Cheney Calls Kerry Unfit

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52527-2004Sep1.html

Cheney Calls Kerry Unfit
Democrat Joins Vice President in Barrage Against Challenger

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A01

NEW YORK, Sept. 1 -- Vice President Cheney reached back decades into John F. Kerry's life Wednesday night, arguing in taunting language that the Democratic presidential nominee has demonstrated through his public statements and votes that he is unfit to be commander in chief in an age of terrorism.

"History has shown that a strong and purposeful America is vital to preserving freedom and keeping us safe -- yet time and again Senator Kerry has made the wrong call on national security," Cheney told the Republican National Convention, on a night when President Bush arrived in the city to prepare for his address Thursday.

Reciting a litany of what he called misguided actions over the years by Kerry, Cheney started with a comment the Democrat made while in his twenties, saying that he wanted U.S. service members deployed "only at the directive of the United Nations," and ended with his recent comment that he would be "more sensitive" to the concerns of allies in the war against terrorism.

Democrat Zell Miller of Georgia, who abandoned his party to give the Republican keynote address, used the same themes to deliver a bristling attack on Kerry. His voice booming and his face twisted into a countenance of contempt and anger, the senator said that "Kerry would let Paris decide when America need defending; I want Bush to decide." <snip>