Kerry seems to have lost his energy, if he ever had it. They claim he’s lost his energy. He’s lost his oompff. They’re making him look at tapes of three weeks ago to see if he can get his behavior back. He doesn’t seem to care about much of anything. He’s not exciting, stump speeches put people to sleep. His editorial board meetings put people to sleep and now they’re getting worried he can’t come out and take a stand on anything. He’s got to make sure he’s on both sides of every issue. He’s portraying himself as a guy with all this courage from the Vietnam War days – and his people are saying, where is this courage? We don’t see this courage on the campaign trail. They’re really saying this, folks. These are not rumors. I’ve got the stories here in my stack.
In the meantime this is from the Democrat debate Sunday CBS TV, Dan Rather, New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller, and she says to Kerry, “President Bush has said that freedom and fear have always been at war, and God is not neutral between them, he makes quite clear in his speeches he feels God is on America’s side. Really quick, senator, is God on America’s side?”
KERRY: God — look, I think – I believe in God, but I don’t believe the way President Bush does in — in — in invoking it all the time in that way. I think it is – we pray that God is on our side and we pray hard, and God has been on our side through most of our existence.
RUSH: Is that weak or is that weak? So paranoid is he to do anything that might agree with Bush that he’s got to fudge God. He has to fudge. The question – God is symbolic here, folks, for those of you who hate religion, are threatened by religion, threatened by the existence of a God who might be viewing you behaving rightly or wrongly, get rid of the notion of God. This is a question of right and wrong. Do you think the United States is right? Do you think we are on the side of good? Are we the good guys? This is the question. Are we the good guys, senator?
And then, after fudging and waffling on God and whether or not we’re the good ones, Kerry then had the audacity to deny that he’s a liberal and went on to say that labels are silly and then he got a little testy. Again the reporter is Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, and she said, “Can I just change the topic for a minute, just ask a plain political question?” She was getting frustrated she wasn’t getting any answers. “The National Journal, a respected, non-ideological publication covering Congress, as you both know, has just rated you, Senator Kerry, number one, the most liberal senator in the Senate. [And then over to Edwards] You’re number four [fruitcake]. How can you hope to win with this kind of characterization, in this climate?
KERRY: It’s absolutely the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever —
REPORTER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Let me just —
REPORTER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Please come to the characterization.
RUSH: Stop the tape! Stop the tape and recue this. Embodied in the just the answer I’ve let you hear so far is everything I have ever told you about these people. Will not admit it, he’s the number one liberal voting record in the Senate. There’s no question he’s a liberal. He’s proud to be a liberal, but he will not admit it, not even in New York. He’s in Mecca! He’s in liberal Mecca, ladies and gentlemen, and he won’t admit it. He’s with a New York Times reporter who’s also a liberal. He won’t admit it. He’s with Dan Rather who thinks he’s a liberal. If you think you are, you are, and he won’t admit it. He’s got to obfuscate that. They are so paranoid of being labeled liberals because they know what it does to them. Nobody wants to elect a liberal to run this country that’s why he’s so paranoid he’s voting record is going to be accurately portrayed. And, by the way, just so you know about this thing. The National Journal does do the rating, but you know who invented it? I’m going to s
tun you people. You know who invented this system for tracking the most liberal and most conservative members of the Senate, the House, the votes? Bill Schneider, the political scientist. Bill Schneider back when he was just a lowly political scientist someplace before he got the CNN gig, came up with this. It is Bill Schneider’s rating system, and it appears in the National Journal, but the guy who was wearing a dead animal on his head up in New Hampshire during the primaries – old Bill, it’s his system. He’s a liberal.
Okay, so Elizabeth Bumiller wants to know of Kerry, “Are you a liberal, just a straight political question. Are you a liberal? And can you hope to win with this kind of characterization in this climate?”
KERRY: Because it’s a laughable characterization, it’s absolutely the most ridiculous thing…
BUMILLER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Let me just —
BUMILLER: Are you a liberal?
KERRY: Please come to the characterization. I mean, look, labels are so silly in American politics. I was one of the first Democrats in the United States Senate in 1985 to join with Fritz Hollings in deficit reduction. Now, does that make me a conservative? I fought to put 100,000 police officers on the streets of America. Am I conservative?
BUMILLER: But Senator Kerry, the question is —
KERRY: You’ve got to let us finish answering questions.
BUMILLER: You’re in New York.
KERRY: I’m going to fight for it.
RUSH: She’s telling him, you’re in New York, admit it. Admit it. You’re in New York, senator. She’s trying to prompt him. He’s arguing about all?he’s trying to convince here he’s not a liberal. She’s part of his team. She’s in The New York Times. They endorsed him! He still won’t admit it. Now, folks, this business about deficit reduction with Fritz Hollings, that doesn’t make you a conservative. It’s how you do it that determines whether you’re conservative or liberal. Fritz Hollings isn’t a conservative, either, but he’s a guy that ran the Confederate flag up the flagpole when he was governor of South Carolina. 100,000 cops, does that make me conservative? He wants to be thought of as a conservative, folks. He wants to be thought of as a conservative in New York in a Democrat primary with two liberal journalists begging him to say it. He says labels are silly. But he’ll be the first to use fringe right-wing to describe people, won’t he?
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Yeah, this is our favorite quote. We’ve got to keep this one handy. This is going to serve us well throughout the campaign. Set audio sound bite number 8 aside. By the way, this next one, not going to set it aside but it sort of dovetails. Doris Kearns Goodwin starts wining that John Kerry should be proud to be a liberal, should be proud to be from Massachusetts. She was on Meet the Depressed in the roundtable discussion and Russert played a tape of the Breck Girl saying that, “By the way, today I’ve got a message for somebody in Washington and that message is this, not so fast George Bush you don’t get to decide who our nominee is and you don’t get to decide what our election is about.” And Russert says, “Butt out, is what Edwards is saying to Bush. Does that work, Doris Kearns Goodwin?”
KEARNS GOODWIN: I think Edwards probably will eventually, whether this week or next week, gracefully go, knowing that he’s made a great contribution and created a star power for himself. But I think that what’s not going to work for Geroge Bush this time is that “senator from Massachusetts stuff.” As long as Kerry, if he is the nominee, can be proud – why not be proud of being from Massachusetts? Three Johns for president, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Kennedy. We are the only state that they used to condemn us for, that voted for McGovern. I think I would have rather had McGovern than an almost impeachable Nixon there. So I think there’s a lot of pride, of civil liberties, of civil rights, the abolitionists started there, cradle of liberty was there, the Red Sox, the Patriots. Just be proud of being from Massachusetts.
RUSH: Somebody in the Kerry campaign needs to hire her and put her in charge of the campaign right now. I mean from our perspective that would be one of the best moves possible. You want him to start being proud of Massachusetts, let me give you two words, Doris: Gay marriage. Well, Ted Kennedy, too, but Ted Kennedy is such a Jurassic figure these days. Gay marriage. I am proud to say that I am from Massachusetts. Do you support gay marriage? I believe in marriage. I’ve always believed in the san?What about gay marriage? Well, you didn’t let me finish. Gay marriage. And, by the way, they’re now banging on the door in New York at Bloomberg’s office and they want to get married in New York now. Passion of the Christ, anyone?
