John Kerry - what a dork

The duck probably belongs in Irak.

Jons guse is kooked

Kerry prolly has put paid to his own future executive aspirations, but he'll remain a major factor within the upper reaches of The Democratic Party. I figure the gasping over his current flub has just about played out now ... more a feature of the blogosphere than a factor in mainstream thinking. While he did suck the oxygen away from the Democrats for a couple days, its not at all unlikely their shortness of breath will have been just a momentary, transient inconvenience to them overall, with little real impact on the upcoming election.

I don't necessarily think he did, but what a complete botch up. When you compare the text of what his spokesperson said he was supposed to say with what he actually said, there is a HUGE difference. If not intentional, it was a certainly a Freudian slip, IMO, and certainly in line with his prior demeaning statements about the US military.

... and "the voting machines were rigged" ...

John Amato: "Aasif Mandiv joined Jon Stewart last night for a look at how Bush and his administration are better at executing jokes.

They went through a bunch of the classics, such as: "Those weapons of mass destruction got to be some where" and "You go to war with the army you got, not the army you want". Sadly they missed one of the greatest punch lines of this administration - "You're doing a heckuva job Brownie!"."



The Daily Show Looks At The Humor Of The Bush Administration

Jon Stewart: I don't understand why the outrage is so high about a joke about something that might have hurt someone's feelings whereas the people who actually do hurt the troops by not giving them what they need in the field get off scot free.

Assid Mandvi: That's show business, Jonny.

Video available at,

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Everybody is making Kerry's booper a huge mountain that wasn't even a moe hill. Who amongst us have never spoken or written a blooper?

Anybody?

People must learn to come back to reality.

Too late, the frenzy has started. You know how we can't resist a good stoning.

These are the "real" issues, not whether Kerry spoke unwittingly.

Scandals Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority

By Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 2, 2006; A01



Indictments, investigations and allegations of wrongdoing have helped put at least 15 Republican House seats in jeopardy, enough to swing control to the Democrats on Tuesday even before the larger issues of war, economic unease and President Bush are invoked.

With just five days left before Election Day, allegations are springing up like brushfires. Four GOP House seats have been tarred by lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence-peddling scandal. Five have been adversely affected by then-Rep. Mark Foley's unseemly contacts with teenage male House pages. The remaining half a dozen or so could turn on controversies including offshore tax dodging, sexual misconduct and shady land deals.

Not since the House bank check-kiting scandal of the early 1990s have so many seats been affected by scandals, and not since the Abscam bribery cases of the 1970s have the charges been so serious. But this year's combination of breadth and severity may be unprecedented, suggested Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University.

For more than a year, Democrats have tried to gain political advantage from what they called "a culture of corruption" in Republican-controlled Washington. Republican campaign officials insist the theme has not caught on with the public, but even they concede that many individual races have been hit hard.

"So many different kinds of scandals going on at the same time, that's pretty unique," Zelizer said. "There were scandals throughout the '70s, multiple scandals, but the number of stories now are almost overwhelming."

At least nine GOP seats have been affected by scandals and are highly vulnerable to Democratic takeover next week. Foley's abrupt resignation has jeopardized a Florida House district that had been on no one's radar screen. Under indictment and amid a swirl of ethics investigations, former House majority leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) resigned from Congress earlier this year, forcing Republicans to mount a long-shot write-in campaign for their chosen candidate. Rep. Robert W. Ney's guilty plea last month on corruption charges still hangs over the Ohio campaign of his would-be Republican successor, Joy Padgett, especially because Ney still has not resigned from Congress.

The GOP has all but abandoned longtime Rep. Curt Weldon (Pa.), as federal investigators examine charges that he steered lobbying contracts to his daughter. Weldon went on television yesterday with an ad featuring actors pleading, "Would you give a friend the benefit of the doubt? . . . Today, Curt Weldon needs our support."

Republican campaign strategists fear they have also lost the seat of Rep. Don Sherwood (Pa.), who has been dogged by the settlement of a lawsuit filed by a mistress who charged that Sherwood had throttled her.

Congress watchers once saw the swing seat of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) as a missed opportunity for Democrats. But now, as the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix examines his role in a land deal for a business partner and political benefactor, Renzi's race with political neophyte Ellen Simon (D) has tightened.

Farther west, Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) has had to contend with charges lodged last month by a longtime former aide, Jim Shepard, that the lawmaker made dozens of illegal fundraising calls from his congressional offices. And two reliably Republican districts in California are under assault by Democrats because Reps. Richard W. Pombo and John T. Doolittle have been linked to Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty in January to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

Beyond those nine jeopardized GOP seats, four other Republicans have been tainted by the Foley page scandal. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.) chose to issue a public apology after he admitted that he had known about inappropriate contact between Foley and a former page this spring. Democrats have repeatedly hit Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), the House Republican Conference chairman, for inaction on the Foley matter. And Democrats have tried to hold two former members of the Page Board, Reps. Sue W. Kelly (N.Y.) and Heather A. Wilson (N.M.), accountable for Foley's actions.

Meanwhile, new allegations continue to spring up. Vern Buchanan, a Republican running for the Florida seat vacated by Rep. Katherine Harris (R), was the target of local media reports this week detailing his use of business entities in Caribbean tax havens to reduce levies on his auto dealerships. The Albany Times Union published an article yesterday charging that the wife of Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) called police late last year to report that her husband was "knocking her around" during a late-night argument.

And Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who made his name pushing campaign finance changes and governance reforms, was confronted with media reports alleging that a 2003 trip to Qatar -- partly funded by a group loosely tied to Abramoff -- had not been properly disclosed.

"The corruption issue plays in two ways: It contributes to the sour mood of the country and to the low job approval of Congress, and it particularly plays in races directly touched by allegations of scandal," said Republican pollster Whit Ayers. "And in those races, it plays a significant role."

House Democrats have had to deal with investigations of their own, involving Reps. William J. Jefferson (La.), Alan B. Mollohan (W.Va.) and Jane Harman (Calif.), but none of those cases have put Democratic seats in jeopardy.

In the Senate, a federal inquiry into Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and his ties to a nonprofit community agency that paid him more than $300,000 in rent while receiving millions of dollars in federal assistance has provided his Republican challenger with a strong issue and has kept that race close. But the seat of Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) may be in even more jeopardy, primarily because of Burns's ties to Abramoff.

Recent polling suggests that the issue of corruption is beginning to stick. A CNN poll last month found that "half of all Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt" and that "more than a third think their own representative is crooked."

And where the issue has hit directly, Democrats and their allies have been playing up charges to the hilt. Just yesterday, Christine Jennings, the Florida Democrat running for Harris's House seat, held a news conference to attack Buchanan's alleged offshore tax dodges.

Even the most peripheral contact with a scandal has not gone unnoticed. "Those that knew got to go," Albuquerque's Democratic mayor, Martin J. Chavez, thundered at a rally last month against New Mexico's Wilson, citing her role on the Page Board during Foley's misconduct. "Those that didn't know need to explain why they didn't."

So instead of making "jokes", these politicians should be addressing the issues.

THAT is why it is a big deal. When a "distinguished Senator" and former Presidential Candidate speaks to a group of young students and is making "jokes", then "slips up", we are supposed to say nothing?

woiyo, All that needs to be said about it has already been said. You ever hear of overkill? This is small potatoes compared to the "important" stuff on the American agenda. Get a life.

"small potatoes". Really. I hope some returning troops pay you a visit c.i.

cjh, That's because you fail to understand what really happened; it was a blooper that Kerry will pay for dearly in the future. Why would the troops come to see me? I've served our country in the armed forces, and speak against Bush's unjustified war in Iraq that have sacriiced our soldiers lives for a goal that's been lost with no solution in sight.

No, of course not; remark on it but there's a whole lot of truly serious stuff that you lot avoid like the plague.

Perspective man, perspective. How many people have died because of Kerry's botched joke? How many have died because of the actual subject of Kerry's botched joke?

How much money has been wasted because of Kerry's botched joke? How much for the subject of his botched joke? Well, it's now around $336 billion. Some expect,



Remember, this house of cards has been propped up with disception after lie after fabrication after falsehood. And you guys are obsessing over this?

BTW, I was never a Kerry supporter, and never voted for him. I think he's a weeny with Heinz mustard.

Why shouldn't he attack exactly what Mr Morrow himself described, the failed policies? Name something of the Republican Congress/WH that isn't a failed policy.

I couldn't possibly agree more with his last sentence. You are the folks who plunked down your money for the bush plan and never batted an eyelash. To this day, you're trying to defend the white elephant you hold, it getting more and more bloated everyday and y'all still are making these huge payments, willingly.

It's a big deal to me.

We have elected sh!theads on both side of the aisle in Congress, who refuse to address issues. Especially from Mass. and Calif.

You attitude gives these knuckleheads the incentive to go on as usual.

Maybe you should pay attention to the congress people in your State and hold them responsible for their words and actions (or inactions) and vote them out of office. We reward this behavior, at least here in Mass. by continually voting them back for additional terms.

I have a life. Maybe you need to understand what life is really about.

woiyo wrote: Maybe you should pay attention to the congress people in your State and hold them responsible for their words and actions (or inactions) and vote them out of office. We reward this behavior, at least here in Mass. by continually voting them back for additional terms.

I do pay attention to the elections in our state, and vote every time. I also keep in touch with Senator Feinstein on a regular basis. I can't effect elections outside of our district/state, so your implication is just plain ridiculous! Get a life!