear Mr. XXXX:
Thank you for your letter regarding the Syria Accountability Act. I appreciate knowing your views on this important issue.
As you may know, Syria has an extensive history of human rights violations, connections with terrorism, arms proliferation, previous involvement in narcotics trafficking, and illegal occupation of Lebanon.
The Syrian government has historically ruled by methods such as torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, prolonged detention without trial, and limits on freedom of speech and the press. Since 1979, the State Department has regularly placed Syria on the list of countries that
support international terrorism, and has also accused Syria of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
I supported talks between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, which took place on May 3, 2003. At this time, Secretary Powell iterated that Syria must stop supporting terrorist organizations and harboring escapees from Iraq. Since the meeting,
Secretary Powell has said that Syria has taken some limited steps towards reform, but that these limited steps are not enough. Like Secretary Powell, I am concerned that Syria is not whole-heartedly working towards meeting U.S. demands. We must ensure that Syria does not acquire and
distribute additional weapons thereby exasperating tensions in the Middle East, raising potential threats to Israel, and undermining arms control.
I cosponsored the Syria Accountability Act to hold Syria responsible for its support for terrorism, occupation of Lebanon, and possible pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. I am hopeful that substantial Congressional support for the Accountability Act will influence Syria to meet the demands raised by Colin Powell in May in a more timely and transparent manner. The Accountability Act includes bans on the export of military items and of dual use items to Syria, and requires the president to impose at least two additional bans, chosen from the six included in the Accountability Act. The Accountability Act does not give the president the option of prohibiting the U.S. from exporting food and medicine to Syria.
Thank you again for taking the time to share your views with me on this important matter.
Sincerely,
John F. Kerry
United States Senator
5. Special interest money/influence peddling
This has already been discussed recently and it is now known that Kerry has received more lobbyist donations than any other Senator but there is still more doublespeak evidence:
http://www.bop2004.org/bop2004/report.aspx?aid=4
Kerry Carries Water for Top Donor
By M. Asif Ismail
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2003 -- Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., whose largest campaign contributor lobbies on behalf of telecommunication interests, pushed the legislative priorities of its clients in the wireless industry on several occasions, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of campaign, lobbying and congressional records has found. That analysis is part of the Center's research for The Buying of the President 2004 (to be published by HarperCollins), which tracks the financial backers and interests of the major candidates for the White House
http://www.thehill.com/news/011404/kerry.aspx
Last Friday in New Hampshire, he railed against the influence of lobbyists and pledged to shine light "on the secret deals in Washington."
But during his Senate career, Kerry has helped special interests, even against the apparent interests of his own constituents. This helped cement ties with lobbyists who donated thousands of dollars to his campaign.
In 1999, Kerry weighed in on an obscure Coast Guard rulemaking process to the benefit of a foreign company represented by Cassidy & Associates, one of the highest grossing D.C. lobbying firms. Shortly after his intervention, he received close to $8,000 in bundled contributions from Cassidy employees.
Jim Ruggieri, a Coast Guard engineer who issued the regulatory ruling that Kerry and his fellow lawmakers tried to overturn, said members of Congress almost never intervene on such obscure rulemaking.
Ruggieri altered the rule for shipboard cables in accordance with a well-established policy that allowed for "equivalency decisions" whereby standard-setters could make swift changes outside the formal rulemaking process to reflect rapid changes in technology. Ruggieri ruled at the time that there was no technical basis for the standard, which denied certain cables access to the marketplace.
The standards committee that set the benchmark that Ruggeri overturned was disbanded after its members were accused of colluding with an interested party.
The change sought by the lawmakers, which would have limited the types of cables allowed in U.S. ships and would have thereby benefited Draka Holdings NV, a Netherlands-based cable manufacturer, to the detriment of several U.S. companies.
One of those companies, Rockbestos Surprenant Cable Corp., was a constituent of Kerry's based in Clinton, Mass. Rockbestos pleaded with the Coast Guard in a January 1999 letter not to exclude its cables manufactured to the UL 1309 standard.
To push its case on the Hill, Draka hired Cassidy & Associates through its U.S. subsidiary, paying the firm close to $350,000 between July 1998 and the end of 2000.
Two months after Kerry sent the letter to Slater, Cassidy employees gave Kerry's Senate campaign 14 checks totaling $7,250, close to the entire amount the campaign would receive during the 2000 election cycle from Cassidy employees.
The total exceeded the combined total of contributions Kerry received from Cassidy employees during the previous three election cycles.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss the specifics of that case," said Ruggieri, who signed a confidentiality agreement after leaving the Coast Guard. "However, the public information records you provided me -- FEC records showing multiple contributions by Cassidy on the same day and Kerry's contradictory statement deploring undue influence via lobbyists -- speak for themselves."