Kerry’s Was Harsher by Far

[kerrygoddess]

Kerry’s Was Harsher by Far
September 19th, 2005

Whatever the fascination with the MSM today was with the fact that Kerry and Edwards both gave speeches yesterday assailing Bush, is beyond me. Instead of reporters reporting on each of the stories, it seemed as though there was a race to team them up again, or to pit them against each other. No need to do either, in my opinion. They are each making their own mark in their own ways, and saying things that Americans long to hear.

The WaPo has an interesting assessment of both speeches yesterday, noting that “Kerry’s was harsher by far”. Here’s a couple of quips:

President Bush came under withering criticism for his handling of Hurricane Katrina yesterday, with Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) charging that the storm exposed the administration’s incompetence and ideological blinders and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) asserting that even in its response, the administration backs policies that support the privileged over the working poor.

Of the speeches delivered yesterday by the Democrats’ 2004 ticket, Kerry’s was harsher by far, and it drew a sharp rebuttal from the Republican National Committee’s Tracey Schmitt.

Dan Balz of the WaPo notes that Kerry and Edwards speeches “followed pointed comments along the same lines by former president Bill Clinton, who criticized the administration’s response to the storm Sunday” on ABC’s “This Week.” Was Balz inferring that Kerry and Edwards were following Clintons lead? Hardly…

CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch points out that “while at first blush these speeches might appear to be a coordinated Democratic attack on the President, the former running mates and their staffs engaged in a bit of jockeying for attention to their remarks.”

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=612

[whometense]

1. Jill Lawrence in USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-21-war-on-poverty_x.htm?csp=34

...Edwards, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry are among the Democrats pressing to turn Katrina into a pivotal moment. "Will we be satisfied to only do the immediate: care for the victims and rebuild the city?" Kerry, his party's 2004 presidential nominee, asked Monday in a speech at Brown University. "Or will we be inspired to tackle ... the societal injustice that left so many of the least fortunate waiting and praying on those rooftops?"...

[karynnj]

5. I love this - thanks for posting this

[ginnyinWI]

2. well whatever it takes

If they need to pair Kerry with Edwards to get him some media attention, so be it. JK's eloquence beats them all, hands down.

[whometense]

3. I'm trying to figure out

whether to comment on or link to an article in today's Boston Herald that totally and gratuitously slams Kerry by comparing him unfavorably - are you ready? - with Donna Brazile. It wasn't written by Howie Carr; it was written by some hack named Rachelle G. Cohen, but it was Carr-esque in its nastiness.

I ought to expect this stuff by now, but it still makes me really angry. They just sit there like spiders. If he says nothing they call him weak and ineffectual. If he lets loose they call him opportunistic.

Sigh. I can't wait :sarcasm: to read their response to his floor speech on Roberts today.

[TayTay]

4. It's the Herald

They hate Kerry. They are paid by the snark over there. If they really hated KErry, then he must have hit a home run.

[whometense]

6. In that case,

he hit it out of the park and onto the Pike.

Howie Carr himself never wrote a nastier piece.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

7. Talking of Donna Brazille...

She had an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News y'day that gushed about Bush (don't know how it ended, since I couldn't stand to read past the first couple of paragraphs).

How is Gore so good in judgements about issues and yet so wrong on the people (Lieberman, Brazille etc)?

Edited for grammar.

[whometense]

8. Good question.

Anyone think Donna Brazile helped Kerry in any way last year? No, I thought not. I could never figure out what her political stand was. She seemed to go on the talking head shows just to show she was a player. And snipe. I always wondered if she was miffed Kerry didn't call on her "expertise."

[karynnj]

9. NO! The first I heard of her in the 2004 campaign was when

she was complaining on tv about him not having a sufficient number of African/Americans on his team and various other things. As she had contacts who could get her on the phone with Kerry - this could have been discussed privately. But, yeah - I think she was really talking about the lack of "Donna Brazile". I never heard her say one positive thing.

[wisteria]

10. My personal opinion is she is ready to jump ship over to the

Repubs and is testing the waters (hey how about those cliches). She hasn't had anything good to say for a while and as you pointed out all she does is complain. Why would any Dem want to work with her now?

[kerrygoddess]

11. I really wrestled with posting about this on the Dem Daily

But then I read it to a friend who is a Kerry supporter and told him what Brazile said and he agreed it was worth posting. For better or worse, it's there. I sent it to the BH as an LTE and forwarded it to JK's office too.

There's a couple more like this that have surfaced today too.

Thanks for letting me know you we're discussing this already, Whome... as always I'm running in 20 directions!

[whometense]

12. You're welcome -

It was hidden inside, after all. :-)

Sounds like we were both going through the same thought process. I still haven't blogged about it, but was planning to tonight. Too nasty to let pass.

[Fla4kerry]

13. please post if

Kerry's speech has been televised? If so what site??

[kerrygoddess]

14. Obviously he irked the right...

They hate it that he's right.

[whometense]

15. That is exactly right.

You can tell how right he is by the flood of attempts to drown him out and to discredit him. The election's over, but they still fear Kerry. And they should. He can't be bought.

[karynnj]

16. self-delete

[whometense]

17. Thanks for the warning.

I could feel my blood pressure rising just reading what you quoted. I think I'll avoid the actual column tonight.

The most ironic part?:

"Now we know people so consumed by hatred for George Bush that they haven't had an unpredictable thought in five years..."

This from David Brooks, king of Bush apologists for the mushy middle? Give me a break.

They are out in force, though, aren't they? All chits called in to protect the sorry ass of the quisling-in-chief. I was watching a clip of him talking on the Daily Show last night and I thought, if I was just tuning in from Mars and had no idea who the guy was, I'd think (seriously!) "Who is that mental patient, and why is he on tv?" Five years in, I still can't believe that is president of this great country. These brutal hurricanes are having the effect of a kind of national shock therapy.

[karynnj]

18. His response to Kerry is very over the top

The article was annoying but actually funny because he completely ignores an elegant speech that ends with a call to action and idealism. He doesn't quote a single word of Kerry's, instead giving his own rant, "All reality flows back to Bush. All begins with Bush, is explained by Bush and is polluted by Bush, cursed be thy name." Does this sound remotely like Kerry? It sounds like what he may have thought in the Clinton administration, with a simple name change.

He also doesn't mention that Kerry did everything he could quickly and well that a Senator on his committees could do in addition to reaching out to help in an incredible amount of ways.

Sorry- I moved the article to a seperate thread because I thought I should, but I quess this messed things up even more.

[whometense]

19. Just came across this

DC Media Girl post from a few days ago. Thought you might all like to see it.

http://dcmediagirl.com/index.php?entry=20050917-212004&comments=y&id=923

Here we go again
9/17/05 21:20:04


In today’s WaPo, Donna Brazile takes a page from the Susan Estrich playbook and sucks up to the administration. Maybe Donna’s looking for a new gig now that her unwatchable point-counterpoint back and forth with Bay Buchanan is no longer seen on Inside Politics (R.I.P.), and having noticed that her equally politically incompetent sister Susan Estrich is making a fine living over at the Murdoch Death Star, maybe she’s written this little mash note in lieu of sending her resume to Roger Ailes:

On Thursday night President Bush spoke to the nation from my city. I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush -- in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick and tired of watching "Democrats" who couldn’t manage a dogcatcher race appear on television to a) criticize fellow Democrats, and b) grovel with gratitude when Bush does...something. ANYTHING. How fitting that Brazile, whose political instincts have never exactly wowed me, waited until the majority of the country and the media turned turned against the president to express her support. I see her timing is as sharp as it was when she was "running" the Gore campaign.

Dc Media Girl Permalink