This is the dumbest thing I have seen in a long while:
Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that he will stop declaring that his first speech on the floor of the US Senate highlighted his support for the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights, a recollection he has learned is not true.
As he has campaigned for the presidency, the Massachusetts Democrat has on numerous occasions stated that his maiden speech as a senator was about abortion rights. Kerry did so last month before a group of women in Des Moines, as he pledged to nominate only supporters of abortion rights to the Supreme Court.
But the Congressional Record shows that Kerry’s first speech in the Senate, on March 19, 1985, was made in opposition to President Reagan’s push to build 21 MX missiles.
File this under who gives a shit. This is the kind of stuff that just simply turns people off to politics. This is not a lie, this is not a sign of acharacter flaw, it was just a lapse in memory. It infuriates me when the press does this about people I like- it still infuriates me when they do it about people I don;t like. Isn’t there something else that those column inches could have been used to discuss? Something, you know, worthwhile? Maybe the Boston Globe should start reading blogs to find out some important things to look into. I would suggest Talk Left, Instapundit, Tacitus, Sullivan, or Yglesias as a starting point.
MommaBear
Massachusetts politics as practiced by the Boston Globe is an artform seldom seen elsewhere.
HH
Dunno if anyone has called it a lie, but the guy needs to actually be able to back up his claims about his own career if he’s gonna run for president. It’s not the most important thing in the world, but it was worth pointing out.
David Perron
I can’t even remember what I said yesterday, so I can sympathize. At least he didn’t say he was instrumental in creating the Internet. That crossed the line between inaccuracy and polishing your own apple so hard that it bursts into flames.
JKC
I don’t want to dredge up 2000, but it needs to be known that what Al Gore (rightly) claimed credit for was sponsorship of some of the legislation authorizing or funding ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. There is a difference.
HH
Again in order to say Gore claimed credit for that you have to put words in his mouth. What Gore actually said, the actual quote, is an exaggeration at best.
Misanthropyst
The problem with Kerry is that he is a serial liar and a transparently ambitious phony (that’s why the incident caused you to think of Al Gore). This is not an isolated incident but one in a series of events that makes it clear that the man is not suited for responsible office.
David Perron
What Gore said, and I’m quoting here is “…I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”
Given that he was elected to congress AFTER the advent of ARPANET, if you think he meant that it was not an exaggeration but instead an outright lie. Gore didn’t get elected to the Senate until 1984; at that point I had been using ARPANET for years. ARPANET was established when Al Gore Jr. was 21. I’m fairly confident he had nothing whatever to do with it.
CPT. Charles
I don’t think it’s entirely pointless. Politicians with an excess of ambition do tend to re-order (and erase) their past actions to suit their needs.
Consider it a triumph of the information age, and us ‘lesser’ people showing closer attention. I think that’s a good thing.
Remember this line of thought when Hillary makes her move.
Robin Roberts
This gaff by Kerry is one of the less significant ones. Its being reported because he has a history of invention that equals or exceeds Gore’s.