LAT editorial: "Coward" Bush gets away with "slime" in his name

[DeepModem Mom]

September 28, 2004
EDITORIAL
How Dare Kerry Speak Up

The suggestion that terrorists support Sen. John F. Kerry for president is ugly, but basically silly. The suggestion that Kerry supports the terrorists is flat-out disgusting. President Bush has allowed surrogates to spread the former idea, but he himself has helped to promote the latter. Last week, Bush declared that Kerry's criticism of him and his Iraq policy "can embolden an enemy" and called Kerry "destructive" to the war on terror.

Since election day 2000 and through his first term, Bush has talked a better game of democratic values than he has played. And he is not one for nuances in any event. But the point here is not subtle: The right to criticize the policies of those in power is not just one of democracy's fringe benefits; it is essential to making the democratic machinery work. And questions of war and peace — dead young Americans, dead Iraqis, a radicalized Middle East, billions of dollars: Was it worth all this? — are the ones that need democracy the most. Why would any president even wish to plunge this country into war and keep it there without a level of support from the citizenry that is strong enough to survive the obvious counterarguments?...

***

Kerry's position on Iraq is not a model of clarity and consistency. His critique of the Bush policy has the tang of opportunism. But he is more right than wrong, certainly more right than Bush, and in any event more within his rights to make the argument than Bush is in trying to suppress it. And, as with Vietnam, the nation's policy is gradually shifting Kerry's way. Would Bush have made even the halfhearted efforts of recent weeks to share the burden and direction of the war with the United Nations if he hadn't been looking over his shoulder at the Democratic candidate for his job? To accuse Kerry of aiding the enemy while taking his advice is despicable.

Compared with Kerry, George W. Bush is a coward. This is not a reference to their respective activities during Vietnam. It refers to the current election campaign. Bush happily benefits from the slime his supporters are spreading but refuses to take responsibility for it or to call point-blank for it to stop. He got away with this when the prime mover was the shadowy Swift boats group. Will he get away with it when the accusers are his own vice president, high officials of his own administration (Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage) and members of Congress from his own party (House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert or Sen. Orrin Hatch)? The answer is yes: Based on recent experience, he probably will get away with it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-kerry28sep28,1,684193.story

[SoCalDemocrat]

1. Bush supports terrorists and I can prove it

Documented proof that Bush supports terrorists. He supported Ansar Al Islam so he could use them to make his case for war vs. Iraq. Even was in secret negotations with them to potentially use them against Hussen, at the same time he was claiming that Hussein was in league with Ansar Al Islam as an arm of Al Qaeda.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x909236

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Great job, SCD -- nominated!

[Demit]

3. Yes. One candidate treats the troops like little chess pieces and...

the other wants to make sure that, when they are sent to fight, it is for the right reasons.

Which candidate is more supportive of the troops?

[Richardson08]

4. The media is responsible for not taking * to task

[xchrom]

5. bush = the media, the media = bush

they are one and the same.

[Disturbed]

6. Kerry needs to ...

call w a liar and briefly provide proof.

In the debate Kerry needs to call w a coward and state simply and briefly why w is one.

Kerry needs to state why he is the best person to lead this country against, not terrorism but al Q. He needs to point out that it was w and his inept Neo Fascist oil goons that did nothing to prevent the 911 Attacks. It is time that Kerry show his metal as he did in Nam.

[Supersedeas]

7. allowing the surrogates to demonize for the demon himself