You gotta love a man who doesn't know what he saying ..
Government and Politics
Feb 18, 1970: “I’m an internationalist. “I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”
He wanted “to almost eliminate CIA activity." The Harvard Crimson
"Our democracy is a farce; it is not the best in the world." 1971
Jan 30, 1992" (in regards to the Clinton presidential campaign)" I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning." blah blah blah "We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?" congressional record
May 15, 1996: "So you can look at all the potential threats of the world, and when you add the expenditures of all of our allies to the United States of America, you have to stop and say to yourself, 'What is it that we are really preparing for in a post-cold-war world?'" Congressional Record, p. S5061 Ummm I give up! For DEFENSE, maybe???? And this complaint was right in the midst of enormous reductions of our nations military.....
Jan 6, 1996: "I think we can reduce the size of Washington." "Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country." Washington Times
Apr 3, 2003: "What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States" Boston Globe This comment was made less than a month after saying: "If America is at war, I won't speak a word without measuring how it'll sound to the guys doing the fighting when they're listening to their radios in the desert."
Jan 19, 2004: In the Senate four years - and that is the full extent of public life - no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year. When I came back from Vietnam in 1969 I don’t know if John Edwards was out of diapers then. Well, I’m sure he was out of diapers. (Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, “With Hopes Up And Elbows Out, Democrats Give Iowa Their All,” The New York Times)
Jan 28, 2004: “I have a message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the big drug companies, that get in the way, the big oil and the special interests who now call the White House their home. We’re coming, you’re going, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” “CNN Live,” 1/28/04
Between 1985 And 1990, Kerry Accepted Over $120,000 In Special Interest Honoraria. “Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show … In 1985, Kerry’s freshman year in the Senate, he supplemented his $75,000 salary with $19,480 in speaking fees. The next year the fees grew to $22,725.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
Kerry Accepted Thousands From Large Corporations Like Chevron, Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Allied Signal And Textron For Speeches. “For instance, oil giant Chevron paid him $2,000 in 1986 for participating in a round-table discussion. Large financial companies, among them Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, also paid to hear Kerry speak, as did the Chicago Board of Trade and defense contractors such as Allied Signal and Textron.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
“Kerry Also Spoke For Pay To The National Restaurant Association ($1,000 In 1985), The National Association Of Independent Insurers ($1,000 In 1986), The American Bankers Association ($2,000 In 1986) And The National Association Of Manufacturers.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees,” The Associated Press, 2/9/04)
Feb 1, 2004: "The only people that have contributed to my campaigns [for Senate] are individual Americans. Now are some of those individual Americas lobbyists? Yeah, sure." Responding to Dean's criticisms
Feb 3, 2004: “John Kerry has not taken a dime of PAC money during his four Senate elections or during his presidential race. PACs contribute a huge chunk of the money given to politics. Corporate PACs have given $1.2 billion to campaigns and parties since 1990. Not one dime has gone to John Kerry.” (Kerry Press Release, 2/3/04) Kerry Ranks 92nd Out Of The 100 Senators In Contributions From PACS And Lobbyists.
Feb 3, 2004: Edwards says he's the only one who can win states in the South ... He can't win his own state. (Adam Nagourney, “For Kerry And Edwards, Sharp Exchanges Reflect A Crucial Day Of Voting,” The New York Times)
Feb 29, 2004: In response to a question about his being labeled the most liberal senator, Kerry said: "Labels are so silly in American politics,"; he declined to say whether he considered himself a liberal. "I think it's the silliest thing I've ever heard." He said labels like that don't tell the whole story.
He followed this comment about "labels" up with the following response to another question: "Is this president a legitimate Republican or conservative? Because there's nothing conservative about driving deficits up as far as the eye can see. There's nothing conservative about trampling on the line of division between church and state in America," he said. "This administration is extreme, and I believe we're offering America mainstream, American values." Hmm.. I guess if it's a negative label on a republican, it's exempt from his earlier statement..... Democratic Debate
Mar 2, 2004: "[Ex-]President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second" American Urban Radio Network
Mar 8, 2004: "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly but, boy, they look at you and say, 'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy' -- things like that" Interesting... since he has been on public view almost every day since he started running for president. Maybe someone remembers seeing him on European, Middle East or other foreign travel during that period. Maybe someone remembers seeing or reading about foreign heads of state meeting with him when they visited Washington during the last many months. NOT. Washington Times
Mar 9, 2004: Kerry's campaign has already put together a legal response team that will research each specific voting precinct that had difficulty counting the votes in 2000. "We're going to pre-check it, we're going to have the legal team in place," Kerry explained. "We're going to take injunctions where necessary ahead of time. We'll pre-challenge if necessary." Send in the demoncratic lawyers! [ insert favorite lawyer joke here ] Anyone want to bet whether they attempt to block the votes from our overseas servicemen & women, like they did in Florida the last time around?? gopusa
Mar 10, 2004: The republican critics are "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen." myway (Listen)
Mar 11, 2004: "There is a Republican attack squad that specializes in trying to destroy people and be negative" I think he means "vast right-wing conspiracy".... Kerry, at Capitol, Slams Republican 'Attack Squad'
Mar 19, 2004: After a secret service agent inadvertently moved into his path during a ski mishap in Idaho, Kerry was sent falling into the snow. When asked a moment later about the incident by a reporter on the ski run, Kerry said sharply, "I don't fall down," the "son of a bitch knocked me over." Another democrat that appreciates those that are there to protect him.... JFK, look in a mirror when you say something like that... Drudgereport Newsmax
Apr 7, 2004: Talking about Gramm-Rudman, “At that the time, I joined together with a group of reformers from both parties - like Republican Senator Warren Rudman and Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings - to push for a deficit reduction plan with real teeth. What we got was real grief from leaders in both parties - and by the early 90s, the deficit was increasing so fast that the debt clock would sometimes breakdown because it couldn’t keep up.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Georgetown University, Washington, DC)
Feb 14, 1986: "Kerry told about a dozen Massachusetts mayors he voted for the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction bill to force the Reagan administration to cut defense spending. ... Kerry refused to commit himself to saving any military program and lectured mayors on the poor economics of much defense spending." (Kevin Landrigan, "Kerry: Defense Bills Aren't Jobs Bills," The [Lowell, MA] Sun)
Apr 16, 2004: "I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had the chance," ... "I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism." yahoo Kerry's judgment in his voting record on defense and security are in question, not his patriotism. Cheney received a student and family deferment from military service, and Rove had a student deferment and later drew a low draft number but was never called.
Jul 7, 2004: We've got better vision, better ideas, real plans. We've got a better sense of what's happening to America - and we've got better hair. myway
Jul 8, 2004: Every performer tonight, in their own way, either verbally or through their music, through their lyrics, have conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country. This statement followed the raunchy Hollywood fundraiser called Bush a "cheap thug," compared him to a criminal and made crude, off-color jokes about his name. USA Today
These and many more from www.kerryqoutes.com
You gotta love this guy since he gives you such good stuff.