Truth?

The two Johns, Kerry and Edwards, “with their ties loosened and shoes kicked off” in an interview with Washington Post editors, “vowed to forgo negative advertising in this presidential campaign.” That was the same interview in which they asserted that “President Bush has governed in a dishonest fashion” and stated that “[t]he value of truth is one of the most central values in America, and this administration has violated” it. “We have not stood up and attacked our opponents in personal ways,” Kerry said. (Of course, Kerry and Edwards were sitting during the course of this interview.) Jim VandeHei and Dan Balz, the WaPo reporters, then drily observed:

This week alone, Kerry has criticized Bush personally in speeches for lying, professional laziness, waiting until right before the election to indict Enron Corp.’s former chief executive, Kenneth L. Lay, lacking values and even having worse hair than the two Democrats. Some advisers are privately counseling Kerry to tone down his attacks on Bush.

Those comments echo a constant refrain. As Mark Steyn reminds us, about a year ago the Democratic National Committee put out a press release claiming that “President Bush Deceives The American People.” The DNC was referring to the following 16 words in the president’s 2003 State of the Union Address:

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

And what did Truthful John (Kerry) say of this claim? Bush “misled every one of us.”

Truthful John Kerry knew this was a lie because Truthful Joe Wilson had revealed that in his fact-finding trip to Niger for the CIA he had spent “eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people” and had not found one single receipt showing nuclear goods sent to Saddam.

Now, however, the British government is about to release a report confirming that its original intelligence about Niger and Iraq was well-documented and accurate.

Since Truthful John believes that the “value of truth is one of the most central values in America,” I am sure we can expect an apology to the president from him.

Sure.

ADDENDUM: The First Amendment Dodge

Note the recurrence of this tactic: whenever the Democratic nominees are asked whether they agree with some outrageous comments of their supporters, i.e., whether they think such comments are, you know, true, they dodge the question by asserting the “right” of people to say what they think. In this interview, for example, the two Johns said it was anger at Bush’s lies

that prompted entertainers at Thursday’s Democratic fundraising concert in New York to attack Bush as a “cheap thug” and a killer. “Obviously some performers, in my judgment and John’s, stepped over a line neither of us believes appropriate, but we can’t control that,” Kerry said. “On the other hand, we understand the anger, we understand the frustration.”

Edwards said scathing anti-Bush attacks such as the concert and Michael Moore’s new film “Fahrenheit 9/11” reflect an “expression by folks with genuine feelings,” adding, “Thank goodness in our country they have a right to express those feelings.”

To the best of my knowledge no one has denied that Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Moore, et. al. are “folks” or that their feelings are “genuine.” Nor has anyone of whom I am aware argued that they do not have a right to express their no doubt genuine feelings.

Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and John Wilkes Booth were also “folks” with “genuine feelings.” So what? But is defending the right of the filth purveyors to purvey filth, especially in the absence of any attack on that right, the best that the two Truthful Johns can say? What happened to the “central value” of truth?

Say What? (1)

  1. TexasTeacher July 11, 2004 at 2:33 pm | | Reply

    As I’ve said a number of times, there are three problems with the Kerry fundraiser and the aftermath.

    First, he/his campaign invited these folks, and he chose to make this event the “coming out party” for John Edwards. It isn’t like having Limbaugh pop off on the radion — Joh Kerry booked these people for his own event!

    Second, Kerry stood up after the performers had finished and stated that they represented the “heart and soul” of his vision of America. Sounds like an endorsement to me. The only thing he took issue with was Whoopi calling John Edwards a boy.

    Third, he is once again flip-flopping on the issue, trying to weael his way out of what came before. Like his support for aborting what he believes to be human life, his opposition to the war he voted for, and his change of position on the qualifications of John Edwards to be president, we see a pattern of inconsistency that is troubling. It is like he is trying to be on all three sides of every two-sided issue.

Say What?