I am here to tell a story of the continuing smear campaign against John Kerry, in the hopes that all of you, no matter who your favorite Democrat is, can understand what will happen to any Democrat who dares challenge the Right in this country. This is a story of a Democrat who has been villified by the Right so incessantly, so persistently, so obscenely that my capacity to feel outrage and a sense of injustice is truly tapped out. I'm at the point, where I just have to laugh at these people. And maybe that should be our first reaction. Because, you see, it is not the Democrats who the Right truly finds unlikeable; it is their ideas and their nerve to fight the Bush administration that they truly can't stand.
John Kerry went to Iraq this month. He is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a United States Senator with military forces from the state of Massachusetts in harm's way. It is his duty to go to Iraq to support those troops and to get real information on what is happening there. We all know that Christopher Dodd was there with him, and the likes of John McCain had been there the previous week. In short, this was not news. But the Right decided they were going to use this trip to conjure up a fury that the troops didn't want him there. I don't think I need to link to these sites for you to believe me that they had countdowns going for when "Jon Cary" would be in Iraq. To the Right, Iraq is not the home to the world's biggest man made catastrophe, where 100 Iraqis die a day and 100 American troops die a month like they did in December. No -- to the Right, Iraq is a place where they salivate at the chance to stick it to JK one more time. Even though, by all measures of "the troops", Kerry happens to have been one.
Problem was there was no "scene" to make the rounds on talk radio or Fox News. There is a war going on there after all, and neither Senator Kerry nor the troops had time to act out right wing fantasy scenarios, as these pictures show:
So it became time to start making up stories, something the Right can do well, as opposed to dealing with reality. You can read about this dirty campaign in AlphaLiberal's diary and Kerrygoddess's follow up diary. I do not wish to give any more credence to the Right's attack by linking to the guilty sites, however. What's most important to know is the originator of this "story" is none other than a former Bush speechwriter who is serving as a Captain in Iraq. Kudos to him for serving, but his story proved to be wishful thinking at best, an outright lie at worst.
In the scheme of things, this is a minor, and failed, smear on Senator Kerry, but we all know that unsuspecting Americans have been e-mailed this story or heard it on far right talk radio, and they may never learn the truth of how Senator Kerry was greeted by the troops. The Right has their direct e-mail, their talk radio, their Drudge Reports, their NY Posts, and their Fox News. And they will use this weaponry to their last dying breath. It is up to us as a Party to counteract the smears every time, even in the midst of, shall we call it, pre-pre-primary wars. Because if it happens to my guy, you can be darned sure that next week it will happen to your guy or gal.
But let's be clear why John Kerry, in particular, is being attacked. What is truly unlikeable about him is his annoying habit of telling the truth about Iraq:
The true defeatists today are not those who call for recognizing the facts on the ground in Iraq. The true defeatists are those who believe America is so weak that it must sacrifice its principles to the pursuit of illusory power.
The true pessimists today are not those who know that America can handle the truth about the Administration's boastful claim of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. The true pessimists are those who cannot accept that America's power and prestige depend on our credibility at home and around the world. The true pessimists are those who do not understand that fidelity to our principles is as critical to national security as our military power itself.
And the most dangerous defeatists, the most dispiriting pessimists, are those who invoke September 11th to argue that our traditional values are a luxury we can no longer afford.
Something tells me a "Destroy John Kerry" memo was issued from the White House shortly after this speech was given at Faneuil Hall on April 22, 2006, the 35th anniversary of John Kerry's
debut as an American truth teller where he spoke these immortal words which are frequently popping up on pundit shows everywhere lately:
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?
And just this fall, we hear him tying together Vietnam and Iraq in a chilling and moralistic manner, the way it should be here:
'Staying the course' isn't far-sighted; it's blind. Leaving our troops in the middle of a civil war isn't resolute; it's reckless. Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion.
In addition to Kerry's endless and tireless challenges to Bush's delusional policies, there is the truth about how he feels about the troops, and how they have responded to him in the past. I found this story in the Globe back in July, and it's just one of those random stories about Kerry that don't quite make it to the DC pundits, the greater MSM, or cable TV. It's about an 18 year old Iraq War Veteran who had a serious injury to his shoulder when he fell 10 feet from a Humvee in country. He happened to sit next to Kerry on a flight from Washington to Boston:
``We just talked about everything," Andino said yesterday. ``I showed him some pictures, and told him things are getting better [in Iraq]."
Not all of the conversation was so heavy, Andino said. ``I mentioned that I haven't been to a Red Sox game, ever. He called up somebody, and he asked me if I wanted to go to the Red Sox." Andino said he is a huge baseball fan who just never had the opportunity, or the money, to go to Fenway Park.
One week later -- senators have no trouble getting tickets, apparently -- Andino was joining Kerry on a trip to Fenway Park. They sat in the owners' box last Thursday and watched the Red Sox win a thriller over the New York Mets, highlighted by a great catch by Coco Crisp.
``It was really good," Andino said. ``It was a very fun time for my very first game. It really made my last two months."
Yes, you heard that here first. "The unlikeable Democrat" is . . . likeable, and downright kind and considerate. Please tuck this story away the next time a Democrat is villified by the Right. Even if he or she is not "your candidate", schadenfreude will only benefit the Right in the long run.
Peace and a blessed New Year to you all.