White House spokesman slams Kerry remark

Well Well Well some balls at last, play the game they are so good at.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The White House accused Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday of troop-bashing, seizing on a comment the Democrat made to California students that those unable to navigate the country's education system "get stuck in Iraq."

Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who've given their lives in this," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "This is an absolute insult."

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran and President Bush's 2004 rival, fired back.

He said he had been criticizing Bush, not the "heroes serving in Iraq," and said the president and his administration are the ones who owe U.S. troops an apology because they "misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it."

"This is the classic GOP playbook," Kerry said in a harshly worded statement. "I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium."

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Kerry: Republicans are 'afraid to debate real men'

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday October 31, 2006


Former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-MA) lashed out in a response today, claiming that right-wingers are "desperately distorting" his comments about President George W. Bush to "divert attention from their disastrous record."

Kerry seems to be responding in particular to a demand from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow that Kerry apologize for earlier saying at a rally that people who don't do well in school "get stuck in Iraq."

Though Kerry insists the comment was directed at Bush, critics have interpreted it as an insult to US troops. A CNN video of conservative responses may be viewed at the bottom of the page.

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq," states Kerry, "and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy.

"I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did," the statement continues.

"I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq," rails Kerry, in the statement. "It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have."

Kerry asserts that it is the President and Vice President Cheney who owe troops an apology for misleading the country into war, saying they have "widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it."

"These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor," the statement continues. "Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions."

He concludes, "No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq."

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