This remarkable political news story...read it, take
heart...There are several extraordinary sound bytes in
here...It is very encouraging...and it underscores the
importance of protecting Kerry and providing him with
strong backup...
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mekong Delta), quoted by Ron
Fournier, Associated Press: "This week, George Bush and the Republican smear machine have trotted out the same old tired lines of attack that they've used before to divide this nation and to evade the real issues before us. Well, I have news for George Bush, Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and the rest of their gang: I have fought for my country my whole life. I'm not going to back down now," Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, said in remarks prepared for delivery Saturday night to Virginia Democrats in Richmond.
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Kerry Says He Won't Make Dukakis' Mistake
Sat Feb 7, 1:31 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - As Democrats in two states went to
the polls, front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites)
vowed Saturday to aggressively counter Republican
critics, drawing a stark contrast between his party
and the GOP. "They're extreme. We're mainstream, and
we're going to stand up and fight back," he said.
The Massachusetts senator, under fire from White House
allies, sought to assure Democrats that he won't
repeat mistakes of 1988 Democratic nominee Michael
Dukakis, who responded cautiously to George H.W.
Bush's assertions that he was a Massachusetts liberal.
"This week, George Bush and the Republican smear
machine have trotted out the same old tired lines of
attack that they've used before to divide this nation
and to evade the real issues before us. Well, I have
news for George Bush, Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and the
rest of their gang: I have fought for my country my
whole life. I'm not going to back down now," Kerry, a
decorated Vietnam veteran, said in remarks prepared
for delivery Saturday night to Virginia Democrats in
Richmond.
Rove is President Bush (news - web sites)'s top
political adviser. Gillespie, head of the Republican
Party, has borrowed from the 1988 play book to label
Kerry a Massachusetts liberal with a "long record in
the Senate is one of advocating policies that would
weaken our national security."
As votes were being counted in Michigan and Washington
state caucuses, Kerry looked beyond his bickering
Democratic rivals to the fall election. Kerry is
trying to convince voters that he's above party
wrangling and ready to focus on Bush.
"This is onee Democrat who's going to fight back, and
I've only just begun to fight," he said. "George Bush,
who speaks of strength, has made America weaker —
weaker economically, weaker in health care and
education. And the truth is George Bush has made us
weaker militarily by overextending our forces,
overstraining our reserves, and driving away our
allies."
Earlier, Kerry said he'll campaign against Bush in the
South, dismissing Republican assertions that he is too
liberal and out of touch to win in Dixie.
"This administration is busy trying to paint everybody
else as out of touch, out of synch, somehow out of the
mainstream," Kerry said at a Nashville university.
"But let me tell you something: I'm not worried about
coming down South and talking to people about jobs,
schools, health care and the environment. I think it's
(the president) who ought to worry about coming down
here."
Kerry made the remarks at the beginning of a weekend
swing through Tennessee and Virginia, the two states
holding elections Tuesday. His main rivals, John
Edwards (news - web sites) and Wesley Clark (news -
web sites), need a victory in the Southern primaries
to keep their races afloat.
Kerry has gotten himself in trouble by suggesting that
a Democrat can win the presidency without carrying a
Southern state. While that may be mathematically
possible, even Kerry's own advisers say it was
indiscreet to talk of putting an entire region off the
Democrats' political map.
In his Virginia remarks, Kerry said Democrats
represent the mainstream, Republicans the "extreme,"
on a number of issues, including tax cuts, fiscal
responsibility, health care, violence against women,
the federal judiciary, civil liberties and national
security.
"Our opponents now say they want to campaign on
national security. But this is the same administration
that slashes health care for veterans, tries to cut
combat pay for our troops in the field, makes injured
soldiers pay for their own hospital meals, and leaves
soldiers on their own to buy high-tech flak jackets,"
he said. "We are
Kerry, a Navy veteran, said: "We all saw George Bush
play dress-up on an aircraft carrier. Well, I know
something about aircraft carriers for real. And if
George W. Bush wants to make national security the
central issue in this campaign, I have three words for
him I know he understands: Bring it on."
It's a standard line in his stump speeches, one
repeated in unison by cheering crowds.
Kerry's rivals have all but conceded three elections
in Michigan, Washington state and Maine, and Kerry
hopes to knock Edwards and Clark from the race with a
sweep Tuesday.
Beyond that, the Democratic field, which still
includes Dean, is moving to a potentially decisive
showdownfighting for the mainstream value of a
stronger America and for the ideal that the first duty
of patriotism is to honor those who wear and have worn
the uniform of the United States." Feb. 17 in
Wisconsin.
"When you add up the real deficits in our nation ...
it's not just measured in money, it's measured in the
hopes that are dashed," Kerry said in a speech to
several hundred supporters Belmont University in
Nashville.
Kerry said that when he engages with Bush, "it will be
clear across this land that the one person who
deserves to be laid off is George W. Bush."