Kerry Makes A "Slashing Attack" On The Bush Administration

Georgia Logothetis for Daily Kos

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Saturday April 08, 2006 · 2:28 PM PDT

2006/04/08 · 14:28

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And this is what it looks like when the gloves come off:

Senator John Kerry made a slashing attack on the Bush administration yesterday, comparing it to the faltering government in Iraq and equating its war strategy with its planning for Hurricane Katrina, while also invoking Jesus as he criticized federal Medicaid policy. [...]
"The Bush administration is wondering when Iraq will have a functioning government. I want to know when we're going to have a functioning government," Mr. Kerry said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Ouch. Those are fighting words. Senator Kerry continued by laying out "a little 10-point plan":

Tell the truth. Fire the incompetents. Find Osama bin Laden and secure our ports and our homeland. Bring our troops home from Iraq. Obey the law and protect our civil rights," Mr. Kerry said in ticking off his list, which also included supporting health care, education, lobbying reform and alternatives to oil, as well as reducing the deficit.

Plain-spoken. Blunt. Scathing in his rhetoric (yeah, I'm describing John Kerry, can you believe it?). A true Fighting Dem.

While Tracey Schmitt, the RNC spokesman, responded in her typical catty manner and dismissed Kerry's statements ("John Kerry deserves credit for continuing to take himself so seriously, despite the fact that no one else does"), the fact remains Kerry is showing the world what it truly means to be a member of an opposition party.

And what does it mean to be a fighting Democrat? It means taking a stand, knowing full well you'll be attacked for it. Take Kerry's resolution to withdraw troops from Iraq by either May 15th or the end of 2006. Cowards like Republican Senator Wayne Allard couldn't compete with Kerry on the facts, choosing instead to employ personal attacks:

I would like to start off by saying I've been very supportive of the president on the war of Iraq because he has had a plan and he has stayed the course. That's what gives me confidence in the president.
I do think that what we see today in the criticism of the president from Senator Kerry, we're seeing an individual who's being spun in the political winds, unlike the president.

Read Kerry's response below the fold...

Well, let me make it clear to the Senator from Colorado and anybody who wants to debate Iraq, when it comes to issues of war and peace and of young Americans dying, nobody spins me period. And I'm not going to listen to the Senator from Colorado or anyone else questions my motives when young Americans are dying on a daily basis or losing their limbs because Iraqi politicians won't form a government from an election that they held in December. That is just inexcusable. [...]
I'm listening to General Casey, not to the Senator from Colorado. If General Casey tells me that the Iraqis would stand up faster if there were less Americans there, I believe him. Our troops have done the job. Don't come to the floor of the United States Senate and try to suggest to me that somehow when we come up with a plan to protect our troops and to make America stronger that we're somehow making their life more miserable. Ask the troops. 70% of the troops who were pulled -- polled in Iraq said that they thought within the next year we ought to be able to withdraw. [...]
I tell you one thing I know well, and I'll remind the Senator from Colorado, half the names on the wall of that Vietnam Memorial, half the names on that wall became names of the dead after our leaders knew our policy wouldn't work. Well, our policy isn't working today, and I'm not going to be a United States Senator who adds to the next wall wherever it may be put that honors those who served in Iraq so that once again people point to a bunch of names that are added after we knew something was wrong. We have a bigger responsibility than that.

I urge you to read the whole thing. Kerry's on fire, and it will be because of him, and Senator Feingold and other courageous Democrats that our troops will come home. The heart of our party is on fire, attacking the administration on all fronts. No matter how much the RNC will try to marginalize them, they are our leaders, our fighting Dems, and just the type of leadership America desperately needs.

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Kerry Makes A "Slashing Attack" On The Bush Administration

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