Is Kerry Karl Rove's Sock Puppet?

Jean-Francoise Kerry, the gift that keeps on giving to the GOP.

Michael Barone:

The Heritage report refutes utterly the statement made by John Kerry yesterday at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides. Kerry was talking about education and segued into Iraq: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." John McCain has come roaring back with a response:

Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered, and uninformed remarks. That pretty much says it all.

Kerry even makes me agree with McCain.

Jay D. Homnick notes the loss of conservative ambivalence in Kerry's wake:

At this point I will let you in on a little secret, a powerful insight into the human personality. The fact is that a big part of the reluctance by Republicans earlier in this political season to vote for their own cause is wishful thinking that somehow a cleaner ideology will emerge from the destruction. Just as the Madeleine Albrights of the world are upset with America being the only superpower, some purist conservatives are upset with the Republicans being the only super-party. They fear the wrath of the Founding Fathers, who sought to foster an atmosphere of rational ratiocination.

Instead we get this. The Democrat Party are snobs, solons in salons, calling the Republicans slobs. Their books have no ideas, just analysis of how Karl Rove gulls naive rubes in revival tents into voting against their true interests. Books with titles like "The Haecceity of the Hayseed"; or, "What Makes Hicks Tick." One party has the condescension while the other is in the ascension. One party does the patronizing while the other has the patrons. It's not my fault if my side wins by default. It's my party that has the ideas and I'll cry if I want to.

Mackubin Thomas Owens says it's the same ol' Kerry:

What can we say about John Kerry? He’s caught red-handed insulting military folks and his response is Well, who are you going to believe? Me, or your lyin’ eyes?

I wonder what Jim Webb thinks about this. I know the depths of disdain he once felt for John Kerry in view of the latter’s slanders against his brother Vietnam veterans. During the 2004 campaign, Webb criticized Kerry for suggesting in his 1971 testimony that the “ugly extreme” in Vietnam — war crimes and atrocities by American fighting men — constituted the norm.

Webb pointed out time and again that Kerry’s 1971 testimony, which includes every left-wing cliché about Vietnam and the men who served there, helped to make life difficult for Vietnam veterans, most of whom served with honor. Kerry’s testimony is part of the reason that even today, people who are too young to remember Vietnam are predisposed to believe the worst about the Vietnam War and those who fought it.

In his run for the Senate, Webb accepted the endorsement of the man he considered to be the enemy in the culture war for the soul of America and whose hand he refused to shake for 20 years. Well, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows.

But it seems to me that Kerry’s mask slipped the other day, revealing his true feelings about the military, whose members he apparently still views with the same condescension as he did his own generation of soldiers. Webb would have every right to take Kerry’s silly comments personally, since he has a son who is a Marine in Iraq. I wonder what he thinks of Kerry’s endorsement now.