Inconsistent Standard-Bearers

Jacob Sullum | February 24, 2004

President Bush says John Kerry is "for tax cuts and against them; for NAFTA and against NAFTA; for the PATRIOT Act and against the PATRIOT Act; in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it." Fair enough. A similar rap against Bush might say that he is "for fiscal restraint and against it; for free trade and against free trade; for federalism and against federalism; in favor of nation building and opposed to it." We won't hear this litany from the Democrats, of course, and most conservatives who care about such things will keep quiet too. Let the great debate begin.

Comments

The Lonewacko Blog|2.24.04 @ 2:00AM|#

John Kerry has started to bash Enron, referring to "Enron-style abuses." One of this campaign docs even mentions how much money Ken Lay and Enron donated to Bush over the years.

At the same time, Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay served on Teresa's foundation board for years. They not only kept him on after the scandal, they attempted to apologize away his presence.

It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Warren|2.24.04 @ 3:03AM|#

I've always despised the Dems and Reps equally. But I despise GW more than most because his hypocrisy is particularly egregious.

It would be good theater to watch another sitting president get taken down. But I wouldn't view it as a hopeful sign. Historically, implosions in the Evil party are mere opportunities for advancement of the Stupid party.

|2.24.04 @ 3:48AM|#

Hypocrisy or not, you have a pretty good sense of what a Bush second term might look like-- if precedent is anything to go by, it will be a toned-down version of his first term.

The relationship to Kerry's waffling is NOT symmetrical-- Kerry is definitely an unknown...and is straining to remain unknown. It isn't going to work: there is a truism in American politics "You can't beat a SOMEBODY with a NOBODY."

Here it might be amended to read "You can't beat a SOMEBODY with an ANYBODY."

Kevin Carson|2.24.04 @ 3:50AM|#

Kerry makes me want to puke. If this was a traditional Republican (e.g., Bob Dole) vs. a DLC clone like Kerry, I'd be back in the "plague on both your houses" camp like I was in 2000. Ideally, I'd vote Libertarian. I may still do so if Arkansas is a safe state--it would send a great signal to the neocons if the LP vote was greater than Bush's margin of defeat.

But Bush scares the living shit out of me because of the post-911 police state, and because he is surrounded by some extremely sinister figures. The '80s organized crime network of money launderers for the Contras and death squads has been rehabilitated in this administration. One of them, Ollie North, was also involved in domestic martial planning: among other things, in collusion with FEMA director Giuffrida, he oganized the Rex '83 and '84 exercises under the auspices of Garden Plot. North's superior, Poindexter, was involved in the TIA program. Figure in Tom Delay, Ashcroft, and the resurfacing of people like Armitage and Negroponte in the State Department, and it's one m-effing scary picture.

|2.24.04 @ 10:31AM|#

A new H&R genre? For every rhetorical slap at Kerry, the democratic response will be provided.

|2.24.04 @ 10:40AM|#

"Hypocrisy or not, you have a pretty good sense of what a Bush second term might look like-- if precedent is anything to go by, it will be a toned-down version of his first term."

Yes, like most incumbent elections, this will ultimately come down mostly to a referendum on the president's first term. We shall see.

|2.24.04 @ 11:17AM|#

For all the talk about nominating a Democrat who could stand up to Bush and the republican bullshit, instead they go out and get the greyest, nondescript, poll driven and politically ambiguous guy they could find. Virtually the only thing that stands out about Kerry is his war record. It seems that his nomination is all about having the moral ground to attack Bush's own military service, something Gore couldnt do in 2000.

Kevin Carson|2.24.04 @ 12:03PM|#

It's a shame all the Democratic politicians are too ball-less to throw exactly the same kind of shit back at Bush. He is living in a glass house, but they are so chickenshit of being seen as "angry" or "extreme" that they leave all the red-meat stuff to talk radio types.

The Demos should start getting in Bush's face with the kind of stuff in Hatfield's "Fortunate Son," or that Billmon and Calpundit are digging up; and instead of backpedalling when he squeals in outrage, they should take it as a sign he's hurt and sink their teeth into him even deeper.

Rove and Cheney wouldn't have let Bush go on an uncontrolled venue like Press the Meat, unless they were really on edge over the AWOL stuff, Iraq, and his slippage in the polls. It was a desperate gamble, and he needed to hit it out of the park. Instead, even Noonan and the NRO people were aghast at his performance. There is blood in the water, but the fucking Democrats are such pussies they won't go in for the kill.

Dumb W. Ass doesn't like to be confronted or challenged without Karl's talking points on the teleprompter. And he's got all the personality traits of an alky. It probably wouldn't be too hard, in an unscripted debate, for Kerry to make him come apart at the seams and have a Judy Woodruff/Al Hunt moment right there on stage--maybe threaten to send him to Gitmo or something.

|2.24.04 @ 12:43PM|#

Did you notice that the carpet was removed in the Oval Office during the Russert interview, revealing the hard wood floor around the Great Seal? I'd never seen a single picture of the room done that that before.

It ruined the acoustics, turning the room into an echo chamber. Russert's deep baritone bounced around frighteningly, but Bush's nasal tenor sounded normal. What's up with that?

|2.24.04 @ 12:53PM|#

You said it Kevin! The double-standard of Republicans crying foul in the same paragraph dripping with red-meat rhetoric is so transparent, you have to wonder are people so dumb or so partisan that they can't see it?

"How dare you criticize the Commander-in-Chief, don't you know there is a war on you unpatriotic homo-loving, commie?!!?"

|2.24.04 @ 12:55PM|#

Don't you think they should have given some consideration to acoustics before deciding to make the room oval?

|2.25.04 @ 2:39AM|#

Ha!

"Maybe if we make kneeling really uncomfortable..."

|2.25.04 @ 11:08AM|#

"carpet was removed in the Oval Office..."

Gee, it's been, what, 4 years, and they still haven't got those stains out?

Kevin