Washingtonpost.com's Cillizza mischaracterized Kerry's statement about McCain's Swift Boat connection
SUMMARY: Washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza falsely suggested that Sen. John Kerry's call for Sen. John McCain to "cut ties" with retired Col. George "Bud" Day stemmed from Day's defense of McCain's military service in Vietnam. In fact, Kerry's statement called for McCain to sever ties with Day after Day described the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on Kerry in 2004 -- attacks Cillizza noted McCain denounced at the time -- as "revelation of the truth."
In a July 9 Washington Post article, washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza falsely suggested that Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) call for Sen. John McCain to "cut ties" with retired Air Force Col. George "Bud" Day stemmed from Day's defense of McCain's military service in Vietnam. In fact, in a June 30 statement, Kerry wrote that his call for McCain to sever ties with Day was due to Day's role in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a conservative organization that helped undermine Kerry's 2004 presidential bid through a discredited campaign of false and baseless smears about Kerry's service in the Vietnam War, and Day's recent statements approving the Swift Boat Vets campaign. Acting as a McCain surrogate on a conference call with reporters on June 30, Day justified the Swift Boat Vets attacks on Kerry as "revelation of the truth."
According to Cillizza:
Kerry described McCain as "unbelievably out of touch" and "confused" after the Republican said, "That's not too important," in response to a question about when U.S. troops might return from Iraq. In late June, when retired Army [sic] Col. George "Bud" Day, who was involved in the Swift boat group's effort, was part of a conference call defending McCain's military record, Kerry called on McCain to condemn the remarks and cut ties with Day.
In fact, the "remarks" that Kerry's June 30 statement criticized had nothing to do with McCain's military service or Day's defense of it. Rather, Kerry took issue with Day's assertion that "the Swift Boat 'attacks' were simply revelation of the truth." From Kerry's statement:
Sen. John Kerry today released the follow[ing] statement in response to John McCain surrogate Colonel Bud Day's comment that "the Swift Boat 'attacks' were simply revelation of the truth" today on a conference call with reporters:
"Colonel Day's comments today [June 30] only further highlight the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics. John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who served on swift boats in Vietnam."
Cillizza noted McCain's 2004 denunciation of the Swift Boat Veterans in the same article:
McCain quickly spoke out against the [2004 Swift Boat attack] ad, calling it "dishonest" and "dishonorable" and comparing it to the criticism of his military service during the 2000 presidential primaries. But he did not allow Kerry to use his image in rebuttal ads -- a decision that many Kerry supporters viewed as insufficient payback for Kerry's support of McCain in 2000.
Lying about what Kerry said about lies about Kerry. Amazing.
This is amazing. John McCain condemns the Swift Boat ads in 2004 and says that they are "dishonest and dishonorable", yet he campaings with a guy from the very same group. The media spends hours on Jeremiah Wright and a non-story regarding Wesley Clark and comments that he made which were essentially what John McCain has said himself on more than one occasion, yet this is barely covered by the mainstream media. It is truly amazing that we still have people beating the drum about a "liberal media."
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
Thank You, JLyons. I've been at Media Matters since literally it's first days in existence. I heard David Brock on Air America in April of 2004talking about a new website that he was launching to counter Republican and/or conservative misinformation in the media and the following month I started visiting the website for "Media Matters for America." Anyway, I don't know if you've been here as long as I have, but I have been seeing your posts for a while, and I usually agree with them. Thank You, and keep posting here. By the way, the sign-off that I use, I've been using that since Day 1 as well.
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
I'll vouch for NJGuy, he is the most consistently polite signing-off poster here.
And I will continue to sign off,
F**k you, Col. Sanders. I'm not so nice.
Someone has to do the tough love umm?
We do need to express our irrantional anger. Mostly because of our collective inability to master "Tommy's 12 step program for proper posting." I know I loose a lot of cool upon exposure by.... er, to the mathster.
Ah well back to STEP#1 "You are lame, get used to it."
I might have even voted for the previous John McCain...but not this one. John McCain has proven himself to be nothing more than a common, garden variety politician...he is nothing special.
We don't often agree on issues Irony - but on this you are spot on. Unfortunately though Obama is proving to be no different. Who will I hold my nose and vote for?
We don't often agree on issues Irony - but on this you are spot on.
I want to sincerely commend you on your progress, Dems. Baby steps...baby steps. ;>)
Seriously, I think one of these reasons I become so vitriolic about McCain is because I once admired him.
How exactly is Obama proving to be no different? Don't you get into this whole thing wanting to win and doing whatever it does take to win? Yes, yes you do. Thing is, there is a big difference between McCain and Obama. As in, McCain has whipped around and changed his positions on so many things it should make your head spin. Obama is still pretty much saying and doing the same things he said from the get go. I don't think you can equate one with the other, not at all.
I too, at one point in time, would have voted for McCain, mostly because he would do what he thought was right, and sometimes that agreed with positions and ideas that I had, and sometimes it didn't, but for the most part, I thought of him to be an honorable man, and again, someone who would do what was right. Now, he's doing what he thinks will get him elected, and he has abandoned most, if not all of the positions he formerly took. Even some as recent as a few months ago.
There is much disagreement with your notion of an unchanging Obama. Here is one example.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/opinion/08herbert.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
McCain and Obama are not the same, even if Obama has changed a few positions he previously held.
Degrees of difference and the quantity of those flip-flops matter too when comparing one to the other.
When I used to watch black and white TV, I had trouble telling the different colors, but even then I could do a better job at differentiation than you can.
John McCain has proven himself to be nothing more than a common, garden variety politician...he is nothing special. Irony
I call him a garden variety slug.
SLUGS - oozing out of dark, dank basements, driven by an insatiable thirst for human blood, an overpowering craving for warm flesh.
SLUGS - boring into human bodies, attacking the soft, internal organs, eating their victims from alive within.
SLUGS - swarming over the helpless, reducing them to a writhing mass of sinew and bone.
Yeah, it's oozing slime :-0)
Is that picture gone? Well. it was weird anyway, or stoopid as you say colonel.
You owe that snail/slug and apology. The worst thing you can do is compare anyone and/or anything with the moustache of one G. Gordon Liddy, other than maybe comparing that person/thing to G. Gordon Liddy himself. I read once somewhere a man said that "a man with a moustache is a man with something to hide." Don't know if that is true or not, but it sure does seem like there have been many shady characters with moustaches over the years.
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
The Pacific NW slugs are quite special, as in big. But pretty harmless to human lips. Bad for gardens.
Thnx. But here at Casa Weston, 1.5 ac. of spacific NW swamplands slugs ply their slime with vigor. I don't think you have to worry about them complaining about the comparison. I think it was the little McCain sign one was carrying that assured me about this.