I have been busy all day with unimportant meetings (it’s days like this I regret becoming a prof), so I am playing some catch-up. I was struck by both the substance and the rhetoric of Prime Minister Allawi’s speech to Congress, as well as his press conference with President Bush. This is a serious fellow. I was also dumbfounded by John Kerry immediate response. It was shocking! Here is this man--an ally--who is now the head of a country trying to rebuild the Hitlerian/Satlinist mess his suffering country was left, and the Democratic candidate for president attacks him! This may be stupidest thing, the most irresponsible, the most disgraceful thing John Kerry has done in this campaign. I had to find other places on TV where it was played, just to confirm it. Each time I saw it I became angrier, and more fully convinced that this man will never become president. The American people--if they have had any doubt until now--will take this as the last straw. I am sure of it.
Joseph Knippenberg seems to agree with me, and he calmed down enough to write a few coherent paragraphs about the Kerry campaign’s undiplomatic activity, ending with Kerry’s remarks on Allawi. Also note what Joe Lockhart, a senior Kerry advisor, said about Allawi: "The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips." I am amazed.
I agree wholeheartedly, Peter. It was one of the most disgraceful, shameful utterances I have heard an American politician make. Lockhart is a cheap hack and attack dog, so what he says does not surprise me in the slightest. Kerry - and his pathetic campaign - have just sunk to that level. Although I would hasten to point out that Kerry has effectively sided with our enemies abroad before so this is really not all that surprising. He is a disgrace.
The LATimes article by Ronald Brownstein quotes Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes, saying:
it was unclear whether Americans would see Allawi as a reliable source, given the continuing violence in Iraq and his vested interest in portraying events there in the most positive light.
But, by the same token, how can you see John Kerry and the Kerry campaign as a reliable source on anything they say, given their wested interest in prtraying things in the most negative light?
I am astounded by the complete lack of nuance in this oh-so-nuanced campaign. Kerry and his associates have moved beyond simple political sniping to the denigration of a foreign head of state. This is beyond embarrassing, it is beyond politics; these remarks are obscene. They are the death throes of a presidential campaign based on arrogance and deception.
Do they Kerry people know they are floundering? Yes, I think they do, look for the attacks on anything, and I mean anything, that seems to favor Bush. The Prime Minister of Iraq states things are going well there, and by extension going well for Bush, well then, he must be a puppet and/or a liar. This is what passes for diplomacy in the Kerry’s mind? It would be criminal in this time of war, if it weren’t so pathetic.
FYI the Knippenberg piece got a nice link from Instapundit.
Add these comments to this interviewKerry interview and the picture is clear (if it can ever be clear with Kerry). He believes great personality will win the day over here in Iraq, but how can it when he is making comments like these about the current head of Iraq? Again, Mr Kerry seems to be saying, "if you just put ME in office all will be well." He has nothing else to offer.
The interview referenced above is at PejmanPundit if this link does not work, sorry.
On second thought, I wasn’t angry enough. By calling Allawi a Bush puppet, Joe Lockhart has created a soundbite that al Jazeera will play over and over again. As the Marxists used to say, "objectively" Lockhart has joined the terrorists.
As far as presidential politics is concerned, the Bush campaign should demand that Lockhart resign and that Kerry repudiate his remarks.
I don’t know if the international damage can be undone.
I can’t help but wonder, are the people in the Kerry campaign ignorant or malfeasant?
Neither bodes well for the campaign or the nation.