The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:40 am
The New York Times reports John Kerry’s “botched joke” … which you’ll find hidden somewhere beneath 763 words of NYTedium:
For at least a few hours on Tuesday, President Bush had a chance to relive his victorious campaign of 2004, taking a break from a bleak Republican campaign season as he attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts over the war in Iraq.
Evasively broad; Bush attacked Kerry over comments made about the education level of US troops.
Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was Mr. Bush’s opponent in 2004, is not running for office this year. But the president seized on what he said were Mr. Kerry’s disparaging remarks about the troops — and what Mr. Kerry insisted was a botched joke aimed at Mr. Bush — as he sought to make Mr. Kerry the face of the Democratic Party this fall.
His face is big enough. Still, at least we’ve gotten a little closer to the issue.
In the process, Mr. Bush brought renewed attention to the war in Iraq …
There’s a war in Iraq? Who knew? Thereafter follows a few hundred words from trembly, war-shy Republicans and an anonymous “senior Republican Party Senate strategist” before the Kerry comments are finally revealed:
In his remarks in California on Monday, Mr. Kerry said: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Kerry’s excuse is breathtaking:
Mr. Kerry said that he botched a joke that his aides said had been prepared as follows: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”
That joke was prepared and Kerry still managed to ruin it? Wasn’t he meant to be the smart guy all loaded with nuancy prowess? How “intellectually lazy” is it to forget a lame punchline? For that matter, how lazy is Kerry to forget he voted in favour of the war?
Mr. Kerry, a Vietnam veteran …
I doubt this. If true, surely we’d have heard about it previously. More on Mr Heinz from Powerline and Little GreenFootballs.
UPDATE. The ABC’s Eleanor Hall reports:
In the United States the flamboyant former Presidential candidate John Kerry has given his political opponents an unexpected boost in the mid-term election campaign, with remarks that Republicans say amount to troop bashing.
Flamboyant?
(Via Paul Wright)
- Yeah, because if you don’t study, do your homework or make an effort to be smart you might end up as President of the United States.Posted by Veeshir on 2006 11 01 at 12:49 PM • permalink
- For that matter when did it become acceptable for a US senator (with aspirations beyond his abilities and integrity) to call the sitting US president stupid? It was a botched joke, I didn’t mean to call the troops stupid, just the president… Doesn’t sound like good excuse to me. Admittedly outside of “Here, NMP, have half of my wife’s fortune,” there’s not much that would make me think better of him.Posted by Not My Problem on 2006 11 01 at 01:04 PM • permalink
- He of the perfumed hair has the temerity to call other people stupid when he can’t remember the punch line of a four line joke (?). Saying that he botched a joke is giving him the benefit of a doubt he doesn’t deserve. The fact is that he’s in the habit of trashing the troops from his Vietnam days to just recently when he announced that U.S. troops go into Iraqui homes in the middle of the night and terrorize women and children.
- stats: I meant that as a lower boundary, if he offered me less than half I wouldn’t think better of him… I’d take it, but I wouldn’t think better of him. But all of it has a nice ring to it, now that you mention it…Posted by Not My Problem on 2006 11 01 at 01:27 PM • permalink
- I’ll never forget when Mark Steyn pronounced JF’ingK “nuancy boy”. LOL
You can say this for the Times, they’re masters of the applied spin.
One of the things I find endlessly and endearingly amusing about the folks at Kos, DU and the rest is their firm, (apparently) sincere belief that MSM—including the NYT and WaPo—are in the tank for the Republicans. That alone shows how deeply immersed they are in a reality of their own making.
I don’t know much (anything) about the Senate candidate in Washington, but if this is typical we’re just as well off with Maria Cantpay:
“President Bush isn’t getting our frustrations — it’s time to be decisive, beat the terrorists,” Mike McGavick, the Republican candidate for Senate in Washington, said in an advertisement that began running this week. “Partition the country if we have to and get our troops home in victory.”
That’s what he calls decisive?! That’s what he calls victory?! Yikes.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 11 01 at 01:30 PM • permalink
- I can hardly wait until the MSM starts pieces on how Democratic candidates are avoiding the radioactive Kerry so that he’s had to cancel all of his campaign visits for today. Maybe there’ll be a Time cover story too? I mean the MSM will cover this just like they have for Bush (allegedly) being avoided, won’t they?
/fantasyPosted by andycanuck on 2006 11 01 at 01:32 PM • permalink
- I followed Tim’s link to Powerline and came across Senate hopeful Bob Casey’s non-answer when asked about warrantless wiretaps.
Inquirer: It’s a real simple question. Do they need to go through the FISA Court as the FISA law has said since 1973 or don’t they? They say they don’t. We say they do. What do you say?
Casey: I think it’s worked well.
Inquirer: What has worked well?
Casey: I think it’s worked well when you use that system and you use it in the context of making sure that we are doing everything possible to, to…
He never does quite finish that thought. I can’t believe that a good man like Rick Santorum is losing to such a lightweight.
- I repeat: Flamboyant?Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 11 01 at 01:55 PM • permalink
- And our troops have made their own Kerry JokePosted by Sharon Ferguson on 2006 11 01 at 01:57 PM • permalink
- 15. Wonderful!Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 11 01 at 02:02 PM • permalink
- As I said elsewhere, calling the troops stupid is at least a step up from calling them war criminals (Paris in the 70’s ring any bells?). But even if Kerry meant to insult the president and not the troops (just as reprehensible from a member of government, in my book), his attitude toward the military is well known. In fact, I don’t think there are many people outside Terayza’s circle that John Kerry doesn’t look down on.
- Please take a Yojimbo memo to the Kerry spindoctors’
Stop Digging!!!
Just heard a “montage” from the “what he really meant to say” brigade.
They are just making it worse for him,if you really parse what they are saying.
Seems like you can go to college and make something of yourself or you can settle for the military! That’s my take.
On second thought. Take a second Yojimbo memo.
Tell them to keep digging!
- Youre welcome!! Its up at the Drudge Report nowPosted by Sharon Ferguson on 2006 11 01 at 02:15 PM • permalink
- Oh, Sharon F, thanks for that—it’s hilarious.
John Kerry flamboyant??! You must be one drab group down there in Oz (and I know that’s not true).
I can hardly wait until the MSM starts pieces on how Democratic candidates are avoiding the radioactive Kerry so that he’s had to cancel all of his campaign visits for today.
The backlash has begun (though not widely touted): Kerry Campaign Events Cut as Democrats Criticize Troops’ Remark
Kerry won’t appear today in Mankato, Minnesota on behalf of Tim Walz, a Democrat challenging Republican Representative Gil Gutknecht. The decision to cancel “ultimately” was Kerry’s, said Walz spokeswoman Meredith Salsbery.
Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Iowa’s 1st Congressional seat, asked Kerry not to campaign with him tomorrow, the Quad-Cities Times reported. Braley thought Kerry’s remarks suggesting people with less education “get stuck in Iraq” were inappropriate, the paper said, citing Braley spokesman Jeff Giertz
Kerry also won’t appear today in Philadelphia with U.S. Senate candidate Bob Casey, ABC News reported. Casey’s race to unseat Republican Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania could be pivotal to Democrats’ hopes to gain control of the Senate.
The ever plucky Kerry still refuses to stand for it, though:
Kerry’s spokesman confirmed the senator has canceled the appearances.
“We made a decision not to allow the Republican hate machine to use Democratic House candidates as proxies in their distorted spin war in which once again they’re willing to exploit brave American troops,” David Wade said in a statement.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 11 01 at 02:26 PM • permalink
- channeling Monty Python…
Reporter: what did you mean by saying…
Kerry: it was a pun.
Reporter (baffled): ?
Kerry: no, no, nah a pun…what’s that thing that spells the same forwards and backwards?
Reporter (disbelief): a palindrome?
Kerry (triumphant expression): yeah, a palindrome!Posted by Jim,MtnViewCA,USA on 2006 11 01 at 02:29 PM • permalink
Flamboyant?
I for one am glad to see the press finally interested in outing closeted Democrats. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, I always say!
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 01 at 02:53 PM • permalink
- Man, what a poozer!
And I suppose Kerry’s Winter Soldier testimony, where he accused our troops in Viet Nam of raping, pillaging, and mass murdering “in the manner of Genghis Khan” was really supposed to be a joke, too. Only he forgot to insert the name Shecky.
Hear that scraping sound, John? It’s the bottom. You’ve reached it. You can stop digging now.
- Those troops in the picture from post 15 are Minnesota guard (34th brigade-“the Red Bulls”). They were at Camp Shelby mobilizing when my current unit-278th ACR-was demobing last year.
I think that picture was taken at Talil (now Ali) air base outside An Nasiriyah-very close to the famous ziggurat at Ur, that’s where they are-replacing the Italians after they mostly rotated home following their last election. That building in the picture looks like the TMC established there in 2003 by B co. 161st ASMB (Georgia guard). My old unit (C/161st) augmented them in the summer of 2003 and I was there for a few weeks. Anyway-they are 34th brigade, but I might be wrong about the building.
If that is where they are that’s very close to where the Australian troops are.
- (FLASH! KERRY, WHO WOULD NOT APOLOGIZE TO ANYONE, HAS APOLOGIZED.)Widow Heinz’s kept French poodle will not be let out without a muzzle and leash. The Demo SPCTroops will no longer permit the castrated one to hunt for baby killing, widow bashing, child raping American soldiers, especially since it never found one, but also because it hurts exposing them to the U.S. public for what they are. JF’inKerry, hell of a name for a bitchin poodle.
- I came here to post this comment from Kerry’s spokesman. It turns out it was already posted above but it’s worth repeating to show their state of mind:
We made a decision not to allow the Republican hate machine to use Democratic House candidates as proxies in their distorted spin war in which once again they’re willing to exploit brave American troops,’’ David Wade said in a statement
I’m reminded of a line from a TV series I was watching recently. “My God, woman, there’s such a thing as grace.” (Change pronouns as necessary.)
Word of adivce: When intending to take the high road, if you find yourself slopping around in the mud that means you’re doing something wrong.
- Kerry this morning on Imus http://rhhardin.home.mindspring.com/imuscut.kerryapology.ram where Imus tells him to just stop it, go home and be quiet.
Everybody else is wrong, as often happens to those who possess magic hats.
- Bye the Bye
Everything you wanted to know about the US Military can be found on the Heritage Foundation site. That would be Heritage.org. (real men don’t linky)
Maybe Dean-lite could meander over and dip his toes in reality for a refreshing change. It’s on the front of their site so even he can’t miss it, being an educated person and all.
- I say we start refering to Kerry as “Wealthy socialite and presidential wannabe John Kerry”. Any pretense that he has to being anything else is forfeit.Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2006 11 01 at 05:20 PM • permalink
- “Flamboyant” = big hair.Posted by SingleMalt on 2006 11 01 at 05:52 PM • permalink
- Flamboyant?
Well, I buy the “boyant” part – Kerry keeps popping up just like Freddy to maim and kill his own kind. Politically speaking, you understand.
But Flam? I don’t know about flam. Maybe flam too.
Posted by John Fembup on 2006 11 01 at 06:17 PM • permalink
- Nuance Kerry (D-Paris) so brave the day before slashing out at all those right wing loonies in front of all the friendly TV cameras and the cheering NY Slimes now cringingly puts out a non-apology on his website (I’ve been misinterpreted by all you cretins, so sorry for you)and feels the pain of the many families he has insulted. But this bluff who boasts he’s a real man hides in the quasi-world of his website, from from questions and the contempt of Americans.
Apologies are not accepted from murderers and politicians who betray their country. As someones said, maybe in grade school its great to have kids aplogize without consequences, but not when slime puts in danger my grandchildren.
- #31 91B30
Thanks for the info – grabbed that photo the minute I saw it this morning on FR and before I knew it, it was spreading like wild fire, not to mention all the posts commenting, so if there was information about who those lovely lovely BEAUTIFUL soldiers are, I missed it completely.
God, they are beautiful – and not just because they have a wonderful sense of humor. They are beautiful for what they do everyday. God bless them all!
Posted by Sharon Ferguson on 2006 11 01 at 06:56 PM • permalink
- Didnt Kerry send his sister down to Australia to campaign against Howard? Im still waiting for an apology for that. Im an American and *I* was pissed he did that.Posted by Sharon Ferguson on 2006 11 01 at 06:58 PM • permalink
- “Flamboyant”
Intersesting.
Normally, “flamboyant” in the Australian media means that a person is either gay (“flamboyant talkback host …”) or has links to the underworld (“flamboyant Sydney businessman …”)
Posted by Apparatchik on 2006 11 01 at 06:59 PM • permalink
- I can only think “flamboyant” was their way of outing him in newspaper-speak. Watch for other telltale signs:
“Longtime bachelor Kerry…”
“Victorian gentleman Kerry…”
“Kerry and his constant companion, playwright Larry Kramer…”
“Waving his arms as he spoke, Kerry said ‘Oh my God, did you see that dress Laura Bush was wearing? I didn’t know if she was the First Lady or the Department of Agriculture.’”
- Flamboyant?
Well, Harold Ford Jnr is
“handsome and charismatic” and “wears smart suits”.Obviously.
Derr.
- John Kerry stands for it:
Again, he ought to apologize. Why can he not bring himself to say “You know what? I apologize to America’s fighting men and women who took umbrage at my comments.” He can’t bring himself to do it. In fact, what he does is he suggests that anyone who took umbrage at my remarks is bad. He’s attacked people who took his remark as an attack on the military. But wait a minute. The military took his remark as an attack on the military. He ought to simply apologize. Why can he not bring himself to say, “‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I’m sorry I insulted you. I didn’t mean to do it. Will you please accept my apology and move on?” But he can’t bring himself to say it.
“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended”
As expected, a weasel apology. “I’m sorry if you didn’t understand what you thought I said.” What about a simple “I’m sorry” followed by a few glowing words about our people in uniform demonstrating how wrong the statement was. So, anyway, how long did it take him to fold? I’ll wager the pressure was tremendous and I bet his nutroots supporters are pissed.
Kerry Sought Out Families at Soldiers’ Funerals, Authors Say:
Sen. John Kerry, whose “botched joke” on education and the war in Iraq has sparked a national controversy, approached the families of fallen soldiers at their sons’ funerals to seek their help in undermining the war on terror during his 2004 presidential campaign, according to the authors of a new book.
And, say, do you suppose there’s a Nobel Prize in this?
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 11 01 at 07:45 PM • permalink
That joke was prepared and Kerry still managed to ruin it?
Kerry was notorious during his campaign for thinking he was smart enough to rewrite his professionals. It drove them crazy and many Democrats, fortunately, sane.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 11 01 at 09:13 PM • permalink
- If Kerry is flamboyant, how would she describe Liberace?
To an Australian eye, the similarity between Kerry and Leunig is really quite spooky. We will know them by their hair.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 01 at 09:59 PM • permalink
- And, of course, Kerry didn’t deliver the ‘apology’ in person the same way he delivered the slam. He put it up on his website. I can’t imagine he really wrote it. They probably had to anesthetize him to get it put up.
As I’ve said elsewhere, in western Illinois we have a technical term for such persons. The term is “Horse’s Ass”.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 11 01 at 10:49 PM • permalink
- I bet Jessica Simpson wouldn’t have made that mistake.Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 01 at 10:57 PM • permalink
- Sharon Ferguson:
Didnt Kerry send his sister down to Australia to campaign against Howard? Im still waiting for an apology for that. Im an American and *I* was pissed he did that.
No apology necessary! Rove’s plan worked at treat – we are working on who they will send next time. Maybe the big Ketchup Bottle himself?
We got a report down here that some candidate loon – dunno if Republican or Democrat – said to the effect that Australia was a potential nuclear power and threat! It was because we had lots of uranium…. Not sure if he meant it as a compliment or not, but we’ll take it.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 11 01 at 11:31 PM • permalink
- Paco
You’re paling into significance: ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, rather “the Senator flambee is consomme’d in his own jus intellectuals.”Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2006 11 01 at 11:53 PM • permalink
- Second time I’ve said it today: Thanks for the link, Kyda. You always provide pertinent information.
I think I’ve already said this too: Just when I think I couldn’t hate that sorry excuse for a man anymore than I already do, I read something else that makes my skin crawl. His mediocrity knows no bounds.
Normally, “flamboyant” in the Australian media means that a person is either gay (“flamboyant talkback host …”) or has links to the underworld (“flamboyant Sydney businessman …”)
That must lead to some uncomfortable moments.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 02 at 09:28 AM • permalink
- #2 mark from monroe
That reminded me of a famous quote from Life of Johnson, here paraphrased:
Boswell: I told him I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Democrats, where I had heard John Kerry tell a joke.
Johnson: “Sir, that man telling a joke is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
- Unfortunately, I’ve got to agree on the “flamboyant” thing.
You see, around my neck of the woods, a Flamboyant is a type of tree – with uselessly brittle wood – that spends most of the year leafless and dreary, like one of those trees on the Addams Family estate – then a couple times a year it explodes in a flaming riot of watered-down ketchup colored petals.
Friggin’ brittle royal flamer pretty much fits the bill for Kerry.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
