New Bush Ad Assails Kerry on Iraq Vote

[wicket]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20040316/ap_on_el_pr/bush_ads

Ratcheting up his criticism of John Kerry, President Bush accuses his Democratic rival of voting against American troops in a new television ad that begins airing Tuesday.

"Few votes in Congress are as important as funding our troops at war. Though John Kerry voted in October 2002 for military action in Iraq, he later voted against funding our soldiers," the ad says.

The 30-second ad labels Kerry "wrong on defense" and claims that the Massachusetts senator did not support bills that would have ensured troops had body armor and earned higher combat pay, and would have given reservists and their families better health care.

Bush, on the air only two weeks, released commercials last week in 18 states that claim Kerry's economic and national security policies are flawed.

The new ad will initially run in West Virginia to highlight Kerry's "wrong choices when it comes to giving our troops the resources they need to be successful in Iraq," said Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager.
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There is a whiff of desperation in the air!!!

[RichV]

1. Good Lord

Do these people have a calendar? It's almost 8 months until election day. I guess the strategy is to shape public perception of Kerry before he gets a chance to do it himself. Still, these attacks are going to be very stale by fall when they need them to be effective.

[wicket]

2. Strategy

I guess the strategy is to shape public perception of Kerry before he gets a chance to do it himself.

Excellent point, I think that is EXACTLY what the Bushies are trying to do.

[Democat]

3. Kerry had better start hitting Bush even harder

He can't let Bush attack him without attacking Bush harder.

[Voltaire99]

11. Would be nice. However...

Yes, he needs to one-up Bush on the defense issue - come out swinging about the lies and the waste of life they've brought in Iraq.

Kerry, however, is compromised by the warrior-liberal thinking behind his Iraq position. Besides being little different in effect from Bush's position (i.e., the US remains in Iraq under either man), it leaves him vulnerable to the charge of "not supporting our trooops."

Kerry needs to evolve to a smarter position on Iraq - and fast.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Kerry's been ready for this one for a long time

this is too easy. Of course Bush was allowing 20 billion of it to be unaccounted for (Halliburton et al...), it's just a matter of explaining that fact. Bush giving away money to his overcharging buddies under the cover of supporting the troops.

I think it's time for the AWOL stick again.

[tlcandie]

17. $9 million or so went to the FTAA military installation in Florida!

Let his show pictures of what was done in * name and in the troops' names regarding protestors against the FTAA in Florida!

Titled, "THE MIAMI MODEL"
Paramilitaries, Embedded Journalists and Illegal Protests.
Think This is Iraq? It's Your Country



http://www.democracynow.org/static/miamimodel.shtml

<snip>
But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague from Democracy Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I was lucky to end up on the "safe" side of the street. Ana was in the melee. As she did her job - videotaping the action - Ana was wearing her press credentials in plain sight. As the police began handcuffing people, Ana told them she was a journalist. One of the officers said, "She's not with us, she's not with us," meaning that although Ana was clearly a journalist, she was not the friendly type. She was not embedded with the police and therefore had to be arrested.

In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her clothes because they were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her to strip naked in front of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and others protesting Ana's arrest and detention, she was held in a cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am. She was only released after I posted a $500 bond. Other independent journalists remained locked up for much longer and face serious charges, some of them felonies. In the end, Ana was charged with "failure to disperse."

The real crime seems to be "failure to embed."
<snip>

[tinrobot]

34. What a hypocrite

The 30-second ad labels Kerry "wrong on defense" and claims that the Massachusetts senator did not support bills that would have ensured troops had body armor and earned higher combat pay, and would have given reservists and their families better health care.

This is coming from the same man who cut veterans benefits the same day he announced 'Mission Accomplished'

This is also from the man who in august of 2003 tried to cut the pay of solders already in Iraq

I am totally convinced that the Bushies know full well that Bush is weak on these issues so they try and pin them on Kerry first so he can't use them.

A$$clowns.

[tobius]

5. could be a response to this

As president, I will fight the special interests, not coddle them, and I will make sure that no American soldier ever goes without the equipment they need to do their job.” – John Kerry.... http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2003_1212a.html
....$61 million would provide funding to purchase more than 40,000 sets of body armor ($1500 each). John Kerry has introduced legislation requiring the Department of Defense to reimburse family members who paid money out of their own pockets to provide the personal body armor that the government failed to deliver.

[maggrwaggr]

6. yes, MSGOP showed it without rebuttal this morning

I kept thinking "okay, where's the Kerry ad?" There wasn't one.

Great way to start my morning. Ugh.

[Malva Zebrina]

7. They had better get on it immediately and make it good.

I am angry that this idiot of a warmongering coward takes every opportunity to lie to the people and a lot of it paid for by we the people. I am angry at the phoniness of the entire government. I just watched Carville addressing the Firefighters in a passionate speech.

He said --to paraphrase--if the people cannot trust their party to stick up for themselves they will not trust their party to run the country.

[gasperc]

8. oh, so that's what the $87 billion was about? vote for it or I'll use it

against you? Which is legit but that piece of shit legislation was so fucked up it'll be a cake walk to blast it

[rocktivity]

9. As your colleague Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, BIG mistake.

A) As your commercial was forced to admit, Kerry voted FOR your invasion. More to the point,

B) You've just opened the door for Kerry to attack you on Halliburton. Didn't I read something this very morning about a Halliburton subcontractor threatening to cut off food to the soldiers until their bills were paid? Oh, yes, here it is...

C) I am now off to to a DU search on Halliburton which I will be sending off to the Kerry camp.

:headbang:
rocknation

[tobius]

21. no bid contracts have been around for a while to

expedite miltary logistics.


July 14, 2003, by Byron York
Continued from page 3
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1282/13_55/104538161/p4/article.jhtml?term=

The first LOGCAP was awarded in 1992, as the first Bush administration (including then-Secretary of Defense Cheney) was leaving office. Four companies competed, and the winner was Brown & Root, as it was known at the time (Halliburton changed the name to Kellogg Brown & Root after an acquisition in 1998). The multi-year contract was in effect during much of the Clinton administration. During those years, Brown & Root did extensive work for the Army under the LOGCAP contract in Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia; contract workers built base camps and provided troops with electrical power, food, and other necessities. In 1997, when LOGCAP was again put up for bid, Halliburton/Brown & Root lost the competition to another contractor, Dyncorp. But the Clinton Defense Department, rather than switch from Halliburton to Dyncorp, elected to award a separate, sole-source contract to Halliburton/Brown & Root to continue its work in the Balkans. According to a later GAO study, the Army made the choice because 1) Brown & Root had already acquired extensive knowledge of how to work in the area; 2) the company "had demonstrated the ability to support the operation"; and 3) changing contractors would have been costly. The Army's sole-source Bosnia contract with Brown & Root lasted until 1999. At that time, the Clinton Defense Department conducted full-scale competitive bidding for a new contract. The winner was . . . Halliburton/Brown & Root. The company continued its work in Bosnia uninterrupted.

That work received favorable notices throughout the Clinton administration. For example, Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review mentioned Halliburton's performance in its Report on Reinventing the Department of Defense, issued in September 1996. In a section titled "Outsourcing of Logistics Allows Combat Troops to Stick to Basics," Gore's reinventing-government team favorably mentioned LOGCAP, the cost-plus-award system, and Brown & Root, which the report said provided "basic life support services-food, water, sanitation, shelter, and laundry; and the full realm of logistics services- transportation, electrical, hazardous materials collection and disposal, fuel delivery, airfield and seaport operations, and road maintenance."

[rocktivity]

29. How many no bid contractors have direct ties the VP of the US?

:headbang:
rocknation

[tobius]

35. the no bid process was continued and would have if gore was

president. nothing was changed, brown and root went thru the process and when private companies are needed there is not time to start a fresh search for companies who have the manpower and expertise in times of war. do you have a suggestion for a better way?
how does cheney benefit?

[bluestateguy]

10. I just saw the ad

I noticed the ad does not cite the specific votes. Usually ads do that, though I don't know if people will care. Kerry needs a rapid response up ASAP.

[MercutioATC]

12. I saw this coming months ago...it's a problem.

Try to justify voting for a war you now say you're against while voting against money for the troops you now say you support...

It might not be a fair assessment, but it's great spin and it'll resonate with the "average" American. Kerry has major issues with this, NCLB, and the Patriot Act votes. He's the apparent nominee, and as such I hope he gets past these issues, but he's made things difficult for himself by voting with the pack instead of voting on principle.

[Democat]

15. If he would have voted against the war it would be worse

He wouldn't even be in the race.

Americans were not ready to support a candidate to didn't vote for the Iraq war. That might be unfair, but it's the fact.

[MercutioATC]

20. Fine, let him deal with the dichotomy, then.

I disagree about the IWR vote, by the way. I think it shows a lack of continuity to vote for the IWR, speak out against the war, and then vote against the $87B funding package. At least he'd have shown consistancy if he's have started by voting on principle, instead of voting solely for political gain.

[Democat]

13. It's unfortunate that Kerry will have to spend so much money responding

The Republican plan will be to run bunches of negative ads, so Kerry has to waste his money responding to attacks.

The one thing Kerry can never do is let the American people forget that it is Bush who is running the negative campaign.

We've already seen the right wing media slamming Kerry while trying to paint him as a "negative" campaigner and Bush as a positive one.

Kerry can not let this stick.

Now we will find out of the Democratic Party is really smart enough and tough enough to win. After 2002, it's an open question.

[Dr Fate]

14. Kerry should say: "Bush assured us we were ready for war..."

"...what I want to know is why we sent troops off to war w/o proper equipment in the 1st place? Where is Bush's accountability on this?"

[KittyWampus]

22. Thank You! How The HELL Did Those Troops Leave UNEQUIPPED?

Why is Halliburton collecting money for food never delivered?

Why is the hospital in Kuwait well funded but the one in Iraq not?

Key word: ACCOUNTABILITY

[Bandit]

41. The trouble with that one is the old meme "It's Clinton's fault"

When the military is without something it is Clinton's fault but when they win overwhelmingly it is Bush* the great protector that made it so.

[Dr Fate]

43. Simple Answer: "But Clinton did not go into Iraq, Bush did...

...and Bush should have known if we were prepared or not, and he should have been straight w/ the American people on what the costs were going to be...etc,etc..."

[wicket]

16. Update

John Kerry's website Dbunker is on the case - http://blog.johnkerry.com/dbunker/archives/001388.html#001388

[Lorien]

18. Joe sixpack

isn't going to Kerry's website. He'd better get his own ad on the air pronto.

[wicket]

19. good point

Let's hope Kerry responds really soon! Notice how the article didn't even contact Kerry for his response, it only said that he is campaigning, bleh!

[Calico Jack Rackham]

24. Dr. Fate brings up the most...

relevent point. When I was getting out of the Marines in Nov. of 2000 we had already begun fielding some units with the Interceptor body armor and SAPI plates. Now the common wisdom being that if the marines start getting this type of gear then the most of the Army already has it.

Kerry should point out why troops were being sent off to fight without being issued lifesaving gear, that had begun being issued under Clinton.That should take some wind out of Mr. "Strong on Defense" Chimpanzee.

[wicket]

25. exactly!

The troops should never been sent there in the first place without the proper gear, this is going to backfire on Bush!

[Carolina]

36. exactly a website ain't crap

when the war is fought on TV.

[bluestateguy]

23. That's fine

That's a start, but I hope they realize that response requires more than a website update. Most Americans do not get their news from from the Internet. His ad boys had better be working on something good right now.

[wicket]

26. I'm sure they are

They've been so quick to respond to Bush's other malicious (and false) attacks.

[pfitz59]

27. Kerry should call for war-profiteering hearings!

Similar to the Truman hearings of the '40's. Make the BFEE account for expenditures! Simple, straight-forward and immensely popular. Kerry has the most excellent rebuttal at his finger-tips. Is he ready to open that door?

[kodi]

28. simply put: if he won't defend himself, how will he defend america?

kerry has to attack each and every time he is attacked by the busheviks.

actually this attack by bush is easy to counter.

"when george bush wanted to cut combat pay for our troops fighting in the field, i stood up and said NO!"

when george bush wanted to cut back sorely needed health care to our sick and wounded combat veterans, i stood up and said NO!"

"when george bush tried to transfer funds away from properly equiping our brave fighting soldiers just to line the pockets of his vice president's corporate paymaster, i stood up and said hell NO!"

he might also point out that of the 8,000 US armed forces humvees in iraq, less than 200 had any armor when bush started his war, and now one year since the start of the war ONLY 2,000 ARE NOW AND THE DEFENSE DEPT HAS REQUESTED NO MORE, but that ALL halliburton's corporate humvees in iraq are armored, paid for with US tax dollars.

[TheDonkey]

30. Kerry has no money! $$$$

Donate to his campaign and hear his response.

He does respond quickly in press releases and speeches BUT those are being ignored by the media. He needs more commericals like the commander and chimp. He needs money for those commercials.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

39. You're kidding, right? Kerry has a lot more money backing his campaign...

...than most people think. Some of it is coming from the major conservative corporations that have grown to realize that Junior is hurting America's economy.

[freeforall]

44. I would love to donate

but, being Canadian, I can't. However, as I good neighbour, I urge all of you to contribute whatever you can to Kerry's campaign.

This matters to us all!

He needs to hit back hard at * and commercials are a good way to do it.

[JPace]

31. Just watched AWOL's attack ad stating John Kerry voted

against armor and payraises for the troops. The
response they showed from Kerry was him stating
that he voted against money for Iraq because he
wanted it to come out of the tax cuts for the rich.

It was not a good enough response in my opinion.
What is left on peoples mind is that Kerry did not
deny voting against armor for the troops.

Kerry is not fighting hard enough on this....his team
needs to hit AWOL back hard with something or he is
going to slip in the polls.

[Democat]

32. That's a horrible response

He voted against "protecting our troops" because he wanted to punish rich people?

I hope the way you posted it is not the way he said it.

[Gothic Sponge]

33. The big problem is

We know this Bush ad is false... The sheep of America don't.

[freeminder]

38. I sure hope the response was out of context

I was thinking, Kerry must have had a logical reason to not support the bill. I sure hope "it must come out of a tax increase on the rich" was only PART of his answer, and hope there was some context around that (which may be... ummm... intentionally left out...by media whores...naw), such as the no-bid contracts.

I stayed out of GD2004 for most of the time...somebody enlighten us ?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

40. Oh, please.

[Carolina]

37. desperation, yes

but 8 months of negative ads will wear anyone down and without immediate on-the-air rebuttal, refutation, some people will start to believe the crap.

This is one reason, among so many, why a contracted primary season and early selection of a candidate was a stupid move by the DNC. We've lost the chorus of voices pointing out all that is wrong with the administration and having that be front and center in the news cycle. Now it's all about Bush ads which get free replaying ad nauseum by so-called analysts on news and talk shows.

Meanwhile WE'RE put in a position of being where Democrats always seem to be: ON THE DEFENSIVE!

[ashling]

42. Does the Bush crowd

really believe this stuff? I mean, you'd have to be a
@#$% moron . . . oops, nevermind.

:shrug:

[LiberalFighter]

45. West Virginia?

They must be desperate to spend time in WV. WV has 5 electoral votes.

Their strategy must require WV to be in their column in order to win the election. Anytime the campaign starts this early it would have to indicate trouble. Just like the numerous appearances by gw* in Ohio also indicates trouble for gw*.


Another issue are the campaign contributions fo gw*. Would the money all have to be used by the time that the general election begins? And not be used for the general election?