Archives for 2004

I loved this:

Does John Kerry, who supports higher automobile fuel economy standards, own a gas-guzzling SUV? He does, but says it belongs to the family, not to him.

During a conference call Thursday with reporters to discuss his upcoming jobs tour through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, the Democratic presidential candidate was asked whether he owned a Chevrolet Suburban.

“I don’t own an SUV,” said Kerry, who supports increasing existing fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015 in order to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil supplies…

Kerry thought for a second when asked whether his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had a Suburban at their Ketchum, Idaho, home. Kerry said he owns and drives a Dodge 600 and recently bought a Chrysler 300M. He said his wife owns the Chevrolet SUV.

“The family has it. I don’t have it,” he said.

Remember- it is not lying, evasion, or flip-flopping. This is called nuance.

*** Update ***

In the comments section, this link is listed, showing that Kerry’s grasp of ‘nuance’ is even deeper than we realized:

Now we’ve truly heard it all. Rising gas prices are the latest John Kerry campaign theme, so naturally the senator was asked this week about his personal vehicle usage.

Kerry insisted, “I don’t own an SUV.”

When pressed about a Chevrolet Suburban, the mother of all SUVs, kept at the Heinz Kerry abode in Idaho, Kerry said: “The family has it. I don’t have it.”

Kerry has now closed the distance between nuance and flat-out deception.

And that’s without mentioning the other gas-guzzlers this candidate and his family enjoy, all the while posturing about reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and fuel efficiency.

At last count, there were eight “family” cars and SUVs, including the 1995 Suburban (15 mpg highway, 12 mpg city), a 1993 Land Rover Defender (12 mpg highway, 10 mpg city), a 1989 Jeep Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 16 mpg city), a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee (20 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Audi Allroad (21 mpg highway, 15 mpg city), a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser (25 mpg highway, 20 mpg city), a 1985 Dodge 600 Convertible (26 mpg highway, 23 mpg city), and a 2002 Chrysler 300M (26 mpg highway, 18 mpg city). Kerry, however, only owns up to the latter two.

Then there’s the 2002 Harley Davidson (his), two powerboats (one his, one hers), a power inflatable 2001 Novurania (his), and a Gulfstream II private jet (hers).

President Kerry would have to open his own pipeline in Saudi Arabia just to meet family fuel demand.

Yet there he was yammering on to reporters Thursday about making a hybrid (powered by gas and electricity) his “campaign car.”

The Herald staff then asks: “But if voters can’t trust John Kerry to play it straight on the little things, how can they trust him on the big things? ”

My answer- watch a lot of Hardball.

*** Update #2 ***

Mark Steyn has more, and he did it before me and probably better than me.

More From the “Smart” CandidatePost + Comments (17)

Is there anything they won’t use as a political bludgeon against this administration:

Jackboot Nation

So I guess calling the president a “doodiehead” would mean a DOJ investigation? God, things are getting out of hand.

Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush’s head on a stick.

Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading “End the war — on terrorism.”

The 15-year-old boy’s art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service.

Although Oliver is clearly implying that things are somehow worse now than they were in the past, we will just attribute this to Oliver’s youth and memory lapses rather than just completely attribute it to his all-out jihad against this administration. Oh, and btw, Oliver- the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department, not the Department of Justice. Put away your Ashcroft hammer. Some flashbacks:

In the past the Secret Service hasn’t waited for actual lawbreaking to occur before acting, even in situations that pose little or no threat to the first family and others under their protection.

In July 1996, agents arrested Glenn and Patricia Mendoza for threatening President Clinton at the “Taste of Chicago” food fair, though the couple were not armed and neither made any overt threats.

However, after Clinton approached Patricia to shake her hand, she responded, “You suck and those boys died,” a reference to the then-recent deaths of 19 American soldiers in the Khobar Towers bombing. Agents at the scene characterized Mendoza’s words as “threatening.”

Both Mendozas spent the night in the Cook County Jail, after being arrested on suspicion of threatening the life of the president. Weeks later, lacking evidence, the Secret Service dropped all charges.

The Mendozas are hardly alone. In 1993 the Secret Service arrested William Kelly – also unarmed – who merely challenged Clinton at a town meeting about his failure to deliver on a promised middle-class tax cut. Not only was Kelly booted out of the meeting, hours later his home was surrounded by armed agents who took him into custody.

In 1996 a pro-life activist who confronted Clinton after a Washington, D.C., church service was detained and questioned by the Secret Service.

The Secret Service has been extraordinarily protective of Mrs. Clinton, who, according to New York Post Albany bureau chief Fred Dicker, is shielded from tough questioning, by bodyguards who physically block reporters, even as she campaigns for the U.S. Senate.

Here is another resource about threats to the President, past and present.

Things are not, however, ‘getting out of hand,’ but the Secret Service has always investigated things of this nature. Oliver and I might agree that it seems extreme, but, that is how it has always been. In fact, crazier things have happened- in fact, I remember a guy who shot a President just to impress Jody Foster.

However, what is increasingly lame is Oliver and other’s attempts to attack this administration with anything and everything. Notice his eagerness to invoke the DOJ and the Ahscroft bogeyman- both of whom have nothing to do with this case, but are good for titillating the know-nothings on the left. We are not turning into ‘Jackboot nation,’ despite your partisan histrionics and breathless forboding.

Gimme A BreakPost + Comments (13)