"Kerry's Special Friends"

[jpgpenn]

Kerry's Special Friends
By DAVID BROOKS

Published: February 7, 2004



Kerry, John F




ohn Kerry has been railing against the special interests, and I don't think that's very nice because it implies that some people's interests are not so special. I like to think that everybody's interests are special in their own way.

What's more, I think Kerry knows this, because if you look over his long career, you see that he loves all our interests, big and small, near or far. For example, a Chinese businesswoman named Liu Chaoying dreamed of having her company listed on a U.S. stock exchange. That's certainly a special dream.

Maybe as a little girl she would come home from school, gather up her little dollies and tell them about her dream of ringing the bell to start the trading day, or of having little Lucite tombstones on her desk to mark her mergers and acquisitions. Maybe some of the other little girls in school told her she'd never have a company on a U.S. exchange, because you know how cruel little kids can be.

But she had an interest, and to her it was the most specialest interest in the world. And she kept at it. And that cute little girl grew up to become a lieutenant colonel in China's People's Liberation Army, which is a very special army, even measured against the armies of other human rights-violating dictatorships. And what's more, she had a $300,000 bank account with funds supplied by the head of Chinese intelligence, which is certainly quite special indeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/opinion/07BROO.html


read and come to your own conclusion.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I consider David Brooks...

Nothing but a freeper who has been lightly housebroken, with a cocommitent reliance on factual reportage.

Certainly, you can supply better sources than him, can't you? Or can't you?

[jpgpenn]

2. I take it you didn't like the article

:nopity:

[Southsideirish]

20. I bet you thought it was dandy when he skewered Dean, though. n/t

[flpoljunkie]

3. Shrub received almost $300,000 in lobbyist contributions in 2003...

You will never see David Brooks writing about the special interests who own the Bush White House.

Kerry actually received the least amount of lobby money during 2003 of all the candidates--$4,500.

[jpgpenn]

6. Speak more about Kerry and his ...

campaigns push in the last week to seperate himself from special interests and their money going his way. This just brings to light more of the same pattern that is Kerry, he will say one thing and does the complete opposite, be it voting along with *Bush for war or saying he receives NO funds from special interests.

These are deep character issues with this guy. I know our country has had enough of the corruption that has taken over. The last thing we need is to be led by another Washington insider sticking to the status quo!

[flpoljunkie]

33. Wes Clark, former lobbyist, was the establishment's candidate to stop Dean

but that didn't happen when John Kerry won convincing victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Clark has failed to connect with voters, mostly due to his own ineptitude and missteps. Be that as it may, if Clark were to be the nominee of our party, I would readily support his candidacy.

[oasis]

4. David Brooks and PNAC imp, William Kristol are joined at the hip. They

are the brains behind the operation of the conservative, "Weekly Standard".

[Raya]

5. Dupe. Recycled RW slime that Progressive Groups have proven false before

Dupe. Why recycling of old trash used against at least 5 good democratic senators in the past. Same stories about other people who happen to have some connection to congress.

There at least 5 similar threads on the board despite the fact that
Kerry is just about the cleanest most above-board democrat in the
Senate. ADA LCV and other progressive groups that have examimed his record attest to that, yet we here have to circulate RW slime against him.

[jpgpenn]

7. Dupe? please show other post.

[Raya]

8. Stories recycled for years against others than Kerry. Now RW trying

to connect Kerry.

These same stories have been recycled in RW campaigns for years against various honorable Dem candidates.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=285408&mesg_id=285408

[jpgpenn]

9. this is NO, DU "dupe"

[Raya]

16. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&foru

[dsc]

10. Funny how now Kerry supporters have discoved

David Brooks is a right wing hack. He sure wasn't one when he attacked Dean a few weeks ago. I wonder what has changed.

[oasis]

11. Funny how "Kerry supporters" get painted with a broad brush. Brooks has

always been a right wing hack in my book.

[dsc]

12. I posted two different threads, in this forum, on Brook's behavior

one when he called Dean a fake rural person, and another for his comments on Dr. Steinberg. Exactly 0 Kerry supporters said then, what you are saying now. Several told me to stop attacking the messanger (Brooks)

[oasis]

15. You expect Kerry supporters to rush to Dean's defense?

[dsc]

18. Yes especially since I have done so for Kerry

on several occasions. Either Brooks is a liar and not to be trusted or he isn't. He isn't the sage of truth when attacking Dean but a lying scumbag when attacking Kerry. If you want to be taken seriously when you call Brooks a liar then you need to be consistent in doing so. I am. He is a liar now and he was then.

[oasis]

22. We agree then, that Brooks is a liar. What we don't agee on is one's

"duty" to defend another candidate against false accusations.

It is an admirable quality in a person, and to your credit that you do go out of your way to get the record straight. I'll leave it at that.

[dsc]

23. thenyou have no right to call him a liar now

If you were content to let him lie when it suited your purposes then you evidently don't mind lying.

[oasis]

24. If he's a liar, I have a right to call him a liar. Show me where I have

agreed on anything that Brooks has written. Please show me if you can.

[dsc]

25. You just stated that you don't care enough to even point out

when he tells lies you like. Silence equals approval. Thus you approve of his lies when they tell stories you like. Thus you don't really mind lies. You mind lies which tell stories you don't like.

[oasis]

28. I stated that I am not a defender of Howard Dean period. "Silence equals

approval"????.It's not my mission to chase down every thread on the board and challenge the veracity of each statement.

Either show me where I was inconsistent on my appraisal of Brooks or give it a rest.

[dsc]

32. Don't pretend you care about lying.

If you labeled your post Brooks hates Kerry then I wouldn't be saying boo. But you instead said he is a liar. You evidently don't care about that. So why pretend you do.

[jpgpenn]

13. Can you post anything refuting what he wrote?

That would go alot further then to slam the man who wrote it.

[oasis]

19. I always consider the source first. Brooks,a guy who said anti-semites

coined the term "neo-con", is not a credible source of information.

[jpgpenn]

27. so you can't?

[oasis]

30. I'll wait for someone to post the Rush Limbaugh version and do a 2 for 1.

[jpgpenn]

31. if you say so.

:nopity:

[kalian]

14. Excellent point....and notice....

how folks start using the exact same methods as the idiots that
control power.
Any criticism against Kerry is considered and "attack". Kerry's
followers can see no wrong with their candidate...none. He's
perfect.
In the meantime, it was a field day for everybody to blast away
at Dean. Hmmm...very interesting.
Sorry folks...they have selected the candidate for you...another
S&B...enjoy the next 4 years. Same thing with a different look.

[Southsideirish]

21. Yes, its amazingly more tragic when your ox is being gored. (n/t)

[SOS]

17. Enron

is still Bush's #1 lifetime campaign contributor. When will David Brooks write an article on that?

[Uzybone]

26. Brooks is a right wing hack

the same man who called Democrats haters and anti semites. Nice to see your quoting him.

[dsc]

29. Your fellow Kerry supporters showed the way on this

Don't get hollier than thou now.