I admit it, I purchase the Sunday Times at an outrageous $3.75 here in Mass., but what can you do? I need my national news fix and I'm not buying the Boston Globe.
Anyway, I hear there's a running bet in Washington as to how long John Kerry (D-MA) can go into an interview without mentioning his service in Vietnam. (He lasted all of about 30 seconds on his 12/1/02 "Meet the Press" appearance before he noted: "You know, I can remember in times in war…"). Then I read an article by Tucker Carlson in today's NYT Magazine with this paragraph:
These days almost all Democrats are law-and-order Democrats. Relatively few with national aspirations even oppose capital punishment. One of the few who does is Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts (though since Sept. 11, Kerry has said he would make an exception for terrorists). Last year, I asked Kerry about it. Yes, I oppose the death penalty, he said. On the other hand, "I have killed people in war – personally." Kerry may be liberal, but he'd like you to know that he's a Schwarzenegger liberal. [Emphasis in original]
I can scarcely believe that Kerry uttered this line. Somehow I would think that men who lived through such an ordeal would keep a silent counsel with themselves – after all, taking another man's life is not something to crow about. Instead, Kerry uses it as a cudgel, to inoculate himself from charges of weakness on the issues of crime and war. There are certainly arguments to be made against the death penalty (full disclosure: before Timothy McVeigh, I was a staunch opponent). Revealing your inner Rambo is not an argument; instead, it's an empty tactic to shut down debate, as the quote above amply reveals.
It's almost as if you can picture Kerry drawing a bead on a Viet Cong and saying to himself: "This will look great on my resume."
No comments:
Post a Comment