Kerry-McCain Turns Vicious Over Iraq
On the surface, it was just another edition of “Meet the Press” on Sunday, with one prominent Democrat and one prominent Republican caustically bickering over the Iraq war.
If the Democrat gets his way and American troops are redeployed, warned the Republican, “then you will see catastrophe and you will see a lot more loss of American blood and treasure.”
The Republican and his colleagues, the Democrat countered, “have a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship of al-Qaeda to Iraq.”
The arguments were familiar, but there was a catch: The Republican was John McCain and the Democrat was John Kerry. And if Mr. Kerry had gotten his way in 2004, Mr. McCain would now be the Vice President of the United States—serving under President John Kerry.
As yet there is no authoritative account of their communications, but enough versions exist to conclude that after he sewed up the Democratic nomination three years ago, Mr. Kerry—either personally or through an emissary or both—sounded out Mr. McCain about serving as his running-mate, a bipartisan pairing that would have rocked the political world and could well have unseated President Bush. Mr. McCain has since claimed that he shot the idea down promptly, but others have said he egged Mr. Kerry on for months before publicly slamming the door shut.
On Sunday, the idea of there ever having been a partnership seemed laughable.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. McCain sat uncomfortably next to each other, stepping on each other’s lines and swapping sarcastic jabs. Neither bothered to preface his criticism of the other with an expression of personal respect, and there was no good-natured bantering—just tension. They might as well have been Al Gore and James Inhofe debating global warming.
Mr. McCain embraced the President’s call to continue the current mission in Iraq well into the future with only the most limited of troop reductions, while Mr. Kerry shot back that, “the Bush-McCain strategy of escalating our troops in the middle of a civil war has no relationship directly to what you need to do to resolve the civil war.”
Mr. Kerry questioned how General David Petraeus arrived at his conclusion that Iraq is the “central front” of the war on al-Qaeda, prompting Mr. McCain to reply, “Surely you don’t believe that General Petraeus reaches his conclusions by talking to somebody. He lives and works there.”
“I’m quoting what General Petraeus said,” Mr. Kerry replied.
“Oh please,” Mr. McCain fired back.
Their relationship wasn’t this icy until 2004. For two decades before that, the Massachusetts Democrat and the Arizona Republican had plenty of policy disputes, but it was never—ever—personal. Their bond – fellow Vietnam veterans who never quite fit in with the clubby culture of the Senate—trumped partisan politics. In 1990 and 1996, Mr. Kerry found himself in tough re-election campaigns. Defeat would have ended his political career—and his presidential ambitions. National Republicans went for the jugular, but Mr. McCain stayed loyal to his friend and refused to help them.
It’s no wonder, then, that Mr. Kerry felt at ease pursuing Mr. McCain for his Number Two slot. And the idea that Mr. McCain might say yes seemed at least a little plausible back then. After all, he hadn’t forgotten the ugly politics that Mr. Bush had used to deny him the G.O.P. nomination in 2000. And as a celebrated symbol of independence, his addition to the Democratic ticket could easily have flipped a handful of critical states—enough to settle the score with Mr. Bush and give Mr. McCain a chance to shape national policy that, at age 68, might not present itself again. Next Page >
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 46.9
- 43.3
- Obama +3.6
- Candidate
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- 34.4
- +18.2
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- 34.2
- +17.0
Hi fellow New Yorkers..
Kerry is a coward and if he had his way American would have been a target for every hostile country that wanted to take target practice on us.
He is amazing at terrorizing college kids BUT if the kid in Fla. WAS spewing crap like Cindy Sheenan nothing would have been said
Kerry has no respect for the military or any self esteem living off his wife (Republican) money.
Seems the New England senators are either Drunks (killers) or on Drugs (Senator RI) also a KENNEDY or just plain morons like Kerry.
I wonder how a decent man from Connecticut got mixed up with these drunken bum losers.
Joe, seems to be the only democrap with an ounce of dignity . HELLery called NYC police murders and kissed a known terrorists wife(Arafat's) and she looted the white house and HELLery did to medicine what Wild Bill did to Monica
Excellent analysis there, NYCmasterplumber. Your grammar is also top-notch. And "HELLery" - what a brilliant nickname for Hillary Clinton. Truly Shakesperean. And then "democrap" instead of democrat! That's pure genious on so many levels. Your comments clearly display a deep understanding of the critical issues of the day, punctuated by your rapist's wit and intellectual vigor. If you are in fact representative of today's republican party (and I suspect you are), then it is no wonder that your party has served us so well over the past 7 years.
NYCmasterplumber, it is obvious that you hate America and love seeing others die horrible deaths. When I say others I mean not you because I am sure that a stinking coward like you would never to the right thing and enlist and go to Iraq and fight for those values you supposedly believe in. Stop helping your friend Osama bin Laden you traitor. Real Americans are against this war and when I say Real Americans I mean the MAJORITY of Americans. You are in the Osama bin Laden loving minority in our Democratic country and that will be where you stay. Republicans almost destroyed our country when they caused the Great Depression and made friends with the Nazis before World War 2 after which they were in the wilderness for the next 40 years. Now that Republican, Osama bin Laden loving traitors like yourself have tried and failed to destroy America again the MAJORITY of Real Americans will not forgive you again. War crimes trials are coming to convict your leaders, the ones who got us into this illegal war, and the rest of you sheep scum that are too stupid to think for yourselves will be branded the stupid warmongering, death loving trash that you are.
You are just lucky I didn't tell you how I really feel.
I'd be willing to bet that the genius known as NYCmasterplumber never served a second in any branch of the U.S. military, yet he calls a silver star winner a "coward."
Kinda typical.
With his user name perhaps telling us something about himself though, I'll bet he's served plenty of time in toilet stalls like so many of his fascist fops.
What a freakin' moron, seriously. Kerry a coward? When was the last time you won medals in a crappy war, by volunteering for dangerous duty when your family's money could have gotten you out of it? Idiot.
Yeah, your guys are doing so much better with the country. We take our targets over there so they can kill a few thousand of us--in a country that never attacked us. Nice job, Einstein.
I mean, seriously, can ANYBODY be stupid enough to make a statement like the one that Kerry "terrorized college kids"? As if he had anything to do with the Florida campus police? As if he wasn't trying to answer the guy's question, and later said he could've handled it without all that force?
You are pathetic. Seriously. I'm starting to feel bad for even replying at all, because there seems to be some sort of serious deficiency here.
John Kerry has been right about everything regarding this war. He was right to vote for funding under certain conditions, and then, when those promised conditions were not met, to vote against it. He was right about the cost of the war escalating far beyond what Bush was saying it would. He was right to vote for the authorization of force on the basis of intel that was given to him by Bush and agencies answerable to Bush, and when it became known later that this information was fudged and/or false, he was right to turn against the war. You name me something John Kerry was wrong about, when it comes to this war. Go ahead. I dare you. Then name me all the things Bush and Cheney were right about.
Or, hell, just vote for Benito Giuliani. You other guys think Bush was bad, wait until a Giuliani presidency. You think Bush stood on the bodies of the dead to put money in Halliburton's and Hunt's pockets, you just wait.
The last few decades are all filled with "what if's". What if JFK, RFK, MLK, Jr., JFK Jr., Paul Wellstone and others were not assasinated or suffer "random" untimely deaths? What if the Supreme Court did not act as an arm of the GOP in 2000? What if conflict of interest rules precluded Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, both Bush campaign operatives, from shifting the vote counting process in favor of Bush's brother George W. Bush. What if George Herbert Walker Bush's convenient placement and connection to some situations which changed the history of this country over the last few decades more became more widely known by the American public? What is precisely the relationship between the Bush & Clinton's? What was all that drug smuggling and CIA stuff going on in Mena, Arkansas during Bill & Hillary's reign? Al Gore and Kerry/McCain never had an opportunity because powerful forces never wanted it that way. Hillary is now the choice of the elites. The rest is a sideshow. Winners write the history books. America land of the free has an underbelly which has more in common with Banana Republics. So many inconvenient truths. "If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and. lynch us."-- George H.W. Bush to journalist Sarah McClendon, December 1992. Well George maybe someday we will!! McCain has the look of an angry old man who contemplated running with Kerry but who realized that his life would be over unless he played by the rules and waited his turn, even if that turn might never come. Neither RFK or JFK, Jr. was never going to have an opportunity to run for office, nor was Gore ever going to win. The last 8 years happened for a reason.
IRAQ WAR FAUCETS
The American Neo-Con Republican president, George Bush, got elected on the solemn promise that there would be “no nation building”; then, on the pretense of a nuclear threat, he illegally turned on two faucets: out of one flows the American People’s precious wealth, and out of the other faucet flows their priceless blood.
This betrayal of the trust of the American People is a black mark on his name, which can never be erased, will damn him forever in history.