John Kerry is a Hypocrite!

John Kerry and Jack Reed


Although I've already discussed the Dems' lame response to President Bush's speech at the Naval Academy, I want to focus specifically on John Kerry.

When I heard his comments yesterday, and again this morning, I was absolutely disgusted.

John Kerry charged Bush with falsely trying to suggest that Democrats want to set an artificial date for a pullout. Kerry insisted that was not true.

He claimed that Dems were not talking about a specific timetable for troop withdrawal -- no artificial, arbitrary date for a pullout. Instead the nuanced Dems want an "estimated timetable for success."

Kerry said, "What it did on the Democratic side seek to do was set an estimated timetable for success, which will permit the withdrawal of our troops. Everything that we have presented has been presented on the basis of how you succeed."

John Kerry is a liar and a hypocrite.

I've received at least two e-mails from him pushing his petition to bring "20,000 troops home over the holidays." (Of course, he also asks for campaign contributions.)

On his website, his petition demands:

The draw down of troops should be tied not to an arbitrary timetable, but to a specific timetable for transfer of political and security responsibility to Iraqis and realignment of our troop deployment. That timetable must be real and strict. The goal should be to withdraw the bulk of American combat forces by the end of 2006.

If George W. Bush refuses to produce a concrete plan for Iraq, then, at the start of 2006, we will demand that Congress acts to take the decision out of his hands. And, if the Republican Congress fails to call the Bush administration to account, we will use the 2006 elections to take the decision out of their hands. We won't stop until we succeed.

Kerry is NOT asking for an "estimated timetable for success." Kerry SPECIFICALLY asks for a "specific timetable for transfer of political and security responsibility to Iraqis and realignment of our troop deployment."

Yesterday, Gary Hart took time off from his Monkey Business romps to write an e-mail shilling for Kerry.



Hart wrote:

Dear Mary,

"The public trust must be earned, and speaking clearly, candidly and forcefully now about the mess in Iraq is the place to begin."

I wrote those words in August in The Washington Post to call on Democratic Party leaders to step forward on Iraq. My years in the Senate and as co-chair of the Bipartisan Commission on National Security had convinced me that, unless Democrats provided real leadership, Americans would never receive the honest and open debate about Iraq that our country deserves.

When I first read John Kerry's October speech on Iraq, I knew it was a turning point. He spoke with the same unwavering voice - truth speaking to power - as he did when I first heard him speak out about the war in Vietnam in 1971. John Kerry got it right last month when he said, "Asking tough questions isn't pessimism; it's patriotism" and then answered those questions by offering a detailed plan to get the troops home.

In recent weeks, Democratic leaders across America - Jack Murtha, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Pat Leahy, John Edwards and Barack Obama - have questioned the Bush Administration's unfocused "stay as long as it takes" approach. Democrats have joined together to offer substantive alternatives to get it right in Iraq and made it clear that our conscience and conviction lie with taking care of our troops.

The grassroots community at johnkerry.com has played a critical role making sure these ideas are heard and that brave Democrats are protected against the inevitable Republican attacks.

When John Kerry called for the withdrawal of 20,000 troops over the holidays, and the majority of remaining combat troops by the end of 2006, linking bringing troops home to clear benchmarks, you added energy and passion to that initiative.

When John Kerry called for accelerated training of Iraqi troops, greater international involvement, and improved reconstruction efforts, you amplified his voice.

Now, because of your efforts and those of all these Democratic leaders, make no mistake: the wheel has turned in the national debate over the war in Iraq. The American people have responded to the tough questions we've been asking because they had the same ones. The result is that the Bush Administration is being forced to engage in something they've gone to great lengths to avoid: an open debate about the war in Iraq.

We should all be proud of what has been accomplished, but never complacent. Asking questions and debating the issues alone will not rectify this disastrous situation exacerbated by the endless stream of Administration failures. You have to demand answers. You have to demand results for our troops.

That means making sure the intensity of your grassroots effort doesn't fade over the holidays. Our troops don't have the luxury of taking it easy over the holidays, and neither do we.

We have to continue to speak out - on talk radio, in letters to the editor, and to our neighbors - to demand an Administration strategy to get our troops home...

Sincerely,

Gary Hart

The message ends with that familiar red bar, urging the faithful to make contributions to John Kerry.



I received that e-mail yesterday morning, shortly before Kerry and Jack Reed held their press conference to spin that Dems were not demanding any concrete timetables.

Kerry's remarks to the press were a denial of his previous comments about troop withdrawal.

Hart proudly pointed out that "John Kerry called for the withdrawal of 20,000 troops over the holidays, and the majority of remaining combat troops by the end of 2006, linking bringing troops home to clear benchmarks..."

THERE IS NOTHING "ESTIMATED" ABOUT THIS.

"CLEAR BENCHMARKS" ARE SPECIFIC.

What Kerry said yesterday about an "estimated timetable for success" is a flat out lie.

It's black and white. There is nothing nuanced about it. Without question, Kerry lied. He intentionally sought to mislead the American people.

The lib media should be considered complicit in his hypocrisy and lies. They failed to draw attention to Kerry's deception. This is because they are engaged in the same deceit.