Kerry Calls Bush Out
24 July 2006 7:11 am by Taylor Marsh
UPDATE II (11.15 a.m.): The Detroit News and Valerie Olander have still not clarified the quote on John Kerry. If you don't think this matters just check on all the wingnut blogs (also see here, here, here and here…) trumpeting this sloppy misquote. This matters to all of us. EMAIL Ms. Olander and let her know how you feel.
UPDATE (9:15 a.m.): I just got off the phone with Valerie Olander
of the Detroit News. Nice enough lady. She's been bombarded by emails on Kerry's
quote. I asked her what came between Iraq and going after Hezbollah. I explained
that obviously this disjointed quote makes no sense and requested a clarification.
How did Kerry get from Iraq to Hezbollah? Olander said there was quite a bit in
between. Olander continued, saying Kerry talked about how “we should have
went (sic) after al Qaeda; we should have went (sic) after all terrorists, especially
Hezbollah.” Olander agreed that they should offer some sort of clarification
on Kerry's quote because he said a lot more than was shown. She also stated that
there were editors involved and she'd talk to them, adding that this story didn't
even make the paper, which seemed to surprise her, due to the reaction she received
on it. I asked if she could get me something within the next hour and she said
she would. I'll let you know what happens. Olander seems to want to do the right
thing, so I still think she deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point. I made the point that the conservative blogs are making quite a bit about this leap of topic and substance in the quote, so that the Detroit News needs to do the right thing and clarify the situation or they're going to get even more emails than they have already. I also mentioned that Kerry's people have been notified. We went through this once and we're not going through it again.
Wait until you hear this one. I had to stop and re-read it, frankly. It's going
to set the wingnuts to wailing; some already started. But at least part of their whining seems due to the Detroit News screwing up at least part of what Kerry said.
“If I was president, this wouldn't have happened,” said Kerry during
a noon stop at Honest John's bar and grill in Detroit's Cass Corridor.Bush has been so concentrated on the war in Iraq that other Middle East tension
arose as a result, he said.“The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues
affecting the Middle East,” Kerry said. “We're going to have a lot
of ground to make up (in 2008) because of it.”(snip)
Hezbollah guerillas should have been targeted with other terrorist organizations,
such as al-Qaida and the Taliban, which operate in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Kerry said. However, Bush, has focused military strength on Iraq.“This is about American security and Bush has failed. He has made it
so much worse because of his lack of reality in going into Iraq.…We
have to destroy Hezbollah,” he said.Kerry
knocks Bush on handling of Mideast conflict
Valerie Olander / The Detroit News
Good for Senator Kerry.
If Kerry had been elected this contagion of war from Iraq to
Israel to Lebanon would not have happened. We'd also have solid diplomatic ties
throughout the region. Our energy policy wouldn't be in shambles either. Not
to mention that after Kerry found out the Senate had been told tall Dick Cheney
tales, he started working to get us out of Iraq.
That said, it still certainly takes a leap of great faith and imagination,
let me add, to envision any Democratic president being tough on Israel in the
current escalation. But at least we wouldn't have tipped our hand so badly and
blown our honest broker status, not to mention uttered the “axis of evil”
nonsense.
But read the very last line. It makes absolutely no sense and has the wingnuts
on the attack: see here,
but there are more if you want to waste your time.
How do you go from Bush's bumbling in Iraq to we have to destroy Hezbollah,
ellipses notwithstanding? This is the sort of thing that is infuriating about
the corporate media. They finish with lines like this that have no context,
using ellipses to connect two far ranging topics of conversation. In the process,
the Democratic politician sounds like he took a mental journey that through thought could have connected.
I've got an email into the reporter on the piece, Valerie Olander. I hope she
can clarify what came between Iraq and destroying Hezbollah, because as it is,
it looks like a misrepresentation of a conversation, which I doubt is the case.
Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. I'll let you know what she says.
Note: This cartoon was emailed to me, but I can't remember the original source. When I find out I'll give credit. It came from the Center for American Progress.
