The Discerning Texan

1. Was he saying if you study hard and make good grades you won't have to go into the military? (thus insulting all those in the military); OR
2. Was he saying (as he now inferrs) that if you study hard and make good grades, you can become a political leader who won't get stuck in Iraq?

I don't think there is any question: Kerry got caught with his guard down and is now spinning an outright lie to try and cover his tracks. Personally I think this kills any hope of Kerry ever getting near another Presidential nomination (if it wasn't dead already).

But even more importantly--in a week where Dems are doing their best to hide their liberal base from the media in order to come across to the public as more "mainstream"--Kerry's remarks highlights the Democrats' general contempt for anything miltary in neon lights, one week before a national election.

Kerry can talk all he wants about his own "service", but everyone knows about his three purple hearts in one month and quick exit from the military, his involvement with Anti-war groups immediately thereafter, and the almost universal disdain that any veteran (past or present) has for Kerry.

Rick Moran pretty much sums up my own feelings about this man and this incident:

When I first read of John Kerry’s remarks holding our troops in Iraq up as an example of what happens if you fail in school, my contempt for the man – already high – passed over into the realm of having the mere mention of his name trigger my gagging reflex. How in the name of all that is good and holy did this man come so close to commanding these very same troops that he has so cavalierly disparaged? And an even more basic question this election season is can’t the Democrats see that Kerry, as their nominee for the highest office in the land in 2004, speaks for them when is quoted thusly?

The contemptuousness that Kerry showed by making those remarks was exceeded by his statement today that, rather than clarifying his remarks or apologizing for them, he hurls the rawest and most shocking invective at Republicans only seen perhaps on the far left websites that the Senator from Massachusetts has been writing for recently:

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.”

Note for the record that Kerry does not even address the subject of his insulting remarks. Rather, he slimes his critics – a classic defense strategy for murderers and rapists but not, one assumes, a United States Senator who ran for President two short years ago.

Those are extremely personal attacks. Rarely does a politician immerse himself so thoroughly in excremental politics by debasing the motives, the honesty, and the honor of his opponents as Kerry did in that short statement. No doubt, the ignoramuses on the left are cheering Kerry on. This, the man who consorted with the enemy during the Viet Nam War, who met with representatives of the Viet Cong and agreed to carry their propaganda water for them here in the United States while that very same enemy was shooting and killing men in uniform that Kerry now pretends to respect.

YOU be the judge (via Allahpundit at Hot Air). Today Kerry tried to spin this--in so many words that "the White House knew I was talking about President Bush's terrible leadership..." and that THEY owe the troops an apology? What say you?