| Spineless Kerry Fudges God, Liberalism |
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March 1, 2004 |
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Listen to Rush...
(…play the tape of Kerry fudging God and his liberalism)
(…play tape of Doris Kearns Goodwin advising Kerry to be liberal and proud)
RUSH: Oh, and this is a good one. John Kerry was asked whether God is on America's side. By the way, Kerry was funny. Before all of the box office ka-ching, ka-ching started with The Passion of the Christ, did you hear Kerry? We must be cautious. We must behave with caution. I would advise caution. To what? About what? For what? Caution for what? Well, the anti-Semitism angle; he was talking about violence. We must be very cautious about endorsing… The guy is so gutless. He won't take a stand on anything, and it's starting to be felt in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party. I'm going to tell you, folks, despite the mainstream press lauding these guys and making them out to be the powers that rule the world, I'm telling you there's real worry in the Democratic Party. |
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Kerry seems to have lost his energy, if he ever had it. They claim he's lost his energy. He's lost his oompff. They're making him look at tapes of three weeks ago to see if he can get his behavior back. He doesn't seem to care about much of anything. He's not exciting, stump speeches put people to sleep. His editorial board meetings put people to sleep and now they're getting worried he can't come out and take a stand on anything. He's got to make sure he's on both sides of every issue. He's portraying himself as a guy with all this courage from the Vietnam War days - and his people are saying, where is this courage? We don't see this courage on the campaign trail. They're really saying this, folks. These are not rumors. I've got the stories here in my stack.
In the meantime this is from the Democrat debate Sunday CBS TV, Dan Rather, New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller, and she says to Kerry, "President Bush has said that freedom and fear have always been at war, and God is not neutral between them, he makes quite clear in his speeches he feels God is on America's side. Really quick, senator, is God on America's side?"
KERRY: God -- look, I think - I believe in God, but I don't believe the way President Bush does in -- in -- in invoking it all the time in that way. I think it is - we pray that God is on our side and we pray hard, and God has been on our side through most of our existence.
 RUSH: Is that weak or is that weak? So paranoid is he to do anything that might agree with Bush that he's got to fudge God. He has to fudge. The question - God is symbolic here, folks, for those of you who hate religion, are threatened by religion, threatened by the existence of a God who might be viewing you behaving rightly or wrongly, get rid of the notion of God. This is a question of right and wrong. Do you think the United States is right? Do you think we are on the side of good? Are we the good guys? This is the question. Are we the good guys, senator? Well, I don't agree with everything Bush says, I -- you know, I -- look, I believe in good. I really do, but I don't believe in good the way President Bush does by invoking it all the time. Sometimes we're bad. Sometimes we're wrong. Sometimes we're bad. We pray to be good but always get there. All this obfuscation. It's nothing more than are we the good guys and he can't even say that. He doesn't even have the courage to say yeah we're the good guys. He doesn't even understand the nature of the question. He's a Democrat, heard the word God and, Oh, no, they're flashing me the cross. Oh, my gosh! Where's my coffin. It's daytime! These guys are just amazing, folks, they're just absolutely amazing. I'm amazed anybody is afraid of these people. |
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And then, after fudging and waffling on God and whether or not we're the good ones, Kerry then had the audacity to deny that he's a liberal and went on to say that labels are silly and then he got a little testy. Again the reporter is Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, and she said, "Can I just change the topic for a minute, just ask a plain political question?" She was getting frustrated she wasn't getting any answers. "The National Journal, a respected, non-ideological publication covering Congress, as you both know, has just rated you, Senator Kerry, number one, the most liberal senator in the Senate. [And then over to Edwards] You're number four [fruitcake]. How can you hope to win with this kind of characterization, in this climate?
KERRY: It's absolutely the most ridiculous thing I've ever --
REPORTER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Let me just --
REPORTER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Please come to the characterization.
RUSH: Stop the tape! Stop the tape and recue this. Embodied in the just the answer I've let you hear so far is everything I have ever told you about these people. Will not admit it, he's the number one liberal voting record in the Senate. There's no question he's a liberal. He's proud to be a liberal, but he will not admit it, not even in New York. He's in Mecca! He's in liberal Mecca, ladies and gentlemen, and he won't admit it. He's with a New York Times reporter who's also a liberal. He won't admit it. He's with Dan Rather who thinks he's a liberal. If you think you are, you are, and he won't admit it. He's got to obfuscate that. They are so paranoid of being labeled liberals because they know what it does to them. Nobody wants to elect a liberal to run this country that's why he's so paranoid he's voting record is going to be accurately portrayed. And, by the way, just so you know about this thing. The National Journal does do the rating, but you know who invented it? I'm going to s tun you people. You know who invented this system for tracking the most liberal and most conservative members of the Senate, the House, the votes? Bill Schneider, the political scientist. Bill Schneider back when he was just a lowly political scientist someplace before he got the CNN gig, came up with this. It is Bill Schneider's rating system, and it appears in the National Journal, but the guy who was wearing a dead animal on his head up in New Hampshire during the primaries - old Bill, it's his system. He's a liberal. |
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Okay, so Elizabeth Bumiller wants to know of Kerry, "Are you a liberal, just a straight political question. Are you a liberal? And can you hope to win with this kind of characterization in this climate?"
KERRY: Because it's a laughable characterization, it's absolutely the most ridiculous thing...
BUMILLER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Let me just --
BUMILLER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Please come to the characterization. I mean, look, labels are so silly in American politics. I was one of the first Democrats in the United States Senate in 1985 to join with Fritz Hollings in deficit reduction. Now, does that make me a conservative? I fought to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America. Am I conservative?
BUMILLER: But Senator Kerry, the question is --
KERRY: You've got to let us finish answering questions.
BUMILLER: You're in New York.
KERRY: I'm going to fight for it.
 RUSH: She's telling him, you're in New York, admit it. Admit it. You're in New York, senator. She's trying to prompt him. He's arguing about all…he's trying to convince here he's not a liberal. She's part of his team. She's in The New York Times. They endorsed him! He still won't admit it. Now, folks, this business about deficit reduction with Fritz Hollings, that doesn't make you a conservative. It's how you do it that determines whether you're conservative or liberal. Fritz Hollings isn't a conservative, either, but he's a guy that ran the Confederate flag up the flagpole when he was governor of South Carolina. 100,000 cops, does that make me conservative? He wants to be thought of as a conservative, folks. He wants to be thought of as a conservative in New York in a Democrat primary with two liberal journalists begging him to say it. He says labels are silly. But he'll be the first to use fringe right-wing to describe people, won't he?
COMMERCIAL BREAK |
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Yeah, this is our favorite quote. We've got to keep this one handy. This is going to serve us well throughout the campaign. Set audio sound bite number 8 aside. By the way, this next one, not going to set it aside but it sort of dovetails. Doris Kearns Goodwin starts wining that John Kerry should be proud to be a liberal, should be proud to be from Massachusetts. She was on Meet the Depressed in the roundtable discussion and Russert played a tape of the Breck Girl saying that, "By the way, today I've got a message for somebody in Washington and that message is this, not so fast George Bush you don't get to decide who our nominee is and you don't get to decide what our election is about." And Russert says, "Butt out, is what Edwards is saying to Bush. Does that work, Doris Kearns Goodwin?"
 KEARNS GOODWIN: I think Edwards probably will eventually, whether this week or next week, gracefully go, knowing that he's made a great contribution and created a star power for himself. But I think that what's not going to work for Geroge Bush this time is that "senator from Massachusetts stuff." As long as Kerry, if he is the nominee, can be proud - why not be proud of being from Massachusetts? Three Johns for president, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Kennedy. We are the only state that they used to condemn us for, that voted for McGovern. I think I would have rather had McGovern than an almost impeachable Nixon there. So I think there's a lot of pride, of civil liberties, of civil rights, the abolitionists started there, cradle of liberty was there, the Red Sox, the Patriots. Just be proud of being from Massachusetts.
RUSH: Somebody in the Kerry campaign needs to hire her and put her in charge of the campaign right now. I mean from our perspective that would be one of the best moves possible. You want him to start being proud of Massachusetts, let me give you two words, Doris: Gay marriage. Well, Ted Kennedy, too, but Ted Kennedy is such a Jurassic figure these days. Gay marriage. I am proud to say that I am from Massachusetts. Do you support gay marriage? I believe in marriage. I've always believed in the san…What about gay marriage? Well, you didn't let me finish. Gay marriage. And, by the way, they're now banging on the door in New York at Bloomberg's office and they want to get married in New York now. Passion of the Christ, anyone? |
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Read the Article... |
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Headline: Double Your Trouble
Subhead: Why is John Kerry so nervous about Edwards and Clinton?
Source: American Spectator
Dateline: March 1, 2004
By: The Prowler
Through intermediaries, Sen. John Kerry has been reaching out to the two people who pose the biggest threat to his winning the Democratic presidential nominee: Sen. John Edwards and former President Bill Clinton. "Neither of them seem interested in talking," says a Kerry campaign adviser in Washington.
According to several Kerry campaign sources, senior campaign advisers such as uber-adviser Bob Shrum have reached out to Edwards seeking guidance on what the North Carolinian intends to do after Super Tuesday. Most polls have Edwards lagging, and it is doubtful he will make a big enough splash to remain competitive going into next week's Southern swing.
"We'd like him out sooner rather than later," says another Kerry adviser. "We'd like to have the South all to our selves. Edwards' decision could impact his future down the road."
By that, he means Edwards' chances at the vice presidential nomination. While it has not been discussed, for several days now, Kerry advisers have been dangling that prize out there to reporters in hopes of drawing Edwards into a conversation about quitting the race Wednesday morning.
But Edwards has not budged, and his advisers remain focused on causing some trouble for Kerry down South next week. "Our boss has stated from the beginning he is running for president, not vice president," says an Edwards adviser in North Carolina. "If the Kerry people are talking, we're not listening. It's obvious to us that Kerry doesn't respect us or our man very much."
In several debates, Kerry has been unable to contain his open hostility toward Edwards. While not at the level of Al Gore's eye-rolling, loud-breathing performances in 2000, it has bordered on patronizing contempt. It has also raised questions as to whether Kerry could co-exist with Edwards on the ticket.
"Kerry would do anything to win. If that means Edwards, that is what he will do. Look at his career, his record. The man is a pragmatist," says an Edwards adviser. "He knows he needs us whether it be to step aside, or for balance on the ticket down south. Either way, he is going to have to humble himself some way to get what he wants."
THE EDWARDS CONUNDRUM pales next to the one caused by the other man who has not been returning many of Kerry's calls: Bill Clinton.
The ex-president has been strangely silent on the primary playout over the past few weeks, leading some DNC insiders to fear there is a bombshell Clinton is about to drop, and it is blonde and ambitious.
"Everyone is looking at Hillary and wondering what the hell is going on," says a DNC insider. "It has been way too quiet and people in Kerry's camp are getting nervous."
The nervousness is in part rooted in the nomination process of the Democratic Party. For Kerry to win the nomination, he must have 2,162 delegate votes. He can get that number through any combination of regular delegates (those pledged to a candidate through the primary and caucus process) and superdelegates.
Currently, Kerry leads Edwards in the delegate count, 685 to 201. It is difficult to track superdelegate counts, in part because they are not bound to any candidate up until they begin casting ballots in Boston this summer. Super delegates are made up mostly of high-ranking Democratic Party leaders, including governors, Senators, congressmen, past U.S. Presidents and vice presidents, party chairmen, etc.
And this is what makes Kerry uneasy. Superdelegates are not bound to vote for the candidate who wins a primary or caucus in their respective states. They also can change their mind as often as they like before they cast their vote in Boston. In all, there will be 802 superdelegates in play for the nomination (including both Clintons), and should Kerry enter the convention without a clear and large majority of the bound delegates for the nomination, there are concerns that a bitter battle for the nomination may erupt.
"If Edwards has enough delegates to deny Kerry the necessary votes for the nomination, because Kerry fails to line up the superdelegates he needs, things could get interesting," says a DNC staffer. "At that point, in late spring, early summer, there is nothing that says Bill and Hillary could not emerge and put her name in play as either a presidential nominee or for the vice presidency, particularly if she can muster superdelegate votes."
All of this would have to happen on ballots called after the initial ballot in the convention, and it's a possibility the Kerry camp is aware of. That is one reason Kerry's people are pushing Edwards to quit after Super Tuesday. "We don't want him getting any more delegates after Super Tuesday. We don't need his count going up," says a Kerry adviser in Washington.
NEITHER BILL OR HILLARY HAS given any indication she is mulling stepping into the fray, though DNC types have for a month now been attaching her name to polls to test the appeal of various presidential tickets. There are many who believe a Kerry-Clinton ticket would be untenable for a number of reasons, not least because Kerry would likely end up ceding far too much to the Clintons in return for putting her on the ticket.
But it is also believed by many that if Kerry continues to do well in the polls against President Bush, Senator Clinton at the least would have to make a push for the vice presidency.
"She may not want to be vice president, but she won't have a choice," says a DNC fundraiser. "If Kerry has a legitimate shot at winning, she risks losing her window to run for president to someone else who is on the bottom of the ticket. If the Kerry-Clinton ticket loses, no biggie, she goes back to the Senate and is the frontrunner for 2008. If they win, she's locked in as the presidential nominee in 2012."
According to a Kerry source, the primary season has been in such a state of flux, that it is one reason Clinton has refused to publicly show approval for any candidate, even his hand-picked stalking horse, Wesley Clark. Kerry entreaties to have the president step forward after Super Tuesday to show some level of support for Kerry have thus far gone unanswered.
"The silence on this question has been deafening," says a Kerry adviser. "We know Clinton has told reporters that he has provided advice to us, but that simply isn't true. We have not sought much input from him, if only because of the 800-pound gorilla in the room. His wife." |
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