Aside from Larry buying into the concept of a "war on terror" (that both the 911 Commission Report and an Army War College report concluded was too vague, ill-defined, and unfocused -- recommending some other term be used), and aside from Larry attempting to frame his positions on the issues using historically Republican positions (less taxes, less government, family values, etc.), just prior to the last election cycle, Larry bought into the Republican spin regarding a joke John Kerry made dissing Bush.
On October 30, 2006, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) was speaking at a campaign rally in Pasadena, California when he launched into a series of one-liners with Bush or the Bush Administration as the butt of his jokes. He had just finished saying he had just come back from Texas, where Bush once lived, but now he (Bush) "lives in a state of denial," when he went on to say; "Education, you know, 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." As Kerry said later, he was referring to President Bush's poor preparation for the war, which was clear from the context. Kerry said that he had botched the joke by not adding the word "us" in the punch-line, as in; "...you get us stuck in Iraq," but it could still be understood to mean what he intended (even without the word "us" inserted) by the context (as in Bush getting himself stuck in Iraq).
Nevertheless, various Republicans, Fox News, and the White House seized on the comment, and took it out of context, to spin Kerry's joke to imply he was referring to the troops being uneducated.
I grant that Kerry could have said it better, but their interpretation requires you to believe that in the middle of dissing Bush, Kerry suddenly decided to diss the troops. Not only would that have been out of character for Kerry (a former vet himself), and too incredibly stupid for any politician to say, but it wouldn't make any sense in the larger context of what he was saying.
As Keith Olberman commented on MSNBC's Countdown a couple of days later; "Kerry called them stupid and they were too stupid to know they were being called stupid."
Obviously, they did know better and they also knew they could use it to create a distraction right before the election.
Kerry, having learned his lesson from not responding fast enough to the Swift Boat charges in the last election, tried to fight back, but the stir created by the right-wing echo chamber was too great. When it became clear that many people were buying the spin, he apologized for any misunderstanding.
On November 1, 2006, the Kissell campaign sent out this press release:
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Statement of Larry Kissell
"John Kerry's committee called my campaign yesterday and offered to put me on his slate of endorsed candidates. I said no thank you - that we may be a campaign in need of funding, but I don't share his views. I found his recent comments and lack of apology reprehensible.
Today, I saw that he finally apologized - and for me, just like many other Americans, it was too little too late. There may be Democrats who disagree with me, but I believe Mr. Kerry's comments show how disconnected he and the other Washington politicians really are from reality. Democrats and Republicans alike have to stop the politics of division and gotcha. It's time to take our country back from the Washington politicians of BOTH parties."
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When I first read Larry's statement, I considered that he also might know better, but he was saying this for political reasons. The alternative was to believe that he was either not well informed or he had bought into their spin.
Regardless of which it was, Larry helped them spread their lie of distraction by lending weight to it, and I thought it was ironic that Larry was speaking out for stopping the politics of "gotcha" while he was helping it along.
The real shame here is that at the same time Kerry was making his joke, Bush made a statement during a campaign speech. Bush said that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections would mean that "terrorists win and America loses."
So, here we have Bush saying something incredibly more "reprehensible" than even the worst interpretation of what Kerry said, essentially unapologetically linking votes for Democrats as a victory for terrorists on the same day as Kerry's botched joke.
And which of the two statements did Kissell choose to condemn?
Kerry's of course.
Are these the actions and positions of a "Progressive" candidate?
REFERENCES:
Kerry's Remarks -- IN CONTEXT
Fox News misrepresented Kerry's remarks on "get[ting] stuck in Iraq"
Dobbs misrepresented Kerry's remarks, as CNN ignored AP report supporting Kerry's explanation
Broadcast networks all led with Kerry's "botched joke," entirely ignored Bush's statement that a Democratic victory means "terrorists win and America loses"
Bush Says 'America Loses' Under Democrats
