Anatomy of a smear
Perhaps you’ve seen some variant of this attack on Kerry making its way around the internet:
In 1997, Kerry questioned the necessity of our intelligence establishment after the Cold War. “Now that that struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow?” the Senator chimed.
Maybe you’ll be interested to see more of that speech quoted by so many. Here we go:
Now, the Senator [Daniel P. Moynihan] from New York has been called many things […]
Most recently, he has brought this very considerable skunk-like presence to the matter of America’s intelligence bureaucracy in the post-cold-war era. He has asked why it is that our vast intelligence apparatus, built to sustain America in the long twilight struggle of the cold war continues to grow at an exponential rate? Now that that struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow even as Government resources for new and essential priorities fall far short of what is necessary? Why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to roll on even as every other Government bureaucracy is subject to increasing scrutiny and, indeed, to reinvention?
Our colleague’s answer is an important one for all of us to reflect on. The answer is secrecy and bureaucracy. It is secrecy that conceals structure.
In that passage used to attack Kerry, he was essentially quoting Senator Daniel P. Moynihan. (HTML file of the full text here.)
In that passage used to attack Kerry, he was essentially quoting Senator Daniel P. Moynihan.
Similarly, in the passage where Rethuglicans claim he was calling all Vietnam veterans war criminals, he was actually quoting Vietnam vets who said that they had committed war crimes.
In a similar vein, the plump, fuzzy chew-toy known by some of his devoted fans as Yo-Yo-San is now suggesting that John Kerry should be executed.
Well, that’s one way to get Li’l George’s poll numbers back up…
Monday Notes
The smijer side of this blog supports John Wolfe for Congressperson of Tennessee’s third district. I’ll add a link for his race to the left column later today. This is odd. If Sky News is representative, the Brits use the…
Adam Yoshida is such a manly warblogger it makes me swoon. I really think he should enlist in the U.S. military forthwith and request assignment to Iraq. If he gets killed there, they’ll make him a U.S. citizen retroactively! Pretty cool, huh? I would be honored to have Adam Yoshida’s corpse as a fellow citizen.
“essentially quoting Moynihan” ? As in the “essence” of his words were those of Moynihan?
Sadly, No.
He was quoting him directly. And talking about intelligence reform, such a popular idea these days. Ah, prescience.
Hey, that sounds like fun. We need to do it with Bush quotes. If we get called on it, we just point to the Kerry quotes and how the Thugs manipulated them. Let’s face it, we can flood the Internet with that sort of thing as well as anyone. Say we have Bush saying something like, “We can’t tell the Iraqis, “Well, we want your oil and we intend to have it any way we have to…to get it we’ll do anything no matter what it is, whether it is wrong or right.'” We just pass it around that Bush was speaking about addressing the Iraqis and saying…and so on.
Fun for the whole family.
“intellectual conservative”
“I know it sounds absurd, but really, I am!”
Hey! This is easy!
Remarks by the President in Press Availability
Prairie Chapel Ranch
Crawford, Texas
August 23, 2004
Q That’s okay. Some Republicans such as Bob Dole and some Republican donors such as Bob Perry have contributed and endorsed the message of these 527 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads —
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
Q Do you — when you say that you want to stop all —
THE PRESIDENT: That means … every other ad.
Q Sir, on the price of oil, it’s at or near record levels..
THE PRESIDENT: That’s the best thing, is to come up with a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages … the current price of oil —
You know, Kerry justb hates inteeligence he would nominate someone who wanted to heavily cut human intel in the late 90s to be CIA director. You know, someone like Goss.
Um, OK, he was quoting Moynihan, but basically with approval, right? He was saying like Dan says this and it’s spot on. Right? Am I reading that correctly?
So what’s your problem? OK technically you are correct but not substantially.
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