The One With Aldacron

So the Republicans are all over John Kerry for remarks he made in a recent speech in California:

Then, Mr. Kerry said: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

It’s easy to see how the comment can be misunderstood. Perhaps, taken in context with the other Bush jokes Kerry opened his speech with, the intent may very well have been clear. But the Republicans have been relentlessly attacking him for insulting the education levels of our troops.

I’m sure that at least some of the Republicans believe it was a Bush joke, but they aren’t going to let the public know that. If people believe Kerry was insulting the troops, it surely hurts him and the Democrats. More importantly, it could motivate some conservatives who might have stayed home next Tuesday to get out and vote instead. So they are all over this. But, unlike his reaction to the attacks he sustained in 2004, Kerry is not sitting still or being quiet.

Kerry has lashed out at his Republican critics with more ferocity than I have seen any Democrat display in recent memory:

“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,” Mr. Kerry went on. “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.”

Go, Kerry! I particularly like his characterization of White House Press Secretary Tony Snow as “a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium.”

While I’m enjoying Kerry’s new attitude and beaming at the insults he’s throwing (”Republican hacks” — I love it), there is an underlying issue here that is the primary motivation for all of the negative campaigning we have seen this season. I have a lot to say on that topic, so I’ll save it for another post.

Technorati Tags: John Kerry, Bush, Tony Snow, Rush Limbaugh, Republicans, Democrats, politics